Illustrated Dictionary of British Churches - Porch Definition

• Aisle
• Altar
• Ambulatory
• Angel Roof
• Apophyge
• Apse
• Arcade
• Arch
• Archivolt
• Base
• Battlement
• Bay
• Belfry
• Bell Tower
• Bellcote
• Bench End
• Board Bell Turret
• Body
• Boss
• Box pew
• Bracket
• Broach Spire
• Buttress
• Canopy
• Capital
• Cartouche
• Chancel
• Chancel Arch
• Chancel Screen
• Chantry
• Chapel
• Chapter House
• Choir
• Clerestory
• Cloister
• Communion Rail
• Compound Column
• Consecration Cross
• Corbel Head
• Crossing
• Crypt
• Early English
• Easter Sepulchre
• Effigy
• Fan Vaulting
• Font
• Font cover
• Funerary Helm
• Gallery
• Gargoyle
• Gothic
• Green Man
• Grotesque
• Hatchment
• Herringbone
• Hogback Tomb
• Holy Water Stoup
• Hunky Punk
• Jesse Window
• Kempe Window
• Lady Chapel
• Lancet
• Lectern
• Lierne
• Lych Gate
• Misericord
• Monumental Brass
• Mullion
• Nave
• Ogee
• Organ
• Parclose Screen
• Parish Chest
• Pendant
• Perpendicular Gothic
• Pew
• Pinnacle
• Piscina
• Poor Box
• Poppy Head
• Porch
• Priest's Door
• Pulpit
• Purbeck Marble
• Quire
• Rebus
• Reliquary
• Reredos
• Retable
• Romanesque
• Rood
• Rood Loft
• Rood screen
• Rood Stair
• Rose Window
• Round Tower
• Sanctuary
• Sanctuary Knocker
• Saxon Period
• Scratch Dial
• Sedilia
• Spire
• Statue Niche
• Stoup
• Tomb Recess
• Tracery
• Transept
• Triforium
• Tympanum
• Undercroft
• Vaulting
• Victorian Gothic
• Wall Monument
• Wall Painting
• Wheel Window

A projecting entry to a church, usually located at the south west end of the nave and thus commonly called a south porch. Early churches, particularly Saxon churches, did not have porches, and people entred directly into the nave. Porches became common in the Norman period, and could be extremely ornate and highly decorative, some rising several stories high. Larger porches might have a small chamber above the entrance, used by the priest. Most porches are built of stone, though some medieval examples of timber porches still stand.

Related: Nave