Henry VIII raised Peterborough to Cathedral rank in 1541. Until the time of the Reformation it had been a Benedictine monastery. As such it was founded by Peada, King of Mercia, about the year 650. The monastery was sacked by the Danes in 870, re-colonized and rebuilt c.965, and sacked again by Hereward in 1070. The church was however spared. It was burnt in the great fire of 1116. Rebuilding started in 1118 under Abbot John de Séez. He died in 1125, and little can have been done between 1125 and 1132. In 1143 at the latest services were held in the new building. One can assume therefore that by then the chancel was usable. The nave probably dates from c. 1150 etc. Its W end cannot have been reached before 1177; for the Chronicle tells us that Abbot Benedict built (i.e. probably completed) the whole nave usque ad frontem, and he ruled the monastery from 1177 to 1194. Finally, after many changes of mind the present W front was complete by the time of the great consecration in 1238. After that a Lady Chapel was built E of the N transept in 1272 etc. (consecration 1290) and a chapel between this and the chancel aisle about the same time. Both have since been pulled down. The Norman crossing tower was replaced by a lower and less ambitious one c.1315, a porch was added to the W front in the late C14, windows were renewed almost entirely in the C14 and C15, and the retrochoir was erected E of the Norman E end c.1496-1508. The principal restoration, including the rebuilding of the crossing piers and the crossing tower, took place in 1882-6. The architect responsible was J.L. Pearson.
The church consists of nave and aisles, a W porch, a crossing with tower, transepts with E aisles, a chancel with chancel aisles, and the retrochoir. The Norman work survives exceptionally complete. Only the ground floor of the main apse and the two side apses at the end of the chancel aisles have disappeared. The cathedral is built of Barnack stone. It is 481 ft long and 81 ft high inside. The tower rises to a height of 143 ft.
SAXON AND NORMAN WORK WITH LATER ALTERATIONS
Of the SAXON CHURCH the wide transepts and the straight-ended chancel have been excavated and can be seen below the floor of the present S transept and part of the crossing. The Saxon church had a W steeple which was consecrated in 1059.
The NORMAN church was begun in 1118. Its E end largely remains. It has three apses, one wide at the end of the chancel which exists except for the ground floor, and two smaller at the ends of the chancel aisles. These side apses do not survive. Of the EXTERIOR of the ground floor of the main APSE all that can now be seen is a stretch of wall E of the former aisle chapels with a zigzag course on the level of the window sills. It is always said that such zigzag decoration, which became the main stand-by of the Anglo-Norman style when it came to enrichments, was introduced C. 1110. At Peterborough it occurs, as this course shows, from the very beginning, i.e. from 1118. Above the ground floor there are windows in two tiers with a frieze of intersecting blank arcading between the two tiers. Intersecting arches are found at Durham as early as 1093. The windows have Dec tracery, the upper ones under segmental heads. The bays are separated by demi-shafts. The parapet has medallions with busts. These belong to the C13. Norman spirelets stress the point where the chancel adjoins the apse.
The CHANCEL is four bays long. Its aisles have a zigzag course at the sill level of their windows. One N window alone has its original shape preserved, with a zigzag and a billet surround. The others on the S side are of the late C13 (five stepped lancet lights under a segmental arch). On the N side they are Perp. A second zigzag frieze runs above the top of the windows. The gallery windows have flowing tracery on the N side and simpler Dec tracery on the S. The bays are separated by broad Norman buttresses with shafts at the angles. On the S side they are strengthened by small C14 buttresses. On the N side the blocked arch in the style of c. 1300 belongs to the CHAPEL OF ST THOMAS, erected shortly before 1298. The two lower blank arches to the E of it with the springers of a vault belong to the same. The chapel formed the link between the chancel and the former Lady Chapel (see below). The clerestory of the chancel has tripartite bays, the side pieces being blank arches. The bays are separated by demi-shafts. The windows are now Perp. Norman corbel-table and Perp parapet with blank quatrefoils.
Norman evidence about the TRANSEPTS must be pieced together from the S as well as the N arm. The transepts have E aisles. Their E windows were probably like the chancel N and S windows, with zigzag and billet surrounds. A zigzag ran at sill level, as is indicated by remains in the S transept. The windows have all been replaced, on the S by larger ones of c.1260-75 with three stepped lights and three foiled circles over, on the N by one of the same type and the two former entrance arches into the late C13 Lady Chapel. The present Perp-looking windows here are C19. The gable of the Lady Chapel can still be seen. The gallery windows are Norman in the N transept (with blank lower coupled arches l. and r.), except that one (and the aisle gallery window to the N) is replaced by late C13 windows with a large pointed trefoil above three stepped lights. The S transept has Dec gallery windows. The sill course of the gallery has zigzag on the N as in the chancel, but no longer any zigzag on the S clerestory and parapet as in the chancel.
