church. Beneath St. Lawrence's Chapel and extending under the north
aisle westward are two crypts, entrance to them being by two doors
from the churchyard, their position is shown on the general plan. It
will be seen that the western one is of two aisles, each of three
bays, while the eastern is only one bay in length. The entrance to the
western was at first in the middle bay but this was blocked when the
Girdlers' Chapel was built. That the eastern crypt was added later,
and the present Lady Chapel later still is shown by the presence of
windows in the east wall of both parts and other indications. But
while the history of the church shows that the original Lady Chapel
and crypt or charnel-house, were built soon after 1300, the present
superstructures belong to a time about one hundred years later. Now as
the western crypt may be safely assigned to the earlier date the Lady
Chapel doubtless stood over it and flanked the old chancel of the
church, in its normal position in fact as the existing one is now. But
a point which remains to be explained is that the walls of the crypt
are parallel to the line of the new chancel and not to the line of the
old or new naves. It seems certain therefore that the inclination of
the new chancel is a simple perpetuation of the old arrangement, and
if not, the position of the crypt is hard to account for.

It is generally supposed that these crypts were used as Mortuary
Chapels and the eastern one has in fact a piscina and aumbry, showing
that there was once an altar. But for some centuries they served as a
charnel-house, and are so called in a papal grant of Indulgences. In
1640 there is an entry in the church accounts of five shillings for
"cleansinge the charnel-house and laying the bones and sculles in
order."

They now contain fragments that have been removed or discovered in the