English MonasteriesThompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
History
English Monasteries
Thompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
Monasteries -- England
§ 41. The preference for a rectangular chancel, in our larger churches
at any rate, may be attributed in some measure to the architectural
influence exercised by the Cistercian order. It is certainly possible
to trace Cistercian influence in some of the churches of canons
regular. It cannot be said that churches of Augustinian canons
followed any definite or uniform plan. Some, like St Bartholomew's,
Smithfield, preferred plans for which the best contemporary models
were Benedictine. But the plan of the first church at Haughmond was
very like the early plans of Waverley and Tintern; and when this was
superseded by a larger church with its longer axis further north than
before, the new presbytery was still aisleless and was still walled
off from the transept-chapels immediately adjoining. Of these there
were two on either side, both rectangular in shape, and those next the
presbytery were longer than those on the outside. The same plan of
presbytery and transept-chapels is found at Lilleshall, and is known to
have existed at Fountains before the presbytery was aisled. Similarly
the plan of presbytery and transepts at Bolton and Brinkburn is
distinctly Cistercian in origin, and, when the presbytery at Bolton was
lengthened in the fourteenth century, its aisleless form was retained.
In Premonstratensian churches the likeness to the normal Cistercian
plan is often obvious. The original plan of the eastern portion of the
church at St Agatha's was almost the same as that of Kirkstall; while
the plan of the same part of Torre is virtually identical with those
of Buildwas and Roche. As at Bolton, the aisleless presbytery at St
Agatha's was prolonged in the fourteenth century to twice its original
length.
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