Cambridge PapersBall, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse)
History
Cambridge Papers
Ball, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse)
Trinity College (University of Cambridge); University of Cambridge -- History
In 1375 the College began the erection on the ground to the north and
west of its house of a larger building comprising a cloister court
with various extensions. The west side of this court, some hundred and
twenty feet long, is still standing and faces the bowling green: the
other three sides and the extensions have been destroyed. These
buildings were of three storeys, built of stone, brick, or rubble, and
tiled: they were finished about 1438, and the old mansion of Robert
de Croyland was then pulled down. Into the inner quadrangle of this
cloister court there projected from the middle of its western face a
wooden erection some fifteen feet long by fifteen feet wide, built in
1419-24 over what is now the junior combination room, and containing
on its upper floor an oratory which opened on to a gallery over the
cloisters on that side of the court. A list of the service-books,
plate, copes and other vestments, altar-cloths, curtains, gold
embroidery, etc., kept in this oratory in 1479 is given in my booklet
of 1917 on King's Hall. The building was small and the Society
continued to use All Saints' church for its more important services.
The desirability of having a chapel large enough for all college
purposes was obvious, and in 1464 the Society began the erection of
such a building, on ground beyond the eastern extension of the
cloister court. This new chapel, which covered part of the site of our
present chapel, was about a hundred feet long and thirty feet broad,
that is roughly half the length of and the same breadth as the present
chapel: it was built of stones, squared and supplied ready for use,
which according to Caius came from the large banqueting hall of the
Castle then being pulled down and probably by purchase from King's
College to whom these materials had been granted. It was wainscotted,
and was fitted with stalls and carved woodwork; the high altar, like
that of the older oratory, was of wood and the interior walls above
the wainscotting were plastered and whitewashed; the sum spent
suggests that the fittings were not elaborate. The work was finished
in 1499, but probably the chapel was used from 1485 onwards: of course
the plate, service-books, etc., were removed to it from the old
oratory.
Trinity College, on its foundation in 1546, naturally made use of this
chapel, for it was the only one available on the site[22] of the new
College. It is fairly certain that it was then fitted up with
additional seats and probably redecorated: the provision of a new
organ and a new lectern happen to be specifically mentioned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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