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PEVENSEY 119
door. There is a sundial built into the jamb of the little south door of the Norman wall, and it affords another example of how the ground has risen in the churchyard to the south-west. This dial was probably in the old times at the height of a man's hand. A gaping, wide-mouthed stone gargoyle is built into the wall under the northwest eaves of the vestry roof—probably part of the older church.
Three miles to the north-west is the Priesthaus, which was a quasi monastery in the old times. The Rev. Howard Hopley tells something of its history in his guide :
" This has been so altered and ' restored ' at one time and another that if the old monks were to come again they would not recognise their own dwelling. As you go in at the door the slab of a mitred Abbot lies under the threshold, and this has been broken in two. But across the modern hall you enter what are now the kitchens and sculleries. Here evidently was the great dining hall of the monastery—massive walls on either side testifying to its strength against invasion. The arch of the old fireplace can be traced. Although this has been bricked up and a modern kitchener inserted into the huge opening, the old stonework can be seen. The roof is lofty even now, but it is thought that the old roof was displaced in Henry VIII.'s time—when the monasteries were dismantled—to make room for the chambers that are now above it. |
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