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WIMBORNE MINSTER AND CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY
A Short History of Their Foundation and Description of Their Buildings
by
THE REV. THOMAS PERKINS
M.A., F.R.A.S.
Rector of Turnworth, Dorset
With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author
[Illustration]
London George Bell & Sons 1902
First Edition 1899
Second Edition, Revised, 1902
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
When writing the chapters of the present volume which treat of Wimborne
Minster, the author consulted the last edition of Hutchins' "History of
Dorset," which contains a considerable amount of somewhat ill-arranged
information on the subject, verifying all the descriptions by actual
examination of the building; similarly, when preparing the part of
this volume dealing with Christchurch Priory, he made some use of
"The Memorials of Christchurch Twynham," written originally by the Rev.
Mackenzie Walcott, F.S.A., and revised after his death in 1880 by Mr B.
Edmund Ferrey, F.S.A. He also consulted papers on the subject that have
appeared from time to time in various periodicals and MSS. that were
kindly placed at his disposal by the Secretary of the Society for the
Protection of Ancient Buildings.
He desires to express his thanks to the Vicars of the two churches
for permission to thoroughly examine every part of the buildings,
and to photograph them without let or hindrance; he also wishes to bear
testimony to the readiness shown by the clerks and vergers in imparting
local information and in facilitating his photographic work.
T. P.
_October_ 1899.
CONTENTS
WIMBORNE MINSTER
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--History of the Building 3
Date of Foundation 5
The Norman Church 8, 9
Alterations in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 10, 11
Alterations in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 11, 12
Modern Restorations 14
CHAPTER II.--The Exterior 16
The Central Tower 16
The North Porch 22
The East Window 24
The Sundial 25
The South Porch 25
The Western Tower 26
CHAPTER III.--The Interior 29
The North Porch 29
The Aisles 29, 38
The Clerestory 33
The Central Tower 34
The Transepts 38
The East End, Choir and Presbytery 42
Sedilia and Piscina 44
The Beaufort and Courtenay Tombs and Brass of Aethelred 42, 47
The South Choir Aisle and Etricke Tomb 48
The North Choir Aisle and Uvedale Monument 50, 51
The Crypt, Vestry, and Library 52
Deans of Wimborne 59
CHAPTER IV.--St Margaret's Hospital 60
Dimensions of Wimborne Minster 64
CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY
CHAPTER I.--History of the Building 67
Foundation 68
The Norman Church 70
Alterations in the Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries 71
Modern Alterations 72
CHAPTER II.--The Exterior 76
The Western Tower 76
The North Porch 80
The North Aisle 80
The North Transept 82
The Choir, Presbytery, and Lady Chapel 84
The South Transept 88
The Nave 88
The Porter's Lodge, and Sites of the Domestic Buildings 89
CHAPTER III.--The Interior 92
The Nave 92-98
The Aisles 98
The Transepts 100
The Rood Screen 105
The Choir 106
The Choir Stalls 108-110
The Reredos 112
The Salisbury Chantry 116
The Draper Chantry 118
The Lady Chapel, and the "Miraculous Beam" 120
St Michael's Loft 126
The Shelley Monument 126
CHAPTER IV.--Deans, Priors, and Vicars of Christchurch 128
Stratford's Injunctions 129
Archbishop Arundel's Injunctions 130
The Norman Castle 131
The Norman House 132
Dimensions of Christchurch Priory 134
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
WIMBORNE MINSTER
PAGE
Arms of Wimborne and Christchurch _Title page_
Wimborne Minster from the North-East 2
Wimborne Minster in 1840 3
Wimborne Minster in 1707. (From a copperplate in the Library) 13
The Minster from the South-East before 1891 19
The North Transept before 1891 21
The East Window 23
The Western Tower 27
The Interior, looking East 30
Pier and Arch-Spring, South Arcade 31
Decorated Arch in the Nave 32
Clerestory Stage of the Central Tower 35
The Tower Arches 36
North Transept and Crossing 37
Thirteenth-Century Piscina, South Transept 39
Choir Stalls 40
West View from the Choir 41
The East Window 43
Sedilia 44
The Beaufort Tomb 45
Brass of Aethelred 46
The Etricke Tomb 49
Ancient Chest 50
The Uvedale Monument 51
Entrance to Crypt 53
The Library 54
The Crypt 55
The Font 56
The Clock in the West Tower 57
St Margaret's Hospital 61
CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY
Christchurch Priory from the Bridge 66
Christchurch Priory from the North-East 77
Tower Door 78
The North Porch 79
The North Door 81
The North Transept in 1810 83
The North Transept 85
South Aisle of Nave 87
The Nave in 1834 93
The Nave 95
North Arcade of the Nave 96
From the North Triforium 97
Bay of the Triforium, South Side 98
South Aisle of the Nave 99
The Montacute Chantry 101
North Aisle of the Nave 103
The Crypt 105
The Rood Screen 107
Stall Seats (3) 108
Choir Stalls 109
Miserere on Stall Seat (_circa_ 1300) 110
The Choir 111
The Reredos 113
The Salisbury Chantry 115
Interior of the Salisbury Chantry 117
The Draper Chantry 119
Piscina in the Draper Chantry 120
The Sacristy 121
The Miraculous Beam 122
Tomb of Thomas, Lord West 123
The Lady Chapel 124
St Michael's Loft 125
The Shelley Monument 127
Remains of the Norman House 133
PLANS 136, 137
[Illustration: WIMBORNE MINSTER FROM THE NORTH-EAST.]
