iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 31/08/2026

I suppose one thing I got from it is you can see the fragments of the crossing transverse responds, flat pilasters with angle shafts, that altogether too puny to support a proper tower, hence the little lantern thingy on the Pinchbeck Fen map.

View of the interior of the chancel to the NE. In the centre is the organ with a modern gothic arch to the organ chamber added in 1870. To the L is the angle-shafted NW respond of the crossing, to the upper right of it a fragment of worked masonry left revealed after internal rendering that likely relates to the eastern crossing arch.

Reverse angle on before with Romanesque N arcade with perp clerestory over on the L.

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Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 31/08/2026

What does look suspect on the map depiction is the two W steeples. Yes it had two towers, but only the S seems to have ever been carried above clerestory height. The N has springers for an unbuilt vault. The later, slightly less elaborate S tower received another stage and then the Perp belfry.

View into the N tower from by the W door, circled is one of the vault springer, now below a modern ceiling which underlies the pyramidal roof above. The rest of the of the architecture is early 13thc lancets, accompanied by ringed shafts.

The N tower roofless, engraving del. T. Phillips, engraved by B. Howlett 1809. Also note the medieval W perp window which unfortunately was removed for a lancet triplet in 1883.

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Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 31/08/2026

Okay Bourne isn't the most spectacular fragment of an abbey church. But the N tower does have this cool revealed bit that shows there was an early 13thc plan to basically double the height of the nave arcade. I tried to decipher it.

View into NW tower of Bourne Abbey from nave, looking NW

Labels showing the planned early 13thc Early English Gothic rebuilding parts over the original post 1138 Romanesque build. E.E. in blue, Romanesque in red.

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