New Light on the History of St Mary's Church, Old Basing, Hampshire: an Incised Design for a Post-Medieval Window

Abstract

The discovery of incised designs for window tracery and for other architectural elements on the walls of the mid-16th-century Bolton Chapel at the church of St Mary, Old Basing (Hants) has helped in the understanding of the complicated structural history of this building. The first part of the paper is an analysis of the architectural development of the church from the 12th to the 17th century. It is possible to link the 16th-century works with the influential Paulet family whose tombs are a dominant feature of the church. In the second part of the paper the incised drawings are analysed: they are shown to be a full-size working drawing for the west window of the church, and possibly also for one of the tower pinnacles. Parallels are adduced for similar working drawings elsewhere, especially a hitherto scarcely known example from Christchurch Priory (Hants).