The transept end walls have on the ground floor windows like those in the aisles, i.e. with zigzag and billet surrounds (see S wall). A doorway to the S also has zigzag in the arch. It has three orders of colonnettes. The upper windows are all Perp in Norman surrounds. Much blank arcading, especially small arched friezes above the first and the second upper windows. The walls end in gables flanked by polygonal turrets. In the W wall, which is exposed only on the N side, the windows are all Perp, but the surrounds remain in their Norman form. There is again much blank arcading of the same system as on the S and N sides. At the clerestory level the shafted buttresses change into demi-shafts to comply with the aisled chancel and the aisled E side of the transepts. The W wall of the S transept is in its lower parts hidden by the VESTRY built in the second half of the C12.
The CROSSING TOWER was originally work of c.1160-70 and higher than it is now. The present tower is a rebuilding of 1883-6 of a replacement of c. 1325. This was crowned by a wooden octagon just like the crossing at Ely. The tower has polygonal panelled buttresses, two three-light bell—openings with transom, and, flanking them, blank two-light and four-light windows. The parapet is panelled.
The NAVE continues the Norman system of the E part for two bays, though certain changes in various points show that work proceeded gradually and slowly. Such changes are that the zigzag frieze at the sill level of the aisle windows goes on for three bays on the N side but is discontinued on the S side at once. Also the buttresses drop their shafts at the level of the window sills of the gallery on the N side, but at the level of the sills of the ground-floor windows on the S side. Moreover in the clerestory the rhythm of the bays of the transept W wall is continued for two bays on the N side, for only one on the S. All this, and the former remarks about the zigzag at gallery level in the transepts, proves that work on the N side preceded that on the S. Of details the following ought to be noted. Near the middle of the N aisle is a doorway with three orders of colonnettes and capitals with
decorated scallops. The arches have exceptionally much zigzag, both on the front and at r. angles to it. The details look mid C12. On the S side there are two doorways which originally led into the cloister. The Canons’ Door is in the first bay from the E. It has four orders with block capitals. In the inner arch moulding fleur-de-lis foliage is set in the triangles of a beaded zigzag - the only occurrence of Norman foliage at Peterborough (cf. Ely). The Bishop’s Door to the W walk of the former cloister is a C13 insertion. Four orders of colonnettes, big dogtooth between. Finely moulded arch. The ground-floor windows of the aisles with their five stepped lancet lights under depressed arches are typical work of the late C13. The gallery windows are Dec (segmental heads) but still flanked by small blank Norman arches. Clerestory and corbel-table carry on the system of the E parts. The windows are Perp, the parapet now has cusped wavy decoration. The continuation of the exterior to the W will be described in the next section.
Now the INTERIOR. Generally speaking, the impression, as one enters from the W, is strong and consistent, thanks to the survival of Norman work all the way from W to E and the absence of any obstacle to the eye in trying to penetrate to the apse. The architecture is robust and determined, reiterating its simple statement with conviction. In detail the bays of the APSE are separated by triple shafts. The ground floor is altered (see below), but some capitals of former blank arcading remain. The wall-passage at first-floor level round the apse has against the back wall blank intersecting arcading, at the same height as the same motif occurs outside. The upper storeys of the straight bay between the former apse arch and the apse proper continue the system of the chancel, but in a painfully lopsided way. On both levels the bay has only two-thirds of a tripartite arrangement. It is remarkable how little C12 and C13 masons worried about such incongruities. The former arch between apse and chancel has triple responds too. The arch itself has disappeared, and the verticals of the piers are continued instead by ogee-headed niches. There are many small discrepancies on the top level of the apse indicating that it may originally have had a vault leaning against the former apse arch. The date of the alteration (C14? c.1500?) is not certain.
The CHANCEL is four bays long. The piers of the arcade are octagonal, circular, and dodecagonal. The responds are triple groups like the shafts of the apse. The aisles are rib-vaulted, an early occurrence for England and indeed Europe. The earliest rib-vaults in existence are at Durham of c.1095-1100. In France they appear c.1100-20. The date of the design at Peterborough is, as we have seen, 1118. The transverse arches have a rectangular section with rolls along the angles, the ribs have a demi-roll on a rectangle. The mouldings are big and bold. The outer walls have large intersecting arcading. The capitals are of the block type, or varieties of heavy scallops. They are all big and bold, as far as the piers are concerned, but more playful in the wall-shafts of the aisles (where of course they might well be the result of re-carving). The arches have heavy roll mouldings and a billet frieze round the outer edge. On the side towards the nave shafts rise in front of the piers to the ceiling. They were probably originally meant to carry transverse arches. There is no indication that a rib-vault was ever intended. The original ceiling was replaced in the C15 by a complicated wooden ceiling-cum-vault, i.e. a panelled ceiling, four square cross-ribbed panels wide, on a deep coving with tierceron ribs. The ceiling has many bosses. Among them are the Crucifixion, the Assumption, Christ in Majesty, the Annunciation.
