English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised EditionBond, Francis
History
English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised Edition
Bond, Francis
Cathedrals -- England; Cathedrals -- Wales
in three parallel eastern apses, after the fashion of the ninth-century
choir of St. Ambrogio, Milan, with probably a rectangular chapel east
of the central apse, such as is found at Aix-la-Chapelle. From the south
transept projected eastward a rectangular sacristy, with crude, unribbed
vault, which still remains, but was enlarged to the east in the fifteenth
century.
[Illustration: SOUTH TRANSEPT.]
II. LATE NORMAN, 1100-1145.—To this period belong the nave and the
renovation of the choir. The capitals of the nave, near which the stalls
of the canons stood, are richly carved, and, like all pre-Gothic carving,
are full of classical survivals, acanthus, honeysuckle, etc. The Norman
work is far richer than that of Ely, Peterborough, Durham, Gloucester or
Tewkesbury; these capitals and those of Southwell nave and Romsey lead
up to the rich transitional capitals of Oxford Cathedral. The design
of the nave, and still more the choir, was probably the most solid and
satisfactory in the country, not even excepting Durham. The triforium
is especially magnificent; a copy of it was executed in the transept
of Romsey. The bays of the choir are separated by broad pilasters,
apparently to carry broad transverse arches. But whether these arches
were intended to carry some form of wooden roof (their spandrils being
built up), or a vault, cannot be determined.
III. TRANSITIONAL.—Then, _c._ 1186, following the precedent of Romsey,
the three Norman apses were pulled down in order to provide (1) a
processional aisle, of four bays, connecting together the side-aisles
of the Norman choir; (2) a double chapel, a prolongation of the Norman
eastern chapel. The new processional aisle had probably two eastern
chapels, two to the north, two to the south. The processional aisle with
the double chapel was altogether six bays in length, and therefore formed
an eastern transept—one of the earliest eastern transepts in England. The
side walls of the old Norman eastern chapel were pierced with windows,
unglazed, to improve the lighting of the new aisle-chapel on either
side. In the jambs of these windows are shafts with conventional stalky
foliage; while the arch of the window-head is enriched with the Norman
diamond ornament. The vaulting-ribs are enriched with zigzag. The central
piers have, one conventional foliage, the other a scalloped capital. In
the south-east transept there are remains of the doorway, and a plinth
which seems to have supported a pier between the two eastern chapels.
Some five or six years later a similar processional aisle with five
eastern chapels was built at Abbey Dore, where, however, it does not form
an eastern transept. The piers of the processional aisle are so arranged
that two of them are in a line with the centre of the semicircular
arch which led from the choir into the former Norman central apse. The
intention of the builder evidently was to reconstruct the east end of
the choir, or perhaps to rebuild the whole choir, substituting for the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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