The Cathedral Church of Peterborough: A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See — John Shaqi
The Cathedral Church of Peterborough: A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal SeeSweeting, W. D. (Walter Debenham)
History
The Cathedral Church of Peterborough: A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See
Sweeting, W. D. (Walter Debenham)
Peterborough Cathedral
On the north side of the nave is a single door, now called =the Dean's
door=, of good Norman work. On each side are three shafts with cushion
capitals slightly ornamented; and in the round arches above are
different mouldings of the style. The windows to the aisle, ten in
number, are very broad, of five lights each, under depressed arches. The
tracery and mouldings indicate that these were substituted for the
original windows towards the close of the thirteenth century. At the
same time it would seem that the walls above, in the triforium range,
were heightened, because the parapet at the top is of Early English
work, although the three-light windows beneath it are Decorated, and
were not inserted until the next century. At the foot of the triforium
range is the original Norman arcade of round-headed arches: below the
existing Decorated windows is now a blank space of wall, where at first
was the Norman window, rising somewhat higher than the arcade. What the
original arrangement was can be seen on the east side of the north
transept. The Norman clerestory range has been altered only by having
Perpendicular tracery put in the windows, and by the addition of a
Decorated parapet. The original corbel-table was allowed to remain.
[Illustration: The Dean's Door.]
=The Lantern-tower= has on each face two large windows with transoms, of
three lights. The tracery is that known as net-tracery. Between these
windows is a blank window, if the term may be allowed; the tracery
exists, but there never was a window; it is in four divisions; while
between the windows and the corner turrets are similar traceries of two
parts. The whole is surmounted by a parapet above a plain arcade. The
corner turrets are octangular. As at present finished at the top there
is undoubtedly an appearance of their being incomplete.
The west side of the =North Transept= is a very excellent specimen of
Norman work; and we find less change here than in any other part of the
cathedral that belongs to the same period. The tracery of the windows is
Perpendicular, but the windows themselves are otherwise unaltered: at
the top of all is a Decorated parapet, which is here composed of a
series of quatrefoils; and the parapet to the corner turrets is not
Norman. As there is no aisle on the west side of this transept, there
has been no alteration in the wall, as was the case with the nave
aisles.
The north end of the transept is similar; but the shallow buttresses
between the windows rise to a greater height, and there is another
arcade above the upper tier of windows, and a blank arch in the gable.
The gable has crockets, and a cross at the apex. The lower Norman window
in the aisle here is unlike any others on this side of the church, but
there are four others like it on the south. The upper aisle window here
is of three lights, with a large pointed trefoil above them instead of
tracery.
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