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ISBN: 978-1-78310-794-0

John Shannon Hendrix

The Splendour

English Gothic Architecture

Contents

Introduction

Early English

Decorated

Curvilinear

Perpendicular

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index

Nave vault, 1475-1490. Sherborne Abbey.

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to examine and celebrate the richness of English Gothic architecture, in its use of materials, light, space, pattern, texture, and colour. Cathedrals and churches in England are among the most beautiful buildings in the world; they display less material splendour, but a more spiritual or experiential splendour. The experience of many of the buildings is unparalleled: being in the buildings, it is possible to find a sense of fulfillment through pleasure in the senses, intellectual stimulation in the complex structures and patterns, and the spirituality to which the spaces are devoted. The buildings make possible an architectural experience which is unique, and have a richness beyond most buildings, especially modern buildings. Architecture is closer to reaching its potential in these buildings than in most others: its potential to create a fulfilling experience in which human identity is understood in relation to nature and the divine. The architecture speaks, through its materials, spaces, structures, textures, and patterns, to both the senses and intellect; it is among the most poetic of all architecture, and is among the closest of all buildings which form art while still fulfilling the aspirations of architecture. The hope of this book is for the details of the buildings to be seen together as a whole, as a myriad of variations on a theme, which, taken together, represent an extraordinary architectural experience.

The development of English Gothic architecture throughout the Middle Ages, from 1180 to 1540, is relatively homogeneous and consistent, contributing to the same campaign, the same particular use of vocabulary elements, with surprising and innovative variations, and the same expressive intentions. Consistently throughout the development of English Gothic architecture, there is an intention in the architecture to express a poetic idea through the juxtaposition of non-structural geometries with the structural geometries of the architecture. Its characteristic “handwriting”, the linear networks, surface patterns, geometrical articulations, and spatial interpenetrations contribute to the creation of an architecture in which form contradicts function, resulting in a poetic expression. In order for architecture to be art, its form must contradict its function, as architecture, unlike other arts, can never be free and independent from its function. The cathedrals and churches of English Gothic architecture contribute to an expression of a coherent idea, representing the theology, philosophy, and epistemology (Scholasticism) of medieval England. The buildings are intended as catechisms, as three-dimensional models for didactic purposes, to represent and communicate basic ideas about man, God, and being to everyone. Such concepts of the structure of the universe, being, and intellect permeated the culture of medieval England, and from 1180 to 1540 contributed to a homogeneous cultural expression, particularly in the architecture of the cathedral. Cathedral architecture developed as a response to the zeitgeist of the era; there was little concept of individual artistic expression or creativity. The result is a lasting representation, in built form, of the theology, philosophy, and epistemology of a civilisation in the Middle Ages in England.

The architecture is presented chronologically, beginning at the end of the 12th century and culminating at the beginning of the 16th century. The chronological development is divided into periods, periods which were established by Thomas Rickman in the Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England in 1815. The periods are Early English (1180-1250), Early Decorated (1250-1290), Decorated or Curvilinear (1290-1380), and Perpendicular (1380-1540). The names given to the periods by Rickman are not exhaustive or completely accurate in relation to the architecture of the periods, but they suffice to provide the simplest and most accepted way of naming the periods.

John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral
from the Bishop’s Ground (detail), 1823. Oil on canvas,

87.6 x 111.8 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Master of Girart de Roussillon,
Building Site, second half of the 15th century.

Page from the illuminated manuscript Girart de Roussillon:

chanson de geste. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

Nave, 1093-mid-12th century. Durham Cathedral.

The chapter “Early English” presents architectural developments at Canterbury, Wells, Lincoln, Winchester, Ely, Beverley, Chester, York, Salisbury, Worcester, Southwell, and Gloucester. Canterbury Cathedral is the first English Gothic cathedral, where the work of William of Sens and William the Englishman marks a departure from Norman or Romanesque precedents, where forms and approaches are invented which would be influential throughout the development of English Gothic architecture. The first phase of building at Wells, including the nave, was contemporary with the first phase of building at Lincoln, and the two buildings represent different departures from the architecture at Canterbury, but each equally and distinctively defining English Gothic architecture, Wells more in its homogeneity and Lincoln more in its syncretism. The east and west transepts at Lincoln show the influence of Canterbury in an experimental approach to spatial relationships and a variety of materials. The rose windows in the west transept, along with the Dean’s Eye and Bishop’s Eye, are the first great examples of stained glass in an English Gothic cathedral. Ely Cathedral was the first to exhibit the influence of Lincoln, visible in the detailing of the west front and the Galilee Porch, in particular the overlapping double arcading. The eastern part of Winchester Cathedral, the Lady Chapel, shows the influence of Lincoln in the early 13th century. The overlapping double arcade occurs at Beverley Minster, along with Purbeck shafts and openwork arcading, in a purification of the intentions at Lincoln. The elevations of the south transept of York Minster, begun around 1220, are similar to Lincoln and Beverley, as are the elevations of the retrochoir of Worcester Cathedral, built in the 1220s; the vault of Worcester retrochoir is a tierceron vault derived from Lincoln. The motifs of the retrochoir elevations are continued into the choir at Worcester.

