IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
St. Matthews Way, ROCHESTER, ME3 9SH

This is a close-up of part of the north wall of the chancel. The stonework is of very humble quality, but nonetheless the jointing has been decorated by galletting - pressing chips of flint into the mortar. I can never look at this kind of work without imagining it being done by children, as if they were using currants to decorate a gingerbread man. How widespread the use of galletting is in Britain is a question I'm still trying to answer. Examples are easy to find in older buildings in the Weald of Surrey and Sussex, and I had rather assumed the tradition was confined to south-east England. But then, very recently, a member of the Geograph community made a remarkable discovery in the USA - a galletted 18th century house on the outskirts of Philadelphia http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1422526.

Seen from the south-east. John Newman, in the local volume of Pevsner's 'The Buildings of England', says that parts of the church date from the 12th century. But what you notice is the clerestory - the nave is taller than the aisles - very much in the style of the Perpendicular era, so the impression is of a modest 15th century building.