The gallery has large arched openings subdivided by a tall shaft helping to carry two sub-arches. The piers alternate between a compound shape and a circular one with demi-shafts on rectangular projections. The capitals are busier than below. The tympana have different fillings, starting on the N side with a pierced circle and a group of four pierced circles, on the S side with one plain tympanum. The others have diapering in relief and no piercing. A frieze at the floor level of the gallery has zigzag coming forward at r. angles to the wall plane. The outer moulding of the arch has the same motif. Horizontal zigzag or zigzag at r. angles to the wall plane is usually regarded as a Late Norman motif. Here it can hardly be later than c. 1135. At the floor level of the clerestory zigzag was begun at the E end on the S and the W end on the N side, but was soon discontinued and replaced by an undecorated course. The clerestory has a wall passage with the tripartite stepped arcading familiar in English Norman buildings (e.g. Winchester, Ely, Durham transepts).
The CROSSING piers differ. Those to the E and W have responds with three shafts in a line and arches altered in the C14, those to the N and S triple responds as we have found them in other places and arches with zigzag at r. angles to the wall plane. The tower has a lierne-vault of timber. The central boss shows Christ in Majesty, the other bosses the Signs of the four Evangelists and the Instruments of the Passion.
The E sides of the TRANSEPTS are aisled and continue the design of the chancel, though with significant changes. The alternation of round and octagonal piers remains, but the shafts up to the ceiling are no longer in front of the arcade piers, but start above them. The arcade responds are segments of circular piers. The billets of the arches are coarser. Above the arcade runs a course with horizontal zigzag just as in the chancel. The gallery piers alternate as in the chancel. The gallery tympana have on the S side the same relief diapering as in the chancel (except that the southernmost tympanum is left plain). On the N side the first bay has diapering in the flat, the second in relief, the others again in the flat. Below the clerestory the string course has a little zigzag in the N transept and none in the S. In the clerestory there is no change against the chancel. Between the aisle bays of the S transept low separating walls are inserted to divide them into chapels. Towards the chancel aisle is a low arched recess on short Norman columns. Above this, at the top of the wall, runs a small frieze which seems zigzag at first, but is in fact nutmeg (as is also the frieze in one bay of the chancel N aisle). In the middle chapel is flat intersecting arcading. The S chapel has normal blank arcading like the rest of the transepts. The N wall of the aisle in the N transept contains a small doorway with fish—scale decoration in the tympanum. The other walls of the transepts have tall blank arcading on the ground floor, shafted windows in two tiers, and the familiar tripartite stepped arcading of the wall-passage on the clerestory level. The bays are divided by tall demi-shafts. In the blank arcading of the S transept S wall one capital is a big monster head. The string course above the blank arcading again has nutmeg instead of zigzag decoration. This applies to the end and W walls of both transepts. The S transept has a doorway in its S wall. The transepts both have original CEILINGS. They are flat, of wood, and have bold lozenge patterns.
Adjoining the W wall of the S transept is the VESTRY. This dates from the late C12. It is entered by a Dec doorway with an ogee arch. The vestry is of three bays, with low cinquepartite rib-vaults (quadripartite plus an extra rib). The ribs have a slight chamfer, the transverse arches a rectangular projection and keeled rolls at the angles. The arches and ribs rest on short piers with scalloped capitals.
The NAVE goes on without change of system, though changes of detail are as noticeable inside as they are outside. The blank arcading resumes the intersecting of the chancel. The capitals on the S side are as simple as those of the chancel and transepts, which indicates that the S aisle wall was carried up very early, probably in connexion with work on the claustral parts. On the N side the capitals are more decorated and clearly later. They play on forms of scalloping, of little volutes, etc., and beasts’ heads with wide open mouths. The aisle vaults occasionally have very small bosses at the intersection of the ribs. The arcade piers resume the shafts towards the nave. In shape the piers differ from those in chancel and transepts. They begin from the E with a respond with clustered shafts, then follows a circular form with attached shafts on flat projections in all four directions - a form developed from the piers of the gallery in chancel and transepts - then the clustered pier is repeated, i.e. the principle of alternation continued. After that however this principle is abandoned and all piers are like the second, i.e. they are circular with projections on all four sides consisting of a rectangle with a demi-roll. The capitals are busier. Small changes in the details of the bases within the nave are noted in the VCH. The arch mouldings change at once E of the crossing. They contain one more roll moulding to the nave. The gallery tympana have relief diapering only in the first two bays from the E. After that they are plain. An odd, unexplained anomaly is the crocket capitals of the third gallery pier from the crossing on the N side. They must be an alteration of c.1200 or later. Perhaps the capitals had at first been left uncarved.