The architects of Salisbury Cathedral, Elias of Dereham and Nicholas of Ely, incorporated Lincoln motifs into the new design in the 13th century, combining them with themes from Wells. The choir of Southwell Minster is based on the Lincoln, or Early English, vocabulary. The presbytery of Ely Cathedral was built under Bishop Hugh of Northwold, a friend of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln. The presbytery is seen as an intermediary in the development from the Lincoln nave, by Alexander the Mason, to the Lincoln Angel Choir, by Simon Thirsk. The vault of the Ely presbytery is a copy of the Lincoln nave vault. It is possible that the vault of St Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln, the “crazy vault”, as it is called, was rebuilt in the 1240s, after the collapse of the tower in 1237 or 1239. The vaulting, probably from an earlier design, perhaps by Geoffrey de Noyers, introduced the ridge pole, tierceron (“third rib”, or non-structural rib), and triradial vault (three ribs converging at a boss on the ridge pole), in the only major asymmetrical vaulting in a Gothic cathedral. The vaulting of the nave at Lincoln and the chapter house introduce new elements into the vocabulary of English Gothic architecture. The nave vault of Gloucester Cathedral, completed around 1242, is a Lincoln-style tierceron vault built on a Norman arcade.

The chapter on the Decorated period includes details of the architecture at Wells, Lincoln, Salisbury, York, and Southwell. The Decorated period introduces variations to the Early English motifs. In the mid-13th century, similar diapering or reticulation appears at Lincoln, Westminster Abbey, and Hereford Cathedral, displaying the “handwriting” of linear patterns. The nave of Westminster Abbey, begun in 1253, combines Lincoln and French influences, with a Lincoln-style tierceron vault. The stairwell to the chapter house at Wells, begun in 1255, contains elements of the Lincoln vocabulary – Purbeck shafts, ridge pole, transverse ribs. The Angel Choir of Lincoln, begun in 1256 by Simon Thirsk or Richard of Stowe, combines the Lincoln nave with the Ely presbytery, with an increased amount of architectural and sculptural detailing, as well as arcading and bar tracery which creates a transparency that can be seen as both a physical transparency and a conceptual or phenomenal transparency, between human intellect and divine intellect. The nave of Salisbury Cathedral contrasts a simple vault with highly-articulated arcades. The chapter house of Salisbury Cathedral, constructed between 1263 and 1279, is based on the model of the Lincoln chapter house, with sixteen ribs forming a cone at the centre blooming into the vault.

Nave, facing east, 1235-1245. Lincoln Cathedral.

The architecture of the chapter house at York Minster, between 1275 and 1290, represents significant departures from the Early English style. It includes overhanging canopies and foliate corbels which can be seen as “pendants”, a motif developed later in the Perpendicular period. The vault of the chapter house at York is a centralised tierceron and lierne vault (the lierne is a segment of a non-structural rib). At Exeter Cathedral, the vault of the Lady Chapel shows the influence of Lincoln. The Bishop of Exeter at the time, Bishop Quivil, was present at Lincoln Cathedral in 1280 for the consecration of the Angel Choir. The profusion of tiercerons in the vaulting at Exeter suggest the fan vault to come. Vaulting in the retrochoir aisle at Exeter presents a syncopated composition which refers back to vaulting at Canterbury and Lincoln. It is possible that masons at Exeter also worked at Lincoln. The carvings in the chapter house at Southwell Minster, celebrated by Nikolaus Pevsner as the “leaves of Southwell”, present one of the most complete fusions of the human being and nature, or geometry and organic forms, to be found in architecture. The vault of the chapter house is a centralised lierne star vault.

