Talk:St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab

Relationship of chancel and nave
This is about achitectural expression.

The chancel is lower than the nave; there are three steps and a pointed chancel arch where the two parts of the church meet.

This is very confusing and I think it is implying the opposite to what you mean. Is it the roofline or the floor of the chancel which is lower than the nave? If you state that "the chancel is lower than the nave," then it implies that it is set at a lower level, which is possible but most unlikely. The whole sentence is made problematic by the semi-colon which joins two unrelated ideas, i.e. the steps have nothing to do with the noion of "lower".

Also, the idea of "two parts of the church meet" doesn't conceptually describe what is happening here. It is the sort of expression that you might use if there were two building stages of vastly different styles. This is not the case. The nave and chancel are an integrated design. Even if the chancel was later, or considerably altered, its location and function, is predictable and part of a whole, like the head on a body, rather than a separate part.

I'll have a go at reordering the material in that paragraph so it progresses more logically. Please don't use semi-colons to link anything axcept equally balanced, or counter-acting statements. Semi-colons ought not be used to join strings of loosely-related ideas.

Amandajm (talk) 00:05, 9 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Fair point about the unintended opposite meaning of "lower" here - although I can't remember exactly why I phrased it as I did, sometimes I'm trying so hard to avoid the form of words used by the source that other problems can develop! The photos of the church show that the roof line of the chancel is lower, and I'd be astonished if the steps went down into the chancel from the nave as I don't recall seeing that anywhere... BencherliteTalk 00:27, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * As for your question about the vestry, this plan and this photo show, I think, that it's a discrete section not purely internal (if I've understood your question correctly). BencherliteTalk 00:31, 9 February 2011 (UTC)