A HISTORY OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, BOTTISHAM
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rectangular panelled recesses beneath the rectangular-headed windows at the east
end of the aisles. These two fourteenth century rectangular windows, are unusual:
they contain two lower cinquefoil-headed lights separated by a transom and a free-
standing central mullion.
In various places in the walls of the nave are areas of hasty and cheap
repair. A mixture of cut stone, flint and brick has been used to repair decaying
walls. Some areas may be original. A typical area can be seen in the lower part of
the outer west wall of the south porch: there are Roman bricks (just over one inch
thick), two-inch bricks typical of the eastern counties, and 16th century Tudor
bricks.
THE NAVE INTERIOR
The interior is interesting for its lofty nave with fine arches of the
fourteenth century. Paley (1844 ) considered the architecture to be the finest
specimen of the Decorated period in the county. The five bays of the arcades have
quatrefoil piers, built with a mass of clunch and a diameter of 2.5 ft (0.75m) with
thin, filleted deeply scooped-out hollows between. The moulding of the capitals is
typical of its time. The arches are pleasingly pointed with moulding of a high
standard. Contemporary with the arches are the clerestories of the north and south
aisles. Each single-trefoiled lancet window of the clerestory has moulded splays,
head and jambs: externally there are labels with masked stops. Above the
spandrels of the chancel arch are two sixteenth-century clerestory windows each
with two uncusped lights. The moulding on the wall of the tower, behind the
organ, shows the scar of the Norman steeply-pitched roof. The arches on the
exterior south wall (described above) coincide with the coffins, are repeated
internally as recesses below the sills, extending from the second- to the sixth-
window of the south wall. The sill of each recess has a shallow slab with moulded
edges.
The architect’s report to the parochial Council of 1907 (Jackson)
reported that the south aisle roof had been entirely renewed with oak timbers: the
old timbers were past repair. When the lead of the roof was recast and made up
with new, Jackson reported that the initials of the Vicar and the Churchwardens
were cast in one lead sheet and were also cut in one of the new rafters. Weir
(1910) believed that the roof of the nave to be the original trussed roof of the
earlier nave, with the span reduced to suit the flatter pitch. The beams, King posts
and struts are the post-reformation work belonging to the restoration of Charles II.