The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and ArchitectureDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and Architecture
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Cathedrals -- Great Britain; Church architecture -- Great Britain
We enter the _Nave_ by the beautiful west doorway and are at once
impressed by the fine Norman character of the building. Much of it is
the work of Gundulf, the first Norman bishop, the companion of
Lanfranc, who fashioned his rising church after the model of
Canterbury, and has thus left us a copy of the appearance of that
church ere it was refashioned by later builders. The two eastern bays
are Early Decorated. The clerestory is Perpendicular work, and the
flat timber roof was erected at the same time. The later Norman
builders, Bishops Ernulf and John (1115-1137), greatly improved the
appearance of Gundulf's nave. They finished the west end, recased the
piers, and carved the zigzag mouldings and the capitals, and seem to
have added a new triforium or enriched the old arcade with diaper
work. There is no triforium gallery, as it opens both into the aisles
as well as into the nave. The fine interior of the west doorway will
be noticed, and also another Norman doorway in the south-west corner.
The windows in the north aisle are Perpendicular. The font is modern,
and also the pulpit, stalls and lectern. On the south of the south
aisle is the Late Perpendicular Chapel of St. Mary, usually called the
Lady Chapel. It was restored in 1852. Here the consistory court used
to meet. It is now used as a chapel for the grammar school. The _South
Transept_ is of later date than the corresponding north transept; its
style is Late Early English, when the style was merging into Early
Decorated. The architect was Richard de Waldene, sacrist. Above in the
south wall there are five single-light windows, and below three double
windows, and the extensive use of Purbeck marble in the shafts will be
noticed. Banded shafts of marble cluster around the great tower-piers.
Cottingham erected the present ceiling in 1840. It will be noticed
that the Purbeck marble shafts on the two western tower-piers stop
some distance from the ground, and a block of intrusive masonry
obtrudes itself on the west of the northern one. Various conjectures
have been made concerning the object of this. Possibly it formed part
of a stone rood loft, or served as a buttress to the arch. The _North
Transept_ is Early English, the work of Richard de Eastgate, sacrist.
The dog-tooth ornament is seen in the clerestory. The carved corbels,
representing monastic heads, are finely executed. In the recess on the
east side there is a piscina which marks the site of an altar.
The _Monuments_ in the nave and transepts are not important. That of
Richard Watts in the south transept is worthy of notice. He
entertained Queen Elizabeth at his house called Satis,[4] and erected
a hostel for six poor travellers, "not being rogues or proctors,"
which in later times has been immortalised by Charles Dickens, as a
tablet sets forth. Near it is the monument of Sir Richard Head, who
sheltered the fugitive monarch James II. when he fled from his
kingdom. The glass is all modern.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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