How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
“The Tower and Spire stand at the intersection of the choir and
transepts, covered with vertical shafts on the face of each. The
tower is Norman buttress, which is finished by a crocketed
pinnacle. Between these buttresses are horizontal bands of design:
the lowest, a Norman arcade of nine arches, three of which are
pierced as windows; then, above this, a smaller wall arcade with
interlaced arches; and then, above again, the principal feature, an
arcading of nine arches, three pierced for windows, and the others
filled with wall tracery of diamonds and circles; then, between
this last and the battlemented parapet, occur five vertical panels,
each comprising two circles, the upper pierced for a window. Above,
soaring upward, rises the later crocketed spire. The rest of the
tower was finished during the reign of Henry I., and is a beautiful
specimen of the work of that time; the stonework was almost
entirely refaced in 1856. The tower was crowned by a wooden spire
from 1297; this was blown down in 1361, damaging the presbytery so
badly that the clerestory had to be rebuilt. The wooden spire was
constructed probably at the same time, and the present Early
Perpendicular turrets were added. The spire was again in 1463
struck by lightning, and again falling eastward, went through the
presbytery roof. The present spire was then constructed in stone by
Bishop Lyhart (1446-72), and was finished by his successor, Bishop
Goldwell (1472-99), who added the battlements.
“It will hardly be necessary to enlarge on the beauty of this spire
of Norwich, as the dominant feature, seen from the south-east,
rising above the curved sweep of the apse, and strongly buttressed
by the south transept, it stands up, clearly defined against the
western sky, and points upward, significant and symbolical at once
of the ends and aspirations of the church below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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