The NAVE CEILING is a very precious survival. It must date from c.1220. It is canted, decorated with lozenge pattems like those of the transept ceilings, and retains its original colouring. In the lozenges are figures of kings and queens and saints, a Janus head, a monster feeding on the bleeding limbs of a man, figures with musical instruments including an animal playing the harp, an architect with L-square and dividers, a monkey on a goat, etc.
The WEST END is an area of so many changes and problems that a separate section must be dedicated to it. What is certain is that the Norman nave was intended to be nine bays long with W towers over the ninth aisle bays. This appears from the greater width of the piers between the eighth and ninth bays, which is specially noticeable on the gallery level. The outer wall of the bay in question is thicker too, and a buttress on the S side is much wider. On the gallery one can also see that a transverse arch ran across, of which the N respond survives and a lump of stone where the S respond was. Close to this there is a spiral staircase whose W wall was clearly bonded originally against a cross wall. In spite of this, when the decision was taken to continue the nave to the W, the system was still not changed. Yet by then 1175 must have been reached.
The history of the west end with its W transepts and its deep niches is complicated. Sir Charles Peers has tried to elucidate it in the VCH, and the following account follows his explanations. He distinguishes four stages. The first has been discussed. It is the beginning of Norman W towers over the ninth bay from the E. The second stage was a lengthening by one more bay and a W transept, on the lines of Ely and Bury St Edmunds, though with two towers instead of one. The third stage was the addition of giant niches one bay deep and as wide as the transept. They were to be divided into seven bays with the middle one widest and to have three openings just like Lincoln. The last stage was a revision in the design of the niches by which they received their present rather unfortunate form, that is five bays in width instead of seven, with the outer openings consequently wider than the middle one, and with four angle turrets to project beyond the line of the transept and give the effect of a wider screen, comparable e.g. to Salisbury.
In detail the following can be seen. When it was decided to lengthen the nave - a decision which must have been taken c.1180 - the Norman system was still not given up. So bay ten and even the openings from the aisles into the W transept keep to the elements already described. The wall arcading on the S side now at last takes up the lively forms of capitals which had been used on the N side from the E end of the nave onwards; on the N side the tenth bay has for the first time waterleaf capitals. Sir Charles Peers can point out many more small changes, but they are not of great relevance. The first major change is the fact that the arches across the transepts are pointed. Their details are typical Latest Norman with big, rich zigzag and similar more complicated and even bigger motifs set at an angle. The vaults are quadripartite with the much finer details and more delicate members of the E.E. style. In the bays below the towers bell-holes are left, that under the N tower being surrounded by playful ribs. The centre bay has a boss with stiff-leaf foliage. To the E springers can be seen in the first nave bay, proving that the intention existed of vaulting the nave in the new style. The W wall is purely E.E. in its motifs, except that the three doorways are still round-headed. But they have finely moulded arches and stiff-leaf capitals, and there is pointed blank arcading at the ground level, and the upper windows (altered Perp) are set in tall blank E.E. arcading too. In the projecting bays of the transept the change is also made to E.E. forms and proportions, but even here the windows behind the gables follow the system of the Norman clerestory. One must assume that the W, N, and S walls of the transept were completed first, and that the W wall and the vaulting followed.
To the outside, i.e. the niches, which will be described presently, the middle portal has a trumeau or middle post of Purbeck marble with a beautifully carved relief round the circular base, which is also of Purbeck marble.* This represents a man upside down and tormented by devils. He has been interpreted as Simon Magus. The portal had five or six orders of colonnettes, the side portals have five orders. The W wall (before the addition of the giant niches and the Perp porch) had in addition tall blank arcading with sub-arches sharing their outer mouldings with the super-arch, then a frieze of small trefoil-headed arches, and then again tall arcading broken by the windows. Here the rhythm goes restless owing to the necessities created by the altered design of the front.
The exterior of the W transept essentially continues the system of the W wall. But the windows with their cusped intersected tracery are a late C13 alteration of former windows which must have been lancets.** The tall, narrow E windows have Perp tracery. The gables have a many-foiled circular window each and up the slope of the gable a frieze of lunettes. The gables are flanked by polygonal turrets. On their top storey zigzag still occurs. Of the W towers only that on the N side was built. It lies awkwardly behind the later porch, and can only be seen and appreciated in its original meaning if one stands far enough away from the cathedral. The tower has lancet windows on two storeys and blank arches to their l. and r. The pinnacles are polygonal.
Of the plans for the giant niches before the idea of the projecting turrets was accepted we can see only one indication. Immediately W of the start of the W buttresses of the transepts on their N and S sides the wall projects a little and has a shaft at the angle just like those of the transept buttresses. The projection reaches up only a few feet and is then discontinued.