[Illustration: _By Rev. J. L. Petit._ WIMBORNE MINSTER IN 1840.]
WIMBORNE MINSTER
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
Of the churches connected with the religious houses which once existed
in the county of Dorset, three only remain to the present day. Of some
of the rest we have ruins, others have entirely disappeared. But the
town of Sherborne, once the bishop-stool of the sainted Aldhelm, who
overlooked a vast diocese comprising a great portion of the West Saxon
kingdom, has its Abbey now used as its Parish Church. The great Abbey
of Milton, founded by Æthelstan, has handed down to us its choir and
transepts--rebuilt in the fourteenth century, after the former church
had been destroyed by fire--and this, though private property, is still
used for occasional services; and the minster church at Wimborne has
became the church of the parish of Wimborne Minster.
The town has been by many supposed to stand on the site of the Roman
Vindogladia, though this station has by others been identified with
Gussage Cowdown, or the circular encampment of Badbury Rings, about
three miles to the north-west of Wimborne Minster. Be this as it may,
the district was occupied by the Roman conquerors of our island; and
Roman pottery and other remains have been found in the neighbourhood,
including a small portion of pavement beneath the floor of the minster
church.
The derivation of the name Wimborne, or Winborne as we find it sometimes
written, has been much disputed; but as we find the same word appearing
as the name of several other places which lie on the course of the same
stream, now generally called the Allen, though sometimes the Wim, it
is highly probable that the name is derived from that of the river.
Compound names for villages are very common in Dorset--the first word
being the name of the river on which the village stands, the second
being added to distinguish one village from another. Thus we find along
the Tarrant, villages known as Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant
Launceston, Tarrant Monkton, etc.; and along the Winterborne we find
Winterborne Houghton, Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Clenstone,
etc.; and in like manner we meet with Monkton up Wimborne, Wimborne
Saint Giles, and Wimborne Minster along the course of the Allen. The
characteristic name of Winterborne for a brook that is such in winter
only, but is a dried-up bed in a hot summer is borne by two streams in
Dorset, each giving its name to a string of villages. May not the word
Wimborne or Winborne be a contraction for this same word Winterborne,
the "burn" of the rainy winter months, applied to the little stream of
the Allen, though it cannot now be said to be dry in summer?
The small town of Wimborne Minster stands not far from the junction of
the Allen with the slow-running Dorset Stour, in the midst of pleasant
fertile meadow-land, from which here and there some low hills rise. Its
chief glory has been, and probably always will be, its splendid church,
with its central Norman and its Western Perpendicular towers, its Norman
and Decorated nave, its Early English choir, and its numerous tombs and
monuments of those whose names are recorded in the history of the
country.
The exact year of the foundation of the original religious house is
differently given in various ancient documents: the dates vary from
705 A.D. to 723 A.D. At this time, Ine was king of the West Saxons;
and one of his sisters, Cudburh--or Cuthberga, as her name appears in
its Latinised form--was espoused or married to Egfred, or, as he is
often called, Osric, the Northumbrian king, but the marriage was never
consummated, and the lady as soon as possible separated from him and
retired to the convent at Barking, and afterwards founded the convent at
Wimborne. Some say that she objected to the intemperate habits of her
espoused as soon as she met him; others, that having previously vowed
herself to heaven, she persuaded him to release her from the engagement
to him, which had been arranged without her wishes being consulted.
