Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Wells: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeeDearmer, Percy
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Wells: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Dearmer, Percy
Wells Cathedral
But now we have got behind Godwin, and have found from contemporary
evidence that Bishop Reginald commenced the present church. Thus we
are able to divide the Early English work into no less than four
periods, (1) The three western arches of the choir, with the four
western bays of its aisles, the transepts, and the four eastern bays
of the nave, which are Reginald's work (1174-1191), and so early as to
be still in a state of transition from the Norman. It is a unique
example of transitional building, and Willis calls it "an improved
Norman, worked with considerable lightness and richness, but
distinguished from the Early English by greater massiveness and
severity." The characteristics of this late twelfth-century work are
bold round mouldings, square abaci, capitals, some with traces of the
classical volute, others interwoven with fanciful imagery that reminds
us of the Norman work of Glastonbury; while in the north porch, which
must be the earliest of all, we even find the zig-zag Norman moulding.
(2) The rest of the nave, which was finished in Jocelin's time--that
is to say, in the first half of the thirteenth century--preserves the
main characteristics of the earlier work, though the flowing
sculptured foliage becomes more naturalistic, and lacks the quaint
intermingling of figure subjects. (3) The west front, which is
Jocelin's work, and alone can claim to be of pure Early English style.
(4) The chapter-house crypt, which is so late as to be almost
Transitional, though, curiously enough, it contains the characteristic
Early English dog-tooth moulding which is found nowhere else except in
the west window. From this, we reach the Early Decorated of the
staircase, the full Decorated of the chapter-house itself, the later
Decorated of the Lady Chapel, the transitional Decorated of the
presbytery, and the full Perpendicular of the western towers.
Much of the masonry in the transepts, choir, choir aisles, and even in
the eastern transepts, bears the peculiar diagonal lines which are the
marks of Norman tooling. This does not, of course, prove that any part
of Bishop Robert's church is standing, for medieval builders were
notoriously economical in using up old masonry, but it does show that
there are more remains of his work in the building than was generally
supposed. A characteristic feature in this Norman tooling is that if a
rule be laid along its lines, they will be found to be very slightly
curved, a feature which is due to the fact that Norman masons dressed
their stones with the broad curved blade of an axe.
[Illustration The Nave.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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