The GIANT NICHES in their final form are an unhappy addition, though they proceeded from a grand conception. This conception was no doubt based on Norman Lincoln, where three deep niches, the central one wider and taller than the others, receive the faithful. At Peterborough this same motif was developed into recesses which were to be a full bay deep and endowed with quadripartite vaults in seven bays of which the outer corresponded to the transept projections, three of the others to the portals, and the remaining two to the spaces between the portals. In execution however all this was changed. Turrets were added outside the area of the original composition. The seven vaulting—bays were reduced to five, with the outer bays much wider than the central one, and the outer arch openings or portal niches consequently much wider than the middle niche. A worrying rhythm is thus created for the front proper, and nonsense is made of the former W wall with its details. Nonsense is incidentally also made of the three gables above the entrance arches. The details must be seen to judge of the truth of this indictment. The most painful thing is the way in which the wide side openings lead to side portals appearing out of axis. In detail the three truly monumental giant portals have six orders of shafts each with three shaft-rings. The centre arch has tufts of stiff—leaf rising in subsidiary orders between them (a Lincoln motif). The arches are decorated with a bobbin motif, foliage, and dogtooth. The turrets have the usual blank arcading, including a frieze of trefoil-headed arches such as had occurred on the W wall behind the niches. Higher up there is an interesting motif of blank intersection with zigzag decoration set in front of blank arcading. This motif may well be inspired by the angle turrets of the facade of Ely Cathedral. The tops of the turrets were completed only in the C14 - not to the benefit of the former conception of the whole W end; for they compete with the W towers diagonally behind them, and the general effect from far enough away is one of profusion - it is true - but also of confusion. The top of the S turret is the more elaborate of the two. The angle shafts turn into square pinnacles set diagonally, and behind these rises an octagonal spire with one set of lucarnes and four spirelets accompanying it and linking it to the angle pinnacles. These spirelets have an open bottom stage and are crocketed. The N turret is simpler. The angle shafts here end with taller pinnacles, and the spirelets are missing. The gables above the portals have the most haphazard assembly of motifs, quatrefoil in circles, trefoil pointed arch-heads, niches with statues (gradually being replaced by work of Alan Durst), foiled circles with heads, wheels with six or eight spokes, etc. Moreover, the strong shafts which are set between the three portals are suddenly replaced by turrets. All this shows the disastrous effects of the change of plan from the narrow-wide-narrow to the wide-narrow-wide rhythm for these portals. Inside the niches the top storey of the W wall of the church is affected equally disastrously by this change. Because he had reduced them from seven to five and widened the outer ones, the designer chose to give these quadri-partite vaults an additional W-E rib running against the facade wall of the church. This plays havoc with the blank arcading and fenestration at that stage.
Finally, to do yet more damage to the W view, a Perp PORCH was tucked into the middle opening of the C13 porch, filling it in width but not in height. This work was done in the later C14. It is two bays deep and two storeys high. It has tierceron-vaults with ridge ribs (star-vaults) on the ground floor*** and an upper floor with a large Perp window. The upper floor is reached by two spiral staircases which project in front of the C13 jambs.**** The doorway has a depressed arch. The spandrels have blank tracery decoration. The gable above the Perp window is of low pitch and embattled.
THE NEW BUILDING AT THE EAST END
Abbot Robert Kirkton, whose rebus, initials, and other signets appear all over it, erected a new retrochoir. He ruled the monastery from 1496 to 1528. The retrochoir is two bays deep and as wide as the church nave and aisles. The new work links up with the old in the following way. The aisle apses of the Norman church (which must have been remodelled in the C13 - see their elegant quadripartite rib-vaults and the handsome DOUBLE PISCINA in the N bay) were removed and the aisles connected by two new bays with the retrochoir. It is here that the exterior of the main Norman apse shows inside the new building. The apse windows were continued to the ground and these new openings linked up by arches and new triangles to the retrochoir. There is plenty of enjoyable tracery here to conceal the awkward junction. The apse arches have cusped four-centred arches with tracery over, and the triangles are also marked by four-centred arches with tracery over. Moreover, the beginning of the retrochoir proper is marked by a broad arch with big, heavy fleurons in the deep main moulding both to the W and E. The retrochoir has four-light and three-light windows with panel tracery, separated by buttresses. The set-offs of these are decorated with fleurons. The work is crowned by an openwork parapet very similar to that of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and seated figures on the tops of the buttresses which must have been of good quality when they were newly made. Inside, the windows are continued by blank panelling with stone benches. The vault is a very handsome fan-vault carried on slender shafts. The new building is internally no higher than the aisles, and the closely panelled vaulting at that height gives it a sense of comfortable as well as rich enclosure. Mr Harvey has suggested that John Wastell, who began in 1508 at King’s College Cambridge and built the fan-vaults there, may have been the designer.
