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The Chancel and Sanctuary

The chancel and sanctuary apparently underwent various alterations between the commencement of the building of the church and its completion about two hundred years later. The chancel arch has been considerably widened and the step before the sanctuary step may indicate the eastern end of the original church where the sanctuary rails are to-day.

The siting of the altar or Holy Table in many churches changed from being against the east wall of the sanctuary to being in the centre of the chancel when Puritan beliefs took precedence. During the Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century the altar was reinstated at the east end of the sanctuary. Provincial churches, in the main, did not have choirs or choir-stalls until the nineteenth century; the chancel, or 'side chapels', was the place for worship for normal services.

The spacious sanctuary, with its elegant black and white marble tiles, is beyond the altar or sanctuary rails. The rails were not part of church furnishings until well after this church was built. The great East Window has imposing nineteenth-century stained glass depicting the Resurrection and the Ascension with the Virtues inhabiting the upper sections.

In front of this window is the large High Altar upon which are the wooden cross and candlesticks in contrasting dark and light wood designed and made in recent years by a local craftsman, Andrew Pyke, who was trained by the continuing Arts and Crafts craftsmen.




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