Some of the restorers were in favour of
retaining a flat roof; others advocated putting on a high-pitched one
again, raising its ridge to the height of the original Norman roof, as
indicated by the weather marks on the tower. Fortunately the latter
course was adopted; fortunately because the church, seen from the
outside, lacks height in proportion to its length, and the ridge of the
roof now visible above the parapets has given it some of the extra
height it so much needed. The subsequent raising of the transept and
presbytery roofs on the other three sides of the tower was necessitated
by the raising of the roof of the nave.
Lord Grimthorpe drew up a list of "symptoms of ruin," twenty-two in
number, which it would take too much space to reproduce here; but unless
his account is exaggerated, it would seem that scarcely any part of the
building save the tower could be looked on as secure. He applied for a
new faculty which would give him unlimited power to "restore, repair,
and refit the church." This faculty was granted, and he exercised his
powers to the full; and as a result, though the church has been made
sound and secure, probably for many centuries to come, yet many of its
most interesting features have been destroyed, the most terrible damage
having been done in the transept.
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