THE EXTERIOR
Wimborne Minster does not occupy a commanding position--it stands on
level ground, its two towers are not lofty, the western only reaching
the height of 95 feet and the central 84 feet--but it has the advantage
of having an extensive churchyard both on the south side and also on the
north, so that from either side a good general view of the building may
be obtained. A street running from the east end of the church towards
the north gives the spectator the advantage of a still more distant
standpoint, from which the towers, transepts, choir, and porch group
themselves into one harmonious whole, the long line of iron railings
bounding the churchyard being the only drawback. The first impression is
that there is something wrong with the central tower; the plain heavy
battlement, with its four enormous corner pinnacles, seems to overweight
the tower, and as each side of the parapet is longer than the side of
the tower below, the feeling of top-heaviness is increased. The central
tower has no buttresses, but the western has an octagonal buttress at
each corner, and these decrease in cross section at each of four string
courses; so that this tower seems to taper, and by contrast makes the
central tower seem to bulge out at the top more than it really does.
But Wimborne Minster does not stand alone in giving at first sight a
feeling that something is wanting to perfect beauty. In nearly every
old building which has gradually grown up, been altered and enlarged
by various generations, as need arose, each generation working in
its own style, and often with little regard to what already existed,
incongruities are sure to be discernible. But what is lost in unity
of design increases the interest in the building, historically and
architecturally regarded. And it is worthy of notice that at Wimborne,
more than at many places, the enlargers of the church have contented
themselves with adding to the building without removing the work of
their predecessors more than was absolutely necessary. A very cursory
glance at the exterior of the building as one walks round it is
sufficient to show that the church as it stands offers to the student of
architecture examples of every style that has prevailed in this country
from the twelfth century onward, and he will especially rejoice at
seeing so much fourteenth-century work. He will, as he passes along the
narrow footway beneath the east end of the choir, regret that more space
is not available here to get a good view of the most interesting Early
English window. If a small tree were felled, and the wall of a garden
or yard on the side of the footpath opposite to the church pulled down,
so as to throw open the east end of the choir, it would be a great
improvement. But this regret can be endured, as, though the window
cannot be well seen, it is there, and by changing one's position a
pretty accurate idea of its interesting features can be formed; but
far keener is the regret that any lover of antiquity must feel when
he notices, as he examines the church more closely, how busy the
nineteenth-century restorer has been, how he has raised walls, altered
the pitch of roofs, and inserted modern imitations of thirteenth and
fourteenth century work, removing features which existed at the
beginning of this century to make room for his own work; how he has
banished much of the old woodwork in the interior, altered the position
of still more, and generally been far less conservative of the work of
former generations than the mediæval enlargers of the minster were.
However, his work is now done--nave, towers, and choir were thoroughly
restored about fifty years ago, and the transepts in 1891. No further
work is contemplated at present. In fact, there seems nothing more that
could well be done.
[Illustration: THE MINSTER FROM THE SOUTH-EAST BEFORE 1891.]