THE FURNISHINGS
RETROCHOIR. SCULPTURE. Hedda Stone. An extremely important piece of Anglo-Saxon sculpture to be dated c.8oo by comparison with illuminated manuscripts, High Crosses, and also such work as is preserved at Breedon-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire. Grey stone with a pitched roof. Against the long sides standing figures of the apostles in close-fitting arcading. The short sides are defaced. The roof is pitched like that of a metal shrine and has scrollwork with interlace, affronted pairs of animals, and also what has been called an ‘inhabited scroll’, i.e. a vine scroll with an animal inside. The figures are stiff, mostly frontal, and have the fluffy carving and the deeply drilled eyes characteristic of their date. Comparable work is also to be found at Castor and at Fletton. - The three bays of a BASE, Perp, with a quatrefoil frieze at the foot, panels and canopied niches, and a cresting with a frieze of little beasts, belong probably to the Shrine of Hedda. - STAINED GLASS. Southernmost E window by Clayton & Bell (TK). - MONUMENTS. Abbot, probably R. Kirkton d. 1528. Recumbent effigy of stone; defaced. Two angels by the pillow. - Orme Family, early C17. Hanging monument almost completely ruined. Of the figures only one small group survives. - Bishop Cumberland d. 1718. Signed by Thomas Green of Camberwell. Hanging monument with open segmental pediment above the inscription plate and standing putti to its l. and r. - Thomas Deacon d. 1720. Signed by Robert Taylor (Sen.). Standing monument. White and greyish marble. Semi-reclining, well carved effigy with wig. Reredos background with Corinthian pilasters and an open segmental pediment. - Dean Ingram. Recumbent effigy of white marble. By H. R. Ingram, 1903. CHANCEL. BALDACCHINO. 1894, probably by J. L. Pearson. - TAPESTRIES. Two of the late C16; probably Flemish. - STAINED GLASS. In the apse some pieced-together fragments of Perp
glass.
SOUTH CHANCEL AISLE. MISERICORDS. Three of the C14. - MONUMENTS. Four Abbots all of Alwalton marble, and all made within the thirty years from c.1195 to c.1225. Of only one, the first from the E and in date the latest (supposed to be Alexander of Holderness d. 1226), the tomb-chest is preserved. It has short columns and quatrefoil panels (cf. the Marshall Monument in Exeter Cathedral). The effigy is flanked by shafts carrying a projecting pointed trefoiled canopy. Stiff-leaf ornament. The third of the series alone has a rounded-trefoiled canopy over his head, also carried on shafts. It is much defaced. The second has a rounded cinquecusped canopy which is very depressed and carries bits of buildings. The curly hair and beard are a sign of an early date. The fourth is in higher relief. It has no flanking shafts. Two angels at his head, a dragon at his feet. - Also of the C13 a coffin lid with foliated cross. - Joseph Stamford d. 1683. Pretty cartouche with cherubs’ heads. - Archbishop Magee of York d. 1891. By J. Forsyth. White recumbent effigy on a tomb-chest in classical Elizabethan forms.
NORTH CHANCEL AISLE. CHEST. C15, with elaborate tracery. - STAINED GLASS. One window (1856) by Wailes (TK). - MONUMENTS. Another early Abbot of the same material and date as those in the S aisle. Beardless head under a rounded-trefoiled arch. Shafts by his sides with capitals clearly still of the C12. A dragon at his feet. - Dean Duport d. 1679. Very classical, with open pediment with curly ends and garlands. Small. - Constance May d. 1681. Cartouche with fine flower carving.
CROSSING. Large brass LECTERN, late C15, English. With inscription referring to Abbot William de Ramsey (1471-96). The same pattern as at St Nicholas King’s Lynn, Christ’s College Cambridge, St Mark’s Venice, etc.
SOUTH TRANSEPT. SCREENS. Late C15. - SCULPTURE. In the W wall a small C13 panel with two figures under arches. - In the low excavated space of the Saxon S transept several Saxon stones with interlace ornament. - STAINED GLASS. S wall, lowest tier, easternmost. By Morris, Marshall & Faulkner, 1862, i.e. a very early work by William Morris and his Pre-Raphaelite friends. Predominantly red and brown. - Next to this to the W by A. Gibbs (TK), 1861.
NORTH TRANSEPT. SCREENS. Perp with much tracery. Not in situ. - STALLS. Fragments of two units of the original choir stalls of some time between 1233 and 1245. Slender double shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. Remodelled in the late C16 or early C17. - STAINED GLASS. N wall, lowest tier, first and second from E: Clayton & Bell, 1860, 1863; tier above this from E to W: Cox & Son, c.1849, O’Connor, 1865, Heaton, Butler & Bayne, c.1852; top tier 1865.
