On Low Side Windows

In this category of low side window a pre-existing window is close to the western end of the chancel, and low enough to have functioned as a confessional, with the penitent outside, and the confessor inside. The position of the existing window and proximity to the ground would lend itself to the traditional location in the church for confession to be heard; viz; at the junction of the nave and chancel. When confession was heard inside the church the penitent and confessor would probably have been separated by a curtain hung across the chancel screen. This is the most difficult of the categories of low side windows to interpret. In most cases it is not possible to say with any certainty due to paucity of records that the original window was low enough to function as a confessional, and easily modified with a transom, or, more simply by the fitting of an opening casement to accommodate a shuttered opening, or whether an original window was replaced entirely. At All Saints, Hawstead, Suffolk, for example, it is clear that an earlier c13 lancet has been replaced by a c14 Decorated two-light window which has had a transom incorporated in the westernmost light to form a low opening. It is uncertain whether it was designed that way from the outset, or modified at a later date. On the other hand, at St Mary's, Comberton, Cambridgeshire there are two identical Decorated two-light windows on the south side of the chancel, both of which are low enough to have been modified to provide a transomed low opening. However, only the westernmost light has been modified. In the case of St Giles, Wigginton, Oxfordshire, the westernmost lights on both the north and south side have been fitted with a transom anyway, but judging by the continuous string course which is lowered to accommodate the lower of the three windows on each side, these window are original, and the modifications incorporating a transom came later.