Her sister Quinberga is stated to have been associated with her in the
foundation of the religious house, and both were buried within its
precincts, and both were afterwards canonised; Saint Cuthberga was
commemorated on August 31st "as a virgin but not a martyr." A special
service appointed for the day is to be found in a Missal kept in the
Library of the Cathedral Church at Salisbury, in which the following
prayer occurs:--
"Deus qui eximie castitatis privilegio famulam tuam Cuthbergam
multipliciter decorasti, da nobis famulis tuis ejus promerente
intercessione utriusque vitae prosperitatem. Ut sicut ejus festivitas
nobiscum agitur in terris, ita per ejus interventum nostri memoria apud
te semper habeatur in coelis, per Dominum etc."
There is reason to believe that the earliest date given above for the
foundation (705 A.D.) is the most probable one, as Regner in his tracts
mentions a letter bearing this date written by Saint Aldhelm, and taken
from the register of Malmesbury, in which he includes in a list of
congregations to which he grants liberty of election the monastery at
Wimborne, presided over by the sister of the king. There is also some
evidence for the existence of a community of monks at Wimborne, as well
as of nuns. But of these original religious houses not a trace remains:
the very position of St Cuthberga's Church is uncertain; we cannot
be sure that the present building occupies the same site; the last
resting-places of the two royal foundresses are not even pointed out
by tradition. Probably the buildings were destroyed, the nuns slain or
driven out, when the raiding Danes overran Wessex in the ninth century.
The next historical event that we meet with in connection with Wimborne
is the burial of King Æthelred, the brother and immediate predecessor
on the throne of the great West Saxon king Ælfred. As there is doubt
about the year of the foundation by Cuthberga, so again there is a
conflict of testimony as to the date, place, and manner of the death of
Æthelred--the inscription on the brass (about which more will be said
when we come to describe the interior of the minster) not agreeing with
the usually accepted date for the accession of Ælfred, 871; but as the
brass is itself many centuries later than the burial of the king whose
likeness it professes to bear, its authority may well be questioned.
Anyhow, Æthelred died either of wounds received in some battle with the
Danes, in some spot which different archæologists have placed in Surrey,
Oxford, Berkshire, or Wilts, or worn out by his long and arduous
exertions while struggling with the heathen invaders; and his body--this
alone is certain--was brought to Wimborne for burial. It has been
conjectured that Ælfred, after he had defeated the Danes and established
himself firmly on the throne of Wessex, would naturally rebuild the
ruined abbey. He founded, as we know, an abbey at Shaftesbury; he is
recorded to have built at Winchester and London; he had undoubtedly a
taste for architecture, and he was a devout son of Mother Church, so
that it is by no means improbable that he would erect a church over the
grave of his brother: but no record of such building remains, and there
is no trace of any pre-Norman work in the existing minster.
The original church and conventual buildings having been swept away by
the Danes, whether Ælfred restored it or not is uncertain, but it is
certain that a house of secular canons was established at Wimborne by a
king of the name of Eadward; but again there is some uncertainty as to
whether this king was the one who is sometimes called the Eadward the
Elder, sometimes Eadward the Unconquered, son and successor of Ælfred,
or Eadward the Confessor. Anyhow, it became a collegiate church and a
royal free chapel, and as such it is mentioned in Domesday Book, and it
is noticed as a Deanery in the charters of Henry III. Leland, writing in
the reign of Henry VIII., says, "It is but of late time that a dean and
prebendaries were inducted into it." The deanery was in the gift of the
Crown, and we have a full list of the deans from 1224 up to 1547, when
it was dissolved. The ecclesiastical establishment consisted of a dean,
four prebendaries, three vicars, four deacons, and five singing men.
It will not be needful to give any detailed account of these, as most
of them, though in many cases they held other more dignified posts,[1]
either together with the deanery or after resigning it, are not men
who have made their mark in English history. A few only will here be
mentioned, who on account of some circumstances connected with the
fabric, or for other reasons, are more noteworthy.
[1] It is noteworthy that they all held some other preferment
during the time that they held the office of dean.
#Thomas de Bembre#, 1350-1361, founded a chantry and an altar in the
north part of the north transept, which was added at this time.
#Reginald Pole#, so well known in the history of the reigns of Henry
VIII. and Queen Mary, was Dean of Wimborne from 1517 till 1537. It is
remarkable that he was only seventeen years of age at the time of his
appointment.
