180 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN ESSEX.
closer, until they were separated only by a shaft or mullion, and
geometrical tracing was introduced into the heads of the combined
windows.
9. The mouldings of arches became somewhat more elaborate,
being divided by hollows and fillets into a greater number of
members.
10. Buttresses became a feature of this period and were generally
placed at right angles to the wall, projecting some distance, and with
one, two, or more slopes.
It is more difficult to point out a purely Early English church in
Essex, because I think it probable that nearly every parish would
have been provided with its church during the Norman period, and
therefore the work of the succeeding century would probably in the
main consist of alterations, enlargements, and sometimes of rebuild-
ing a portion of the edifice.
The Church of St. Augustine, Birdbrook, gives us a very good
example of the style prevailing in the early part of the thirteenth
century. We have at the east end a group of three narrow lancet
windows with plain heads, with shafts and mouldings inside, with a
small single lancet window in the north side, and similar lancets on
north and south sides at west end of nave. These windows were no
doubt repeated, but they have been superseded at a later period by
more elaborate windows. There are also at the S.E. and N.E.
corners of chancel two buttresses to each corner, with two distinct
slopes, and similar buttresses to nave. This church is an example
of the adaptation of a Norman building to an Early English one ; the
remains of some of the old Norman windows being still visible.
One of the most interesting buildings of this period is the Chapel of
St. Nicholas at Little Coggeshall Abbey, of the Order of the
Cistercians. It is interesting from two circumstances :
1st. It is practically unaltered from the original design. No
doubt repairs have from time to time been executed, but the whole
design is practically the same as when originally erected; it has
neither been added to nor diminished.
2nd. The jambs and arches of windows, strings, quoins, and other
features, are executed in moulded brick, and it is therefore probably
one of the earliest examples of moulded brickwork in the kingdom.
The Abbey was founded by King Stephen and Maud, his
queen, in 1140, and we may fix the date of this building at about
1200. It is a very simple design, being in plan a parallelogram,
measuring 43 feet in length from east to west, and 20 feet in width