Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeeSergeant, Philip Walsingham
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Sergeant, Philip Walsingham
Winchester Cathedral
After one has passed through the remains of an outer court, the entrance
to the buildings is by a gatehouse known by the name of the "Beaufort
Tower." Over the groined vault of the doorway is the founder's chamber,
surmounted by an octagonal turret. Three niches exist above the exterior
or northern window, one of which has a kneeling figure of Beaufort,
while the representation of the Holy Cross, formerly in the centre, and
the figure of Henry de Blois have vanished. The niche on the inner side
used to be occupied by a statue of the Virgin, which, after surviving
the Civil War, fell about a hundred years ago. At the Porter's Lodge in
the gateway the time-honoured "dole" of beer and bread is given to
visitors. The square quadrangle on which the gate opens has the
brethren's rooms on the west (the right hand as one enters), the
ambulatory or cloister on the east, the church of St Cross at the
south-east corner, and to the right of the church a view of meadows
where the buildings were pulled down in 1789. In the centre of the grass
is a sundial. Next the Beaufort Tower at the south side is the
refectory, and beyond that the master's house. The refectory has three
two-light Perpendicular windows, a high-pitched wooden roof, and a
minstrels' gallery at the west end. It is now only used as a dining-hall
on great occasions. The master's house is thought to be the old "Hundred
Mennes Hall," but is now furnished with modern windows. The cloister on
the east side is of sixteenth-century work, paved with large red tiles;
"the roof is red-tiled," says a recent observer, "the long blank wall
faced with rough-cast of a warm yellowish tinge, and supported on a
range of broad and low timber arcading, which is, in its turn, supported
by a dwarf wall some three feet in height." The main feature of the
cloister is a red-brick oriel window; "reared upon two brick arches,
supported midway by an octangular pillar of the same material, and
flanked by splayed buttresses with stone quoins, the window-opening
occupies a comparatively small space, and is filled with stone mullions
and tracery of a Tudor character; the whole design proclaimed by a stone
tablet, let into the brickwork, to be the work of Bishop Compton." Above
the cloister is the infirmary, which opens into the church so as to
allow the sick to hear the service. The church, though considered by
many the finest existing example of Late and Transitional Norman, also
exhibits architecture of all periods down to Late Decorated. Commenced
by Bishop de Blois in 1171, it was not completed until the end of the
thirteenth century. From east to west it measures 125 feet, its ordinary
breadth is 54 feet, while at the transepts it is 115. Woodward thinks
from the appearance of the exterior that the body of the church was
widened at some period after its first erection. The windows are various
in style. In the nave they are Transition Norman and Early English, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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