What is shown there is a simple parallelogram, with
the usual high walls, in Transition-Norman style, with flat
pilaster buttresses, two strings running round the walls, the
upper one forming the dripstones of lancet windows, a corbel-table
supporting the eaves-course, and a north-east priest's door. But
whatever the church may have been (and the sketch represents it as
being of severe simplicity), some one built on to it a west tower
of great magnificence. It is of early Perpendicular date,
practically uninjured, the pinnacles only being absent, though,
happily, the stumps of these remain. Its proportion appears to me
to be absolutely perfect, and its detail so good that I think you
would have to travel far to find its rival. There is a very
interesting point to notice in the beautiful west doorway. It will
be seen that the masonry of the lower parts of its jambs is quite
different from that of the upper parts, and there can, I think, be
no doubt that these lower stones have been re-used from a
thirteenth-century doorway of some other part of the buildings.
There is a tradition that the bells of Gnosall Church were taken
from this tower. I can find no confirmation of this, and I cannot
believe it. For the church at Gnosall is of earlier date and
greater magnificence than that of Ranton Priory, and was, I
imagine, quite capable of having bells of its own.
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