NAVE. STALLS, c.1894. - PULPIT AND LECTERN, Neo-Georgian, by Leslie T. Moore.
WEST TRANSEPT. FONT. C13 bowl on C19 support. The bowl has twelve shallow projections or undulations decorated with stiff-leaf. - PAINTING (W wall). So-called Old Scarlett (d. 1594).
PORCH. Fine and elaborate IRON GATES.
PLATE. Silver-gilt Cup and Paten, 1569; silver-gilt Paten, 1634; silver-gilt Cup, Paten, and two Flagons, 1638; silver-gilt Almsdish, c.1650; silver-gilt Cup, 1836.
THE PRECINCT
The precinct is entered from the Market Place by the OUTER GATE. This was built by Abbot Benedict (1177-94) and considerably altered in 1302-7. The Norman work consists of the two archways (columns with scalloped capitals, arches with roll mouldings), the blank wall arcading raised above the doorways to N and S, and the rib-vault of the same elementary moulding as in the Norman work in the church. The early C14 placed a higher arch in front of the Norman W arch. The upper parts are also C14. Panel-motifs and two turrets. To the S of the Outer Gate some vaults connected with the KING’s LODGING and the ABBOT’s PRISON. The best piece is a late C12 room with a short circular pier and slightly chamfered arches and ribs. Another vaulted room to the E of this. The range continues with Victorian building and then the ABBOT’s GATE. This is of the early C13, projects squarely to the N, and has square turrets. Two-centred archways to N and S; four orders of colonnettes with moulded capitals. To the N as well as the S are original figures, deserving to be better known than they are. The upper windows (Knights’ Chamber) altered in the Jacobean style. Inside the gateway from N to S first one bay with slender blank arcading very similar to that of the W wall of the church and a quadripartite rib-vault, then a cross-wall dividing the traffic into pedestrians (two-centred doubl-chamfered arch) and carriages and horsemen (depressed double-chamfered arch). Then two more bays much as the N bay. More Victorian building, and at the end of this range a blocked single-chamfered C14 arch and a vaulting-shaft. So the range continued towards the SW angle of the church.
To the NE of the Outer Gate is SIR THOMAS'S CHAPEL, the chancel only of a church of c.1330 whose nave was pulled down (see St John’s Church). Five-light E window with reticulated tracery, three-light side windows with Dec tracery. To the N of the chapel Nos 3-5, a terrace of three Early Georgian houses of three storeys, yellow and red brick, segment-headed windows, doorways with broken segmental pediments on pilasters, top parapet.
Through the Abbot’s Gate one reaches the BISHOP'S PALACE. This was the ABBOT’S HOUSE of the monastery. It is now mostly Victorian Gothic, but in it survive two undercrofts of the mid C13. The larger is of two naves divided by circular piers with moulded capitals. Arches and ribs are chamfered. The smaller room, now the chapel, is also rib-vaulted. In it Expressionist STAINED GLASS by Patrick Reyntiens, 1958. The E window of the chapel is an original slit lancet. Original also the splendid buttress, with very long set-offs. At r. angles to the hall wing the solar wing, with two Late Perp oriel windows facing N. One of them has on its under-side a church, very nicely portrayed, and standing on a tun - the rebus of Abbot Kirkton. The ground floor of the solar wing was originally open - see the two blocked four-centred arches. The E wall of this wing was not exposed. The triple shaft on a corbel (late C12) belonged to the monks’ kitchen, i.e. linked up with the premises surrounding the cloister (see below).
From close to the NW angle of the church facade the PRIORY GATE leads to the former Prior’s Lodging, later Deanery, and now a private house called Prior’s Gate. The GATEWAY was built under Abbot Kirkton, i.e. early in the C16. It has a separate opening for pedestrians and is very richly decorated with blank tracery etc. Another gateway, at r. angles to this, formerly led into the monastic graveyard. The house, i.e. Prior’s Gate, contains little that is medieval. Only the E wall of the hall, with a former spiral staircase, exists. The windows, now of two pointed-trefoiled lights with a circle over, might well reproduce the original late C13 work. They have original depressed rere-arches. Most of the house is by W.J.Donthorne, 1842. In the garden to the E TOUT HILL, a mound heaped up by Abbot Thorold in the late C11. There are no signs that it ever carried more than wooden fortifications. To its SW a picturesque ARCH made up in the C20 of fragments from the cathedral.
