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The presbytery, though Perpendicular in its main features, shows many traces of the transition from the curvilinear Decorated to the Perpendicular style, especially in the tracery of the great east window and the clerestory windows. In the choir proper these traces have vanished, and the work, though apparently of the same character as that in the presbytery, is altogether Perpendicular.
Proceeding to the western end of the church, and looking down the nave, the gradual development of its architecture can be well seen. The east end is Norman, the bay next the transepts Transition Norman, while the west end is Early English. The windows vary from Norman and Transition Norman to Early English, while those of the clerestory are Decorated.
Then walk up to the Barrier near the Transepts, where sit again, in order to observe the Choir and Transepts with the staircase which leads to the raised Ambulatory. Observe that the transepts are simple. The ugly stained glass in the windows of their clerestory contains illustrations of the reign of Louis Philippe, with extremely unpicturesque costumes of the period.
The ensemble is an astonishing profusion of high and narrow windows, of which there are three rows: the clerestory, the triforium, and the aisles. Each window is divided into two by a column so fragile that it resembles a spider's thread.
The church has a few features in common with the neighbouring church of Buckland Denham, viz., peculiar arrangement of windows in tower, clerestory to nave, though the building possesses only one aisle. On the hill above the village, standing by the side of the Trowbridge road, is a square tower of as much beauty as utility, locally known as "Turner's Folly."
The ornamentation of the dome was started in June, 1932 and finished in January, 1934. The ornamentation of the clerestory was completed in July, 1935, and that of the gallery unit below it in November, 1938.
Their capitals are richer, and, curiously enough, apparently later in detail. In the clerestory of the north transept there are large dog-tooth mouldings between the Purbeck marble shafts wanting in the south transept. There is also more dog-tooth in the arch mouldings of the clerestory of the north transept than of the south.
The triforium in the presbytery was rearranged; the external walls were raised, and the Early English windows of Northwold's work were replaced by much larger ones with Decorated tracery. As the clerestory windows were not altered, the lean-to roof of the triforium was of course made much more flat than before. The graceful flying buttresses, with their elegant pinnacles, are of this same date.
This she unlocked and flung open, disclosing a steep, winding stair. Almost on her hands and knees Diana scrambled up, and up, and up till she reached the triforium, the narrow stone gallery that ran round the church under the clerestory windows.
The clerestory, though delicate and graceful, is somewhat curtailed from the dimensions of that of the west end of the church. The transepts are unusually bright and cheerful, with a series of windows more beautifully designed than those of either the choir or nave. The choir stalls are of oak, carved in the best manner of the Renaissance.
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