He was succeeded by #Nicholas Wilson#, who held the office of dean until
the dissolution of the deanery in 1547. To him a curious letter still
existing was addressed in 1538 by certain leading men of the parish,
though nothing appears to have been done in consequence of it. These
worthy men complain of the dilapidated state of the church, the want
of funds to carry out needed repairs, and suggest the taking from the
church "seynt Cuthborow's hed," and "the sylv' y^t ys about the same
hed," which they claim as belonging to the parish on the ground that
it was made by the charity of the parishioners in times past. "Our
chyrche," they say, "ys in gret ruyn and decay and our toure ys
foundered and lyke to fall and ther ys no money left in [~o] chyrche box
and by reason of great infyrmyty and deth ther hath byn thys yere in
oure parysh no chyrche aele, the whych hath hyndred [~o] chyrch of xx^ti
nobles and above, and well it is knowen y^t we have no land but onely
the charity of good people, wherfor nyed constraynyth us to sell the
sylv' y^t is about the same hed. Besechynge yo^r mastership to sertefy
us by y^r tre wher we may sell the said sylv' to repayr [~o]
chyrche."[2]
[2] In an inventory made in the reign of Henry VIII. we find
mentioned an image of St Cuthberga, with a ring of gold, and
two little crosses of gold, with a book and staff in her hand.
The head of the image of silver with a crown on it of silver
and gilt. On her apron a St James shell with a buckle of silver
and gilt.
The names of many of the other ecclesiastics connected with the church
are known: among these, we need only mention William Lorynge canon, who
in the time of Richard II. caused the great bell called the Cuthborow
bell to be made; and Simon Beneson, sacrist, who left land, which is
called Bell Acre, towards the maintenance and repair of the bells.
Among other benefactors of the church was Margaret, Countess of
Richmond, mother of Henry VII., so well known at Cambridge under the
name of Lady Margaret, the foundress of Christ's and St John's Colleges.
She founded at Wimborne the original seminary connected with the
minster, which afterwards became by a charter of Elizabeth the Grammar
School of the town, and presented splendid vestments to the church. July
9th was until the Reformation kept at the minster as a festival to her
memory, with a special office and High Mass.
When the deanery was abolished, Wimborne Minster became a Royal
Peculiar, under the administration of three priest-vicars elected by the
Corporation. These served each for a week in turn. The Corporation had
the power of appointing one of the three vicars--who was known as the
"Official"--to hold courts and grant licences. The court was held in the
western part of the north aisle, the Official presiding, seated at a
desk, the two other vicars sitting one on each side of him, while at a
long table sat the churchwardens, sidesmen, the vestry clerks, and the
apparitors.
The arrangement by which the vicars served the church each in turn
continued in force until 1876. At that time one of the three vicars
retired on a pension; another removed to the chapelry of Holt,
three miles from Wimborne (which had previously been served in turn
by the vicars of Wimborne), a parsonage having been built for his
accommodation; and the third became sole vicar of the minster church
and the parish attached to it.
* * * * *
For the history of the fabric we have to trust almost entirely to the
architectural features of the church itself, as documentary evidence is
unusually scanty.
Nothing of earlier date than the twelfth century can be seen in
Wimborne Minster, but we know pretty accurately, the extent and form of
the Norman Church; for, during the course of restoration undertaken in
the present century, the foundations of some parts of this church were
discovered beneath the floor of the existing building, and other pieces
of Norman work formerly concealed, and now again concealed beneath
plaster, were laid bare. There is one interesting feature about the
church worthy of notice--namely, that the builders who succeeded one
another at the various periods of its history did not, as a rule,
destroy the work of their predecessors to such an extent as we
frequently find to have been the case with the builders of other
churches: possibly this may have been due to the fact that at no time
was Wimborne Minster a rich foundation. There was no saintly shrine,
there were no wonder-working relics to attract pilgrims and gather the
offerings of the faithful and enrich the church in the way in which
the shrine of Saint Cuthbert enriched Durham, that of the murdered
archbishop enriched Canterbury, and that of the murdered king enriched
Gloucester. But, whatever the reason may have been, we can but be
thankful that the mediæval builders destroyed so little at Wimborne;
while we regret that modern restorers have not been as scrupulous in
preserving the work which they found existing, but have in some
instances endeavoured to put the church back again into the state in
which they imagined the fourteenth-century builders left it.
