The Chancel

	Building ceased in the mid 14th century as one in every three of the country's population fell to a visitation of the Black Death. Once the land was free of the plague, work on the building began anew and the chancel was added with it's great east window.

The chancel itself, both internally and externally, carries many interesting features of its medieval origin. On the right hand side of the great east window is a piscina,known in the medieval times as a sacrarium or lavacrum. The piscina is original to the 14th century chancel and was used for washing the priest's hands and also the sacred vessels before and after the services.

During the reign of Edward I (1272 - 1307) it was directed that all priests wash their hands prior to celebrating mass, and to empty the water down a special drain provided for just that purpose. St. Mary's piscina is very shallow compared with many others and also contains an upper shelf known as the credence on which the chalice and paten, or water jug, were placed during washing. As the bowl is so shallow it can safely be assumed that the objects were washed simply by holding them above the basin and running water over them.

	By the chancel arch, midway up the wall, can be seen a small doorway. On the other side of the pillar in the Lady Chapel is the entrance to this doorway. Inside this tiny doorway can be seen a fourteen inch wide, worn, spiral staircase. These well trodden steps once led to the rood loft. The rood loft was a small wooden walkway which ran across the top of a massive carved lattice-work oak screen which separated the chancel from the nave. Sometimes on top of the screen would stand a large rood, or crucifix. It is thought that candles were placed along the rood loft and often a plough was placed upon it as an act of blessing held on 'Plough Monday'.
St. Mary's rood screen and loft were destroyed in either the mid-16th century, due to the orders of Henry VIII, given in 1547, to destroy all superstitious images, or in 1561 by the orders of his daughter Elizabeth, that all such screens and lofts be removed.

Looking to the north side of the chancel can be seen a small doorway which no longer frames a door. This was the original external entrance before the north aisle was built in the late 15th to early 16th century. This entrance may have been of the type known as 'the devil's door', as it would be entered from the north side, or devil's side. These doors are occasionally found in medieval churches and were only opened during baptisms and communion, the idea being that any evil spirits which were driven out by the Holy Sacrament could flee through this doorway and so out of the holy building.

Next to this doorway is a pointed archway which in fact was originally one of the chancel windows before the north aisle was built, over a century later. The lower portion of the window was removed to form the arch.

	Externally the chancel has other interesting features, such as the small 'priest's door' on the south side.		It is said that these doors were deliberately made smaller so that the priest would have to bow his head as he entered the holy place, thereby humbling himself before God.

On he right of the 'priest's door', about six feet from the ground, is a large circle carved into the stonework. In it's centre is a small hole which partly contains a hard, black substance, this is actually lead. These circles are known as scratch dials and can be seen on may churches throughout the land. Originally the scratch dial would have had a lead pin or triangle, as on a sun dial, fixed into its centre. The lower half of the circle would have had lines radiating from its centre as did St. Mary's, but these have long since been worn away. Little is known of these dials but it is generally believed that they were used like a sun-dial, casting the gnomon's shadow along the appropriate line which marked the hour when mass was held.

Other lines, such as the noon lines, marked the time when the 'Ave' bell was rung. As these dials are always next to the priest's door, which was for his personal use, it seems most likely that the dial was the priest's personal clock so that he could be sure all his services were held at the right time and by tolling the bell he could bring the flock to the church.

St. Mary's scratch dial was in regular use before the Reformation in the mid-16th century. In the year 1399, William Peel was the priest who served the village. He is mentioned in a deed of this year as giving away acres of land to John and Katherine Cook (from which the name Cook's barn, on Mount Pleasant, was originated). The reason for his generosity is unknown but it is possible that the Black Death had reduced the amount of labour available or it may have been that the Cook's had paid a substantial sum towards the building of the new chancel and peel was showing his gratitude for reasons known only to himself.

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