The next chapter, “Curvilinear”, examines architectural details at Southwell, Exeter, York, Wells, Norwich, Bristol, Gloucester, Tewkesbury Abbey, Ely, St Mary Redcliffe, Beverley, Ottery St Mary, Chester, and Worcester. The Curvilinear period begins in the last decade of the 13th century. The vault of St Mary Undercroft of St Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace, designed by Michael or Thomas of Canterbury, established an important precedent for the development of lierne vaulting, a defining motif of the Curvilinear and Perpendicular. A lierne vault in the transept of St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol represents a new level of detachment of the vault pattern from the vault structure. Vaulting in the Lady Chapel and retrochoir aisles of Exeter introduce new variations, as do the elevations of the York nave. The chapter house at Wells combines the Early English model with Curvilinear tracery, combining geometrical and organic forms. At the turn of the century, flying ribs which appear in Bristol Cathedral can be related to the tiny flying ribs in the Easter Sepulcher at Lincoln, and to the experiments in spatial vistas at Lincoln and Canterbury. The vault in the choir at Bristol is a lierne vault with conoid or cone-shaped bundles of springer ribs, tiercerons and transverse ridge ribs, as developed from Lincoln. The elevations of the Exeter choir, between 1300 and 1310, can be seen as Decorated variations of Lincoln nave arcades, with stonework grilles.

The nave vault at Bristol, reconstructed in the 19th century, is a tierceron vault. The flying rib appears again in the antechamber of the Berkeley Chapel in Bristol Cathedral, designed by William Joy in 1310. The nave elevations at Worcester are based on the nave elevations of Lincoln. The pulpitum of Lincoln represents an early example of the use of the ogee arch and carved decoration associated with the Curvilinear style. The pulpitum at Exeter, designed by Thomas Witney, incorporates ogee arches, cusping (decoration on the edge of the tracery) and crocketing (foliate decoration on the vertical edge), and a lierne vault. The nave vault of Tewkesbury Abbey combines the lierne patterns of St Mary Redcliffe with the thick ribs of Exeter to create a catechism of the vault of the cosmos, as an architectonic texture in the form of a “net” vault. The pulpitum at Southwell Minster contains flying ribs, ogee arches and crocketed gables, and fragments of architectural vocabulary elements which produce a literary or poetic architecture.

Crossing vault and lantern, c. 1322-1336. Ely Cathedral.

Stained-glass window. Canterbury Cathedral.

The Lady Chapel at Wells, by Thomas Witney, is a composition based on the Early English vocabulary (umbrella column, ridge rib, tierceron, lierne), with a domed vault with liernes forming an eight-pointed star pattern, similar to patterns found in contemporary illuminations, as a representation of the celestial vault. The adjoining retrochoir, by William Joy, contains clusters of Purbeck piers. The arcade of the Lady Chapel of Ely is composed of nodding, cusped ogee arches and crocketed gables in the Curvilinear style. The vault of the Ely Lady Chapel is a tierceron vault with lierne star patterns, resulting in a crystalline organic form. The vault of the Ely choir is a lierne star vault, based on vaulting at Lincoln and St Mary Undercroft. The octagonal crossing at Ely, designed by Alan of Walsingham and topped by a timber lantern designed by William Hurley, is the most elaborate composition of the Curvilinear style, creating a geometrical and material progression from the material world to the spiritual world. The vault of the North Porch of St Mary Redcliffe is a centralised tierceron vault taking on the appearance of a crystalline organic form. The remodelled south transept of Gloucester, from 1331 to 1336, is seen as the first manifestation of the Perpendicular style, with its vertical panelling and mullions, and tracery, derived from the exterior elevations of St Stephen’s Chapel, but with Curvilinear elements such as ogee arches and cusping. The vault in the Gloucester transept is a lierne net vault, taking on the form of an organic structure based on underlying geometrical and mathematical proportions.

