English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised EditionBond, Francis
History
English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised Edition
Bond, Francis
Cathedrals -- England; Cathedrals -- Wales
I. LATE NORMAN.—The choir and transepts of the cathedral were almost
wholly rebuilt in the fourteenth century; but here and there the original
work of the founder, Robert Fitzhardinge, survives. This includes (1)
the end wall of the south transept, which contains a doorway, afterwards
blocked up, when the south aisle of the Norman nave was constructed with
a doorway into it from the north-east corner of the cloister. Inside the
transept is a Norman cushion-corbel, supporting a later Perpendicular
capital. (2) Outside the south transept are flat pilaster buttresses at
the angles; the set-off of the ancient parapet; and a plain gable window,
set in a rough wall, on which may be seen the weathering of the original
steep roof. (3) The coursed masonry below the big window of the north
transept. (4) The lower part of the tower-piers; for their Perpendicular
mouldings, as in the earlier remodelling of Winchester nave, are such
as could be developed out of a Norman compound pier. (5) The corbels in
the staircase on the north side of the choir. (6) The gatehouse to the
Abbot’s lodgings.
[Illustration: THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.]
II. TRANSITIONAL.—About 1145 innovations began to be made in Anglo-Norman
Romanesque. Among other things the pointed arch was introduced; at first
chiefly in arches supporting central towers or vaults. In 1155 the
founder received a grant of the forfeited estates of Roger de Berkeley;
and, owing to this vast accession of wealth, was able to finish his
Norman and Transitional work with exceptional richness. (1) In the
_Vestibule_ to the Chapter-house, the bays being oblong, pointed arches
were used on the short sides of each bay, so that their crowns might rise
to the same height as those of the semicircular arches on the longer
sides, as the builders thought was demanded by the requirements of
vaulting. In the same way, beneath the central towers of Oxford Cathedral
and Bolton Priory, pointed arches were built over the narrow transepts;
while over the broader nave and choir the semicircular arch was
employed. (2) The _Chapter-house_, as in most monastic establishments,
_e.g._, Gloucester, Canterbury, Oxford, Chester, was oblong; the more
beautiful polygonal form being more in favour in cathedrals served by
Secular Canons. It was originally 71 by 25 feet. The vast scale of these
conventual arrangements, here and elsewhere, is exceedingly striking. The
monks of St. Albans thought that their church required a nave 300 feet
long; the six canons of Bristol must have been lost in a Chapter-house
71 feet long. The recessed arcades round the walls here and at Worcester
are interesting; simple as they are, they are the germs of the beautiful
arcades of canopied niches round the Chapter-houses of York and Wells
and the Lady Chapel of Ely. Here is preserved a fine piece of archaic
sculpture (see CHICHESTER). (3) Exceedingly rich, too, is the lower part
of the _Great Gateway_ in College Green; “its courses, however, are
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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