Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon: A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its FabricHallett, Cecil Walter Charles
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon: A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric
Hallett, Cecil Walter Charles
Ripon Cathedral
The two round windows are very widely splayed, and the uppermost part of
their rim has a different curvature from the rest, as if they had once
been straight-sided and round-headed. In their present form they are of
uncertain date. The most conspicuous instance of the employment of this
rare type of window--viz., the nave of Southwell Cathedral--is pure
Norman, but the received opinion ascribes these Ripon examples to the
time of Archbishop Roger, and it will be observed that their position
harmonizes with the bays of the vaulting, which is presumably his, but
has no relation externally to the spacing of the windows of the crypt,
which, moreover, have an external splay. The third window was once
circular like the rest, for a portion of the rim may still be traced;
but as it would otherwise have been bisected by the cross-wall, the
later builders have blocked half of it and squared the rest, splaying it
at the same time like a squint. The date of the south wall itself is
doubtful. It is thinner here than in either the vestry or the crypt.
[Illustration: The Resurrection.
St. Wilfrid.
The Coronation of the Virgin.
ANCIENT SCULPTURES PRESERVED IN THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.]
Near the modern hearth is a case of curiosities found about the church,
among them several fourteenth or fifteenth century reliefs in alabaster,
representing the Resurrection, the Coronation of the Virgin, the story
of Herodias, and the figure of a bishop, probably St. Wilfrid, with a
curious P-shaped implement on his arm.
At the north end of the cross-wall it will be observed that the blocked
doorway noticed in the choir-aisle was not round-headed on this side,
but segmental. The square-headed doorway in the cross-wall itself is
modern, and opens into a lobby, the opposite side of which is formed by
the Decorated buttress whose lower portion was noticed in the crypt,
while on the left is the doorway into the choir, and on the right
another square-headed doorway, opening into the vestry.
=The Vestry.=--Before the erection of the cross-wall the vaulting
evidently extended eastward continuously to the apse, which still
contains a fragment of it with two corbels, while further traces,
including another corbel, may be seen upon the south wall. Its removal
may have taken place either when the two Decorated buttresses were
introduced, or at the erection of the Lady-loft, or possibly much later;
but was doubtless contemporaneous with the building of the cross-wall,
which was evidently intended not only as a partition, but as a 'stop'
for the portion of the vaulting that was retained. The present ceiling
was put up by Sir Gilbert Scott, who, it is said, would have restored
the vaulting had funds allowed. Of the buttresses, that adjoining the
doorway has in its front, as well as in the side toward the lobby, a
small trefoiled and moulded recess. These two buttresses are built
against the piers of the arcading, part of the last arch of which is
visible behind the cupboard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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