The CLOISTER can be reached from the E end of the range containing the Abbot’s Gate by a passage along the S side of the W parts of the church, or direct from the church by the two portals already described. The cloister walks survive nowhere, and against the church there are not even any traces of the bays and their vaults left. The existing W wall was the E wall of the cellars. In it there are some blocked early to mid C12 doorways, and also, at the N end, one well-preserved one with one order of columns and one continuous roll moulding. The arch has a big outer billet moulding, similar to those of the transepts. There is also a small C14 doorway with flowing tracery, one Perp doorway with a four-centred arch, and one doorway with Late Norman arch fragments (crenellation, frieze of lobes - cf. the gables of the cathedral). The remains of the arcading are superimposed on all this. They are Perp.
The SOUTH RANGE has remains partly E.E., partly Perp. E.E. the blank arcading with sub—arches, whose outer mouldings are those of the super-arch as well, and also two doorways, at the E and W ends. The W doorway is round-arched. It has four orders of colonnettes and a beautiful arch with extremely fine, deeply cut stiff-leaf. Tympanum with a quatrefoil and two dragons. This doorway leads into the REFECTORY, of which no more stands than the very wall we have just looked at. Towards the interior, i.e. the S, it has blank arcading with very varied paterae in and above the spandrels. They contain much stiff-leaf. Of the refectory E wall the N springer of some taller blank arcading is the only sign of decoration. The C13 arcading of the S wall of the S range was replaced in the five bays next to the refectory doorway during the C15 by a renewed LAVATORIUM of very rich Perp panelling. The E doorway of the S range of the cloister has a segmental arch and a quatrefoil above this. Fine mouldings; stiff-leaf detail. The doorway led into the Hostry Passage. Of the E range nothing at all survives. Part of its place is taken by two Georgian stone houses of three storeys. Doorway with pediment on Tuscan columns.
The HOSTRY PASSAGE was a long vaulted passage running along the E wall of the dormitory wing, which exists no longer. The passage was vaulted, and the details of blank tracery etc. point to c.1330-40. To the W of its S end there is a square vaulted building of the later C12 (two oblong quadripartite rib-vaults, chamfered ribs) which formed part of the undercroft of a W attachment to the S end of the dormitory (misericord?). The little building is neglected at the time of writing. To its N are signs of a vaulted C14 passage, and one unit of blank Dec arcading like that in the Hostry Passage (i.e. on the opposite side of the same wall). From the S end of the Hostry Passage one has to turn E to visit the impressive remains of the INFIRMARY. This was built by an abbot who ruled from 1250 to 1262. It is a large building with a nave and aisles, seven bays long, and an unaisled chancel. The arcades have tall, slender, but strong piers with a square core and four semicircular shafts with fillets giving the impression of a quatrefoil section. The arches have many deep mouldings, and there is excellent stiff-leaf enrichment. The W responds stand on corbels, and these are carried by a human figure and a grotesque. Blank arcading below the W window of the nave. Blank arcading on a higher level (why?) also in the W wall of the S aisle. Remains of a spiral staircase at the W end of the junction of S aisle and nave. The outer aisle windows are tall and shafted with shaft-rings. This evidence has to be pieced together from two separate houses built into the aisles. Inside one of them a round-headed doorway leading from the S aisle to the S. The chancel arch has slender blank arches l. and r. of the beautifully moulded arch. Of the chancel itself remains are in yet another house, partly C13 (buttresses, re-used mask-corbels) and partly C14 alterations. The house itself is Georgian.
Close to the infirmary are two small detached buildings, Table Hall and what is supposed to have been the Infirmarer’s Lodging. TABLE HALL stands just to the NE of the NE corner of the infirmary N aisle. It is a C15 building and has a fireplace to the N and a roof with collar-beams on braces and wind-braces. The INFIRMARER’S LODGING is more interesting. This is of the late C13, and has windows consisting of two pointed-trefoiled lights with a trefoil or a quatrefoil in plate tracery. The lights are separated by a polygonal shaft, not a mullion.
S of the Infirmary is the present DEANERY, formerly known as the Archdeaconry House, and originally, it is suggested, the HOSTRY or guest house. The building is largely Victorian (probably c.1875—80 and probably by Sir G. G. Scott), but contains valuable early evidence. The E half was a late C13 hall. The windows are tall, shafted, with shaft-rings, and have two lights with a plain circle over. It is doubtful however whether they are original or in situ. But further W is a fine room (kitchen?) with a large N fireplace and a splendid wide late C12 arch. This rests on shafts with waterleaf capitals. Further evidence of the C12 to C17 in the building is scanty and confused.
More outbuildings to the SW of this; also, to the S, further away, a STABLE (?) with a building attached to the E. This has tall transomed one-light windows of c.1300.
Remains of the PRECINCT WALL in many places, chiefly the W and the E. Its age is uncertain.
* Or is it the marble from Alwalton used for the abbots’ tombs.
** Inside the S transept is a DOUBLE PISCINA of the same date.
*** The two main bosses illustrate the Coronation of the Virgin and the Trinity.
**** On one of these, for no known reason, a fireplace with a flue has been built in.
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