External carvings on the clerestory of St Mary's

The clerestory appears to have been constructed later than the tower, perhaps around the middle of the 15^th Century, ostensibly to let more light into the nave. It comprises two east-west walls topped by parapets and pinnacles built above the nave arcades. The clerestory windows form close-spaced series in both these walls, eleven on either side, grouped into five pairs, corresponding precisely with the arcade arches beneath them, and an odd one at the eastern end to accommodate the greater width of the transept arches. Each pair shares a single internal mullion, but between the pairs the mullions are separated, allowing space for a slender column of masonry which carries the external down-pipe. On the inside, these broader spaces are used as the locations for the corbels that support the low-pitched wooden roof.

Both the north and south walls carry internal and external arrays of figurative carvings. The externals ones, both north and south, share a style and content that set them apart from the internal carvings. These latter, again both north and south, comprise two sets of carvings, one consisting of demons, wise men, angels and strange carvings rather like bouquets of flowers, located at the springers within the pairs of window arches, the other being the roof corbels located between the pairs of windows and carved as angels holding banners and shields. It seems likely that three different masons or sets of masons were at work here. Together, they created work of high quality.