The choir vault of Wells, built by William Joy between 1333 and 1340, introduces a geometrical net pattern which displays a dematerialisation through surface texture. The lierne star patterns in the choir aisle vaults suggest a crystalline form or cosmic diagram. The Percy Tomb at Beverley Minster is a masterpiece of the Curvilinear style, with nodding ogee arches, cusping and crocketing. The nave vault of St Mary Redcliffe is a development of the transept vault there, with liernes zigzagging, folding, and undulating across an uneven vault surface. Between 1337 and 1367 the elevations of the choir and presbytery of Gloucester were covered with Perpendicular panelling, and densely textured lierne net vaulting was designed by William Ramsey, taking to an extreme the vault as surface texture. The choir and nave vaults of Ottery St Mary were designed by William Joy, showing the influence of the Wells choir vault. William Joy’s nave vault at Exeter is a Lincoln-style vault with the tiercerons increased in size and density, suggesting organic form. The vault of the south transept of Chester, from around 1350 (restored) is a Lincoln-style vault, as is the nave vault at Worcester.

The first full fan vault in English Gothic architecture was constructed in the Gloucester cloister between 1351 and 1364, attributed to Thomas of Cambridge. The fan vaulting can be seen as a logical consequence of the development from the tierceron vault, as it consists of conoid bundles of tiercerons with liernes applied to the surface. The fan vaulting merges the geometrical and organic, the human mind and nature, or the human mind and the divine mind, with underlying geometrical matrixes. The original nave vault of York Minster, replaced by a timber reproduction in the 19th century, is a simplified version of the tierceron vault. Tierceron and lierne patterns fluctuate, as do the concave surfaces of the vault. The vault was painted to symbolise the vault of the cosmos. A more complex version of the vaulting appeared in the choir and retrochoir of York, continuing the fluctuating patterns. Openwork arcading in the presbytery at Norwich recalls the treatments of Geoffrey de Noyers at Lincoln and William the Englishman at Canterbury, in their dematerialisation and experiments in spatial vistas. Vaults in the transepts at Worcester also appropriate the Lincoln or Early English vocabulary.

The Perpendicular, the subject of the final chapter, is the last period or style in the continuous development of English Gothic architecture from the precedents at Canterbury and Lincoln. The chapter on the Perpendicular style includes details at Tewkesbury Abbey, Lincoln, Gloucester, Beverley, Winchester, Worcester, Sherborne Abbey, Norwich, Peterborough, Bristol, Chester, York, Oxford Divinity School, Oxford Christ Church, Salisbury, Wells, Ely, Bath Abbey, and Cambridge King’s College Chapel. The Curvilinear and Perpendicular overlap, as elements of the Perpendicular appear in the early 14th century. The Perpendicular style is dominated by vertical lines, linear patterns, repeated cusped panels, the lierne rib, and overlapping ogee curves forming reticulated patterns.

The choir vault at Tewkesbury Abbey, from between 1375 and 1390, is a tierceron vault with lierne star patterns composed of curved liernes, which are segments of ogee arches, blurring the distinction between organic and inorganic, structure and pattern. The vault in the crossing at Tewkesbury is a centralised lierne vault in the form of a mandala, a cosmological catechism with octagons and squares and a figure of the sun in the centre, symbolising emanation and creation, and synthesising Christian theology and classical philosophy. The vaulting in the crossing tower of Lincoln Cathedral synthesises the Lincoln vocabulary elements – conoid springers, tiercerons, liernes, and ridge ribs – to form what could be read as a catechism of the celestial hierarchies, or the vaulting of the cosmos.

Retrochoir, 1174-1179. Canterbury Cathedral.

The Founder’s Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey contains an early model of the fan vault, with vaulting ribs as applied decoration, and Perpendicular grillwork. The Beauchamp Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey features fan vaults with pendants in its lower and upper levels. The pendant becomes a defining vocabulary element of the Perpendicular style, as in the vaults at Oxford Divinity School and Oxford Christ Church, Cambridge King’s College Chapel, St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey. The pendant can be seen as a development of hanging corbels, as in the York chapter house, the gradual minimalisation of responds in elevations, or the removal of the umbrella column from the umbrella vault. The pendant is a hanging vaulting corbel with no support, and can be related to experiments at Canterbury and Lincoln. The west cloister walk of Worcester Cathedral, built by John Chapman between 1435 and 1438, contains vaulting composed of conoid tierceron springers, the ridge pole, transverse ribs, and lierne octagons. The choir vault of Sherborne Abbey is the first full-span fan vault. The vault of the Norwich nave contains zigzagging liernes and lierne star patterns. The vaulting of the presbytery of Peterborough is a lierne net vault similar to the St Mary Redcliffe choir vault, with the emphasis on surface texture. The nave vault of Winchester Cathedral, designed by Robert Hulle, is a stellar lierne vault with