The church is built partly of a warm brown sandstone, partly of stone of
a pale yellow or drab colour, the two kinds being in many places mixed
so as to give the walls a chequered appearance. This may be noticed both
outside and inside the building. In some of the walls the stones are
used irregularly, in others they are carefully squared. The red stone is
to be met with in the neighbourhood: some of that used for raising the
transept walls in 1891 was obtained from a bridge in the town that was
being rebuilt; and from marks on some of those stones it appeared that
before being in the bridge they had been used in some ecclesiastical
building, so that they have now returned to their original use. There
is little ornament to be seen outside, save on the upper stage of the
tower; in fact, the whole building excepting the arches of the nave and
the tower may be described as severely plain in character. The college
was never wealthy, hence probably it could not employ a number of
carvers; then again it was not a monastic establishment, so that there
were no monks to occupy their time in the embellishment of the building,
carving, as monks often did, their quaint fancies on bosses and
capitals. We miss the crockets and finials, the ball-flower, and other
ornaments that we meet with in so many fourteenth-century buildings; but
the very simplicity of the work gives the church a dignity that is often
wanting in more highly ornamented structures. The small number of the
buttresses in the body of the church is noteworthy; save at the angles
there are only five--namely, two on each nave aisle, and one on the
north choir aisle. At each of the eastern corners of the choir aisles
the buttresses are set diagonally, as also are those on the northern
corners of the north porch. There is a buttress on each of the side
walls of the north porch, and two set at right angles to each other
at each of the two corners of the north transept, and also at the
south-west corner of the south transept; beneath the east window of the
choir there is a small one. The buttresses at the corner of the choir
project but slightly. The central tower has none, but the west tower has
an octagonal buttress at each corner. The central tower attracts notice
first. From the outside at the angles a small portion of the plain wall
of the triforium stage may be seen, against which the roofs of the choir
and transepts abut; the nave roof, however, hides all of this stage at
the western face: above this face is a band of red-brown sandstone, and
above this the clerestory stage. In each face are two round-headed
windows with a pointed blank arch between them. There are six slender
shafts to support the outer order of moulding over the two windows and
the blank arch, and two of a similar character to support the inner ring
of moulding over each window. At each corner of the tower up to the top
of this stage runs a slender banded shaft. This stage is finished by a
string course, above which the tower walls recede slightly, the walls of
the upper or belfry storey being a little thinner than those below. This
stage, perfectly plain within, is the most richly-ornamented part of the
tower outside: it is the latest Norman work to be found in the minster,
and probably may be dated late in the twelfth century. An arcading of
intersecting round-headed arches runs all round this storey. Seven
pointed arches are thus formed in each face; between these arches stand
slender pillars with well carved capitals which show a great variety of
design. Five of the seven arches on each face were originally open, save
possibly for louvre-boards placed to keep out the rain; now all but the
central one on each face are walled up, and the centre one is glazed.
This filling up was not all done at the same time, as the varying
character of the stone shows. The work was no doubt begun in order to
strengthen the walls when the spire was added, and was continued from
time to time as the necessity for further strengthening arose. Above
the stage was a bold corbel table, and this is the upper limit of the
Norman work. There can be little doubt that the Norman builder, here as
elsewhere, finished his tower with a low pyramidal roof with overhanging
eaves to shoot off the rain. This covering may have been of lead, but
possibly of stone tiles or wooden shingles. About a century later this
Norman roof was removed to make place for a loftier roof or spire. Of
its character and material and height we know nothing--there is no
description of it; and though the minster is represented on an old seal
with one spire-crowned tower, yet the representation of the rest of the
church is so conventional that it cannot be regarded as an authentic
record of the actual appearance of the steeple. It is curious that, as
it stood for about three hundred years and fell only in the later years
of Elizabeth's reign, no drawing remains to show us what this spire was
like. But it passed away, doing some damage to the building in its fall,
and that is the only record it has left behind; but we can well picture
to ourselves how much importance must have been added to the minster by
this spire, which must have been a conspicuous object for many miles
round. The present heavy, ugly battlemented parapet spoils the general
effect of the tower; and though we are adverse to the sweeping away of
any features of an old building, even when the features are inharmonious
and even ugly--because this is, as it were, tearing a page of stone from
the book of the history of the building--yet we must confess we could
have regarded the loss of the seventeenth-century parapet and pinnacles
with much less regret than other features which the restorer has
tampered with.
[Illustration: THE NORTH TRANSEPT BEFORE 1891.]
The #North Porch#, which was evidently always intended to be, as it
is to this day, the chief entrance into the church, consists of two
bays marked externally by buttresses on each side: the inner order of
moulding to the arch giving access to this porch springs from two shafts
of Purbeck marble; the outer orders are carried up from the base without
any capitals or imposts. The height of the crown of the inner arch above
the capitals from which it springs is somewhat less than half the width
at the bottom, and the radius of the curvature of the arches is greater
than the width. Over the arch is a square-headed two-light window,
lighting the room over the entrance. The roof differs from all the other
roofs of the church since it is covered with stone tiles, while the
others are covered with lead. There are buttresses set diagonally at the
two northern angles of the porch.