We may regard the arches and lower stages of the central tower as the
oldest part now remaining in its original condition. No doubt the Norman
choir was the first to be built, as we find that it was almost the
universal custom to begin churches at the eastern end, and gradually to
extend the building westward, as funds and time allowed. Here, however,
as in many other cases, the small Norman choir eastward of the central
tower in course of time was considered too small, and the eastern
termination had to be demolished to admit of the desired extension to
the east. Norman choirs, as a rule, had an apsidal termination to the
east, and it was not till Early English times that square east ends,
which were characteristic of the English church in pre-Norman times,
prevailed again over the Norman custom; and it is worthy of notice that
this rectangular termination towards the east end remains a marked
characteristic of the thirteenth-century work in England, Continental
church-builders having retained the apsidal termination till the
Renaissance. The side walls of the Norman choir extended two bays to the
east of the central tower, and the nave four bays westward of the same.
The transepts were shorter than at present, and the side aisles of the
nave narrower. There appear to have been two side chapels to the choir,
extending as far as the first bay eastward; beyond this to the east were
two Norman windows on each side: these windows, parts of which remain,
cut off by the Early English arches, were round-headed, and richly
ornamented with chevron mouldings. They were uncovered at the time of
the restoration, but are now again hidden by plaster. At the south end
of the south transept a low building seems to have existed: the walls
of this were raised when the south transept was lengthened in the
fourteenth century. The Norman masonry may be seen under the south
window of the transept, and a Norman string course runs round the sides
and ends of the present transept. The aisles of the nave were not only
narrower, but were also lower, than those now existing. It is also
probable that these aisles did not originally extend as far westward
as the nave. The windows of the Norman clerestory, which may still be
seen from the interior, though all similar in design, are not alike in
workmanship. The one over the narrow eastern bay on either side differs
from those over the three bays farther to the west. Moreover, a
continuous foundation has been discovered underneath the three western
arches of the Norman nave. Possibly there was at one time a solid wall
in this position, intended, however, from the first only to be
temporary, and this was removed when the aisles, still in Norman times,
were lengthened. The tower itself was not all built at the same time;
the upper stages are ornamented with an arcading of intersecting arches
indicating a somewhat later date.
In the thirteenth century the east end of the choir seems to have been
removed and the presbytery added: its date is pretty clearly determined
by the east window, in which we notice some signs of the approaching
change from the Early English simple lancet into the plate tracery of
the Decorated period. Rickman gives its approximate date as 1220. During
the fourteenth century the nave aisles were widened and extended farther
west, and at the same time two bays were added to the nave itself. The
Norman chapels on either side of the choir were lengthened into aisles,
not, however, extending as far to the east as the thirteenth-century
presbytery; arches were cut in the Norman choir walls to give access
to these new aisles. The transepts were lengthened, the south one by
raising the walls of the Norman chapel mentioned above, which, it has
been conjectured, was used as the Lady Chapel, the north transept by
the addition of Bembre's chantry.
During the fifteenth century the western tower was built 1448-1464,
and probably at the same time the walls of the nave were raised; and
the roofs of the nave aisles, which had been much lower than now, so
as not to block up the Norman clerestory windows, were raised on the
sides joining the nave walls above the heads of these windows, and a new
clerestory was formed in the raised wall. This contains five windows on
each side, each window being placed over one of the piers of the nave
arcading.
During the Early English period, probably by John de Berwick, who was
dean from 1286-1312, a spire was added to the central tower. This was
for long in an unsafe condition, and at length, in 1600, it fell. The
following is the description given by Coker, a contemporary writer:
"Having discoursed this longe of this church, I will not overpasse a
strange accident which in our dayes happened unto it, viz. Anno Domini
1600 (the choire beeing then full of people at tenne of clock service,
allsoe the streets by reason of the markett), a sudden mist ariseing,
all the spire steeple, being of a very great height, was strangely cast
downe, the stones battered all the lead and brake much timber of the
roofe of the church, yet without anie hurt to the people; which ruin is
sithence commendablie repaired with the church revenues, for sacriledge
hath not yet swept awaye all, being assisted by Sir John Hannam, a
neighbour gentleman, who if I mistake not enjoyeth revenues of the
church, and hath done commendablie to convert part of it to its former
use." Other accounts mention a tempest at the time of the fall. It is
not unlikely that the tower was weakened by the alterations in the
fourteenth century, when wider arches were cut in the west walls of the
transepts, in consequence of the widening of the nave aisles. The fall
of the spire, which fell towards the east, demolished the clerestory
windows of the choir on the south side, and their place was supplied by
a long, low Tudor window oblong in shape and quite plain. The windows,
however, on both sides have been entirely altered, and those now
existing in the clerestory are small lancets of modern date.
