THE CHURCHES OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
The greatest churches which the Normans planned were on such a scale
that they could not be finished in the lives of their designers. The
work was carried on more or less continuously by the builders and
architects who came after them. But, as time went on, various
improvements were made in the art of building, and new fashions came
into being, and the original plans had often to be altered to meet the
growing needs of the day, or to allow the newest features of style to be
introduced.
The interior of S. John's Church, Chester, will show you some of the
changes of style which were taking place in the early part of the
thirteenth century. The two rows of _pointed_ arches over the circular
headed arches of the nave tell us that by the time the massive Norman
piers and arches were finished, an entirely different form of arch was
coming into fashion.
The pointed arch was first used when Norman and Saxon had settled down
peaceably side by side. From the fusing of the two nations, the English
people grew in strength and power. Norman baron and Saxon peasant had
combined to wrest from a wicked king the Great Charter of freedom for
the English people. Hence the new style is appropriately called Early
English.
The work of church building had often been interrupted. During the civil
war of Stephen's reign, the building of churches was almost at a
standstill; the Crusades, by drawing large numbers of people from the
country, also checked the progress of the work. The raids of the Welsh
often destroyed a half-built Cheshire church. But from the time of Magna
Charta the erection of sacred buildings went forward apace, and was
continued with even greater zeal and activity through the long reign of
Henry the Third.
[Illustration: RUINS OF S. JOHN'S, CHESTER
Change from Norman round arch to pointed arch]
The pointed arch was the principal feature of the new style, which is,
therefore, sometimes called the Pointed style. But we must look
carefully at the shape and details before we can be quite sure that an
arch belongs to this period of building.
The arch must be tall and narrow, the columns on which they rest, round
and slender, often grouped together in clusters of three or more. Often
the columns consist of slender shafts united on one base and under one
capital. The mouldings of the arch, base and capital must be deeply cut
and grooved. The pointed arches of S. John's have all these
characteristic features. The lower of the two rows of pointed arches is
called the triforium or blind story, that is, without windows, for it is
built within the slope of the roof over the side aisles of the church.
The upper row is the clerestory, containing many window lights. A
triforium is only to be seen in the very largest churches. In the ruined
portion of S. John's you may see round and pointed arches side by side.
The arches of the nave at Prestbury belong to this period. The columns
are very much more slender than the massive columns of S. John's. You
will notice that the capital of one of the columns is covered with
carved foliage which could only have been done with a chisel. Deep
under-cutting is a feature of the Early English style, and shows that
the English masons had improved greatly in their skill.
Early English windows, like the arches, are long, narrow, and pointed.
From their shape they are called lancets. Sometimes two or more lancets
are grouped together side by side under a single 'dripstone' or hood. At
the east end of the Chapter-house at Chester is a window consisting of
five lancets.
Several portions of Chester Cathedral, or rather the Abbey of S.
Werburgh as it was still called, were built during this period. In the
north aisle of the choir you may see the point where we pass from the
massive Norman masonry to the lighter and more graceful Early English.
The piscina or basin built in the wall is the place where you must look
for the change.
At the end of the twelfth century the church of Hugh Lupus was already
in ruins. Earl Randle was in the Holy Land, and, during his absence, the
Welsh were more than usually troublesome. In the early years of the
thirteenth century large sums of money were given to the abbey, and the
abbots began building in the new style. When Hugh Grylle was abbot, the
Chapter-house, in which the business of the abbey was transacted, was
built. The number of monks also increased to such an extent that a new
and larger refectory was needed.
[Illustration: BOSS FROM RUINS OF S. JOHN'S CHURCH, CHESTER
Left of the boss is a strip of dog-tooth moulding]
This refectory and the vestibule or entrance hall leading to it contain
the most beautiful examples of Early English work to be found in
Cheshire, and boys and girls who live in or near Chester should study
them carefully. In the refectory is the stone pulpit referred to in a
previous chapter, with a staircase and arcade of Early English arches
leading to it. The wall above the arches is pierced with a row of
'quatrefoil' openings, with deeply cut mouldings.
[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH DOORWAY, CHESTER]
In the hollows of the Early English mouldings we sometimes see an
ornament pointed like a dog's tooth. You will see it in the moulding
round a circular opening over the doorway of the vestibule in
the cloisters of the Cathedral. Another ornament which the
thirteenth-century masons invented and put into their work was the
'cusp', a projection made by the meeting of two curves placed end to
end. If you put two cusps into the head of a pointed arch you will find
that you have made a trefoil-headed arch. The triforium arches in the
choir of the cathedral are all of this description. Quatrefoils are made
by arranging four cusps within a circle.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Abbot Simon of Whitchurch
built the Lady Chapel east of the choir. The windows of this chapel are
all lancets, those at the side being arranged in groups of three, while
the east window contains five lights. The Lady Chapel looks very new
now. It has, in fact, been almost entirely rebuilt since Abbot Simon's
day. The mediaeval builders of Cheshire did not select their
building-stone very carefully. You will see from the cloisters how the
red sandstone has weathered and crumbled to ruin.
The walls of Early English buildings were not so thick as those built by
the Normans, and required to be supported on the exterior by buttresses
which projected further from the walls than the flat Norman buttresses.
You will find Early English buttresses at Audlem and Prestbury.
Many houses in Chester are built over crypts or underground cellars,
which were made during the reign of Henry the Third, and consequently
show some of the features we have been describing. The oldest of these
crypts is under a shop in Bridge Street. It is lighted by a triple
lancet window having deep splays. The door of the staircase leading to
it has a trefoiled head, and the vaulted stone roof is groined and
ribbed like the roof of the cloisters of the cathedral. The roofs of
Early English churches were groined in the same way, but with wood
instead of stone.
Many Cheshire churches were, no doubt, rebuilt or repaired in the new
style. At Bruera there is a pointed doorway under a semicircular arch.
Bruera was one of the many churches bestowed on the Abbey of S. Werburgh
by Norman lords. A grant of a manor or a church was often made when a
baron or some member of his family entered the abbey as a monk of the
brotherhood.
Their descendants did not always approve of these gifts. In the
Chronicle of S. Werburgh, we read that in 1258 Roger de Montalt, Chief
Justice of Chester, tried to recover the churches of Bruera, Coddington,
and Neston, which the lord of Montalt had given to the abbey in the days
of Earl Hugh. Roger entered Neston Church with a body of armed men, and
turned out the monks who had been sent from the abbey to perform the
services, and gave the living to his nephew Ralph. The Chronicle speaks
of the misfortunes that befell Roger as a warning to other would-be
robbers of the Church. His eldest son died within fifteen days, and
Roger himself 'died in poverty within two years, the common people being
ignorant of the place of his burial'.