Between the porch and the transept are three two-light Decorated
windows. The tracery of all these is alike, but differs from that of
the two windows to the west of the porch. The most picturesque feature
of the north transept is the turret containing the staircase by which
access is obtained to the tower. This, before the church was enlarged
in the fourteenth century, formed the north-west angle of the Norman
transept: projecting towards the north, its base is rectangular. This
rectangular portion rises nearly to the level of the tops of the aisle
windows, above this level the turret is circular, and rising above the
transept roof is capped by a low conical roof of stone tiles. Two string
courses run round it, one at the bottom of the circular part, and one a
little higher up. This turret was once known as the "Ivy Tower," from
the ivy that grew on it, but this was all removed at the time when the
transept was altered in 1891. At that time the side walls were raised
about two feet, and the roof was raised to the original pitch of the
Norman transept, and at the same time the tracery of the north window,
which was of a very plain and clumsy character, seventeenth-century
work, was removed and the existing tracery inserted. Much
picturesqueness has been sacrificed to make these changes. The portion
of this transept to the north of the turret was added about the middle
of the fourteenth century to form the chantry founded by Bembre, who
was dean from 1350-1361. This part contains, besides the large window,
two smaller two-light windows, which look out respectively to the east
and west. The tracery in these is almost entirely modern. Beyond the
transept is the wall of the north choir aisle. This stands farther to
the north than the wall of the nave aisle; in fact, it is in a line with
the original north end of the Norman transept. In this wall, close to
the transept, is a small round-headed doorway. And, farther to the east,
is another larger pointed doorway between the second and third windows
of the choir aisle, counting from the transept eastward. This doorway is
enclosed by a triangular moulding very plain in character, but none of
it is original. The three windows are each of two lights. The tracery
of these three is alike, but differs from that of the windows in the
nave aisle. The east window of the north aisle is of five lights. The
enclosing arch is not very pointed--much less so than in the narrower
windows of the aisles--and each light runs up through the head of the
window. These and the corresponding south choir aisle windows are late
Decorated work.
[Illustration: THE EAST WINDOW.
(From Parker's "Introduction to Gothic Architecture.")]
Unfortunately the churchyard does not extend to the east of the church.
A narrow footway, bounded to the east by cottages and garden walls,
renders it impossible to photograph the east window of the choir. This
is a most interesting one; and has been figured in most books on
architecture. It consists externally of three lancets enclosed in a
peculiar way by weather moulding; this rises separately over the head of
each lancet, and between the windows runs in a horizontal line and is
continued to the square corner buttresses. Within this moulding, and
over the heads of each lancet, there is an opening pierced: the central
one is a quatrefoil, while the other two have six points. These openings
are a very early example of plate tracery, which was fully developed in
the Early Decorated style. This window belongs to the Early English
period, and may be dated about 1220. There will be occasion to refer to
this window again when speaking of the interior of the church. The south
choir aisle has a five-light east window closely corresponding to the
window of the north aisle, and on the south two three-light windows. In
these, as in the east aisle windows, the lights are carried up through
the heads. There is no doorway giving access to this aisle from the
outside.
The angle between the choir aisle and south transept is filled up with
the vestry and the library above it. The south wall of this projects
beyond the wall of the south transept. This vestry is of Decorated date,
possibly rather later than the other Decorated work in the minster. The
upper storey forms the library. Its walls are finished at the top by a
plain parapet which conceals the flat roof. At the south-western angle
is an octagonal turret staircase, capped by a pyramidal roof rising from
within a battlemented parapet, and terminating in a carved finial. This
is of Perpendicular character. From the sharpness of the stone at the
coigns it would seem that very extensive restoration, if not absolute
rebuilding, of the walls was carried on in this part of the church.