The spire was not rebuilt, but the heavy looking battlement and solid
pinnacles which still remain, and detract considerably from the beauty
of the tower, were added as a finish to it in the year 1608. It is
curious that the churchwardens' books, in which many entries occur
detailing repairs and other work connected with the spire, make no
mention of its fall.
The western tower was also a source of trouble. It was built, as has
been already mentioned, during the latter half of the fifteenth century,
the glazing of the windows being completed in 1464; but as early as 1548
it was thought necessary to brick up the west doorway, and notices of
unsoundness of the tower occur frequently in the church books. In 1664
we find the following entry made:--"Paid in beere to the Ringers for a
peale to trye if the Tower shooke £0 1s 0d." As we read this entry, we
cannot help wondering if the large amount of beer which a shilling would
purchase in those days was given to the ringers so as to give them a
fictitious courage and blind their eyes to the possible danger of
bringing the tower down upon their heads. In 1739 the Perpendicular
window in the western face of the tower was taken out and a smaller oval
one put in its place, with a view to the strengthening of the wall by
additional stonework. The modern restorer, however, has again put a
window of Perpendicular character in place of the oval window inserted
in the last century, using to aid him in his design, sundry fragments of
the original tracery found embedded in the walls.
[Illustration: WIMBORNE MINSTER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. From an old
Print.]
Before the nineteenth-century restorations, the pulpit, probably late
sixteenth-century work, stood in the nave against the middle pillar on
the north side, and the nave and choir were separated by a screen of
three arches on which stood the organ. The central arch had doors.
On either side of the choir were a set of canopied stalls: these
canopies were removed in 1855 to make the chancel aisles available for
a congregation. As the canopies interfered with both sight and sound,
the floor of the choir was lowered to only three steps above the nave,
and the stalls reduced to four on each side, with a view to make room
for restoring the Norman steps indicated by traces on the wall under
the floor, which led up to the high altar of the Norman church. The
arrangement of steps was then three from the nave to the choir, four
from the choir to the next level to the east, and seven from this to the
presbytery, and one more to the altar platform. In 1866 further changes
were made: the stalls were increased to the present number to provide
sufficient accommodation for the choir, the additions being made out of
old woodwork. The level of the floors was also rearranged; five steps
now lead up from the nave to the choir, seven to the presbytery and one
more to the altar platform, the altar itself being raised yet another
step.
During the restoration carried on from 1855 to 1857, great changes
besides those already mentioned were made in the interior: the whitewash
and plaster were removed from the walls, a west gallery was taken down,
the nave re-seated, the organ transferred from its position upon the
screen to the south transept, and much mischief was done from an
archæological standpoint, a thing which seems almost inseparable from
any nineteenth-century restoration.
An examination of the masonry shows clearly that all the exterior walls
east of the transepts save the east wall of the presbytery, which is
somewhat out of the vertical, the top hanging forward, have been if not
entirely rebuilt at anyrate completely refaced, and this work was no
doubt done at the restoration at the middle of the nineteenth century.
The doorway in the middle of the north choir aisle is entirely modern;
the doorway which formally occupied this place was provided with a small
porch.
How far this rebuilding and refacing were rendered necessary by the
condition of the walls at that time it is now impossible to say. The
fact that the walls of the nave aisles were not similarly treated may
have been due to want of funds, or it may be that the architects
employed found them in a better condition than the walls of the choir
aisles, and so preserved them, though they considered the latter beyond
the possibility of preservation without the extensive renewing that
evidently took place.
The room containing the chained library was at the same time refitted.
New shelves and rods were provided, but the old chains were used again.
The restoration of 1855-1857 did not extend to the transept; but
these were taken in hand in 1891, with the usual result--namely, the
destruction of some existing features, such as the seventeenth-century
tracery of the north window,[3] to make room for a nineteenth-century
window in Decorated style, which, however, differs altogether from any
window in the minster; the walls were raised about two feet and a roof
of higher pitch put upon them, which necessitated alterations in the
gables. A sundial which stood at the summit of the south gable was taken
down, and this in 1894 was erected on a pillar built in the churchyard,
a short distance from the south wall of the western tower. The transept
previous to the restoration with the sun-dial on its gable is shown in
the illustration on p. 19.
[3] This tracery is shown in the illustration on p. 21. The original
foliation seems to have been cut away, and the intermediate
mullions extended to the points of the two lights. This may
have been done with a view to economy in reglazing the window.
The modern window is shown on page 37.
A small chamber to contain the hydraulic apparatus for the organ has
recently been added to the east side of the south transept.