The south transept is rather shorter than that on the north side; but,
unlike it, all the walls up to the level of the window are of Norman
date. The string courses on the western side are worthy of close
attention. One which runs under the south window is continued round the
Perpendicular buttresses at the south-west angle, and then again joins
the original course on the western face and runs to within a few feet
of the nave aisle, where it abruptly terminates. Above this for several
feet the walls have the same character as below; then the character
changes, and this change probably marks the junction of the Norman with
the Decorated work, which was added when the Norman chapel, which
occupied the lower part of what is now the south end of the transept,
was incorporated in the transept. Vertically above the termination of
the string course just mentioned, but at a considerably higher level,
another string course abruptly begins and runs along the wall, until it
passes within the roof of the nave aisle. The south end of this shows
the length to which the original Norman transept extended before the
walls of the chapel to the south were carried up in the fourteenth
century to form the addition to the transept. In the southern wall of
this new transept was placed a large five-light decorated window. In
this, as in several of the other Decorated windows already described,
the lights run up to the enclosing arch above. The tracery of this
window, as it now exists, dates back only to the time when the church
was restored in the middle of the nineteenth century. Up to 1891 the
side walls were about two feet lower than at present, and the gable more
obtuse. At the summit of the old gable stood a block of masonry carrying
a sundial; this, when the transept was altered, was removed, the new
gable being finished with a cross. A pillar was built in the churchyard
to the south of the western tower in 1894, and on it the block from the
transept bearing the sundial was placed. This sundial has two dates on
it--1696 and 1752, marking, no doubt, the year of its original erection
and of some subsequent repair. It is noteworthy that the figures used in
these two dates differ in character,--the eighteenth-century carver who
incised the later date not thinking it incumbent on him to make his
figures match those of his predecessor. The three aisle windows between
the south transept and the south porch are two-light Decorated windows
with tracery, some of it original, corresponding to that of those on the
opposite side in the north aisle.
The #South Porch# is small, and the side walls do not project far
from the aisle. Above the arch is a carving of a lamb much weathered,
and on the gable stands a fragment of a cross. The gates beneath the
outer arch are kept locked save on Sundays, as are frequently the gates
in the railings surrounding the churchyard to the south of the minster,
which is divided from the churchyard on the north side by the church
itself and by railings at the east and west ends of it. To the west of
the porch are two more two-light windows, corresponding in character
with the windows opposite in the north aisle. The clerestory windows
of the nave are of Perpendicular date, fifteenth-century work, and have
not any beauty. Each has three foliated lights under a round-headed
moulding. Above each of these three there are two lights, all enclosed
within a rectangular label. The nave roof is higher than the choir roof.
Its aisles have lean-to roofs, whereas the choir aisles are wider and
have gable roofs: hence the clerestory windows of the choir, modern
lancets, are not visible from the outside.
The #Western Tower# is of four stages, with octagonal buttresses at
each corner, decreasing in cross section at each course. Of these the
north-eastern one contains the stairs leading to the top of the tower,
the others are solid. These are crowned with sharp pyramidal turrets.
In the lowest stage on the western face is a doorway which for some time
was stopped up to strengthen the tower, but which was opened again at
the general restoration. Above this is the west window of six lights,
Perpendicular in character but of nineteenth-century date. The third
stage--the ringing room within is lighted by four small windows: that in
the west wall is a quatrefoil, those on the north and south have single
lights foliated at the head; the original one in the east wall was
covered when the nave roof was raised, and a plain opening was made in
the wall farther to the south. Above this is the belfry, with two pairs
of two-light windows on each face: these are divided by transoms, and
the arches at the tops are four centred. These windows are, of course,
not glazed, but are furnished with louvre-boards. The tower is finished
with a battlemented parapet. Just outside the easternmost window on the
north face, and below the transom, stands a figure now dressed in a coat
of painted lead, representing a soldier in the uniform of the early part
of the nineteenth century. He holds a hammer in each hand, with which he
strikes the quarters on two bells beside him. He is known by the name of
the "Jackman" or "Quarter Jack." There are no windows at the west ends
of the nave aisles; but, as on the south side so on the north, there are
between the tower and the porch two two-light Decorated windows in the
wall of the aisle.
[Illustration: THE WESTERN TOWER.]
The level of the churchyards, as in the case with most old
burying-grounds, is considerably above the level of the floor of the
church. Hence steps have to be descended on entering the porches, and
again in passing from the porches into the church. On the south side
some levelling of the ground has been done, and the upright head-stones
have been laid flat, but the altar tombs have been allowed to remain as
they were. There are few trees in the churchyard to impede the view of
the building; those there are, are as yet small, and serve only to
pleasantly break the bareness of the ground without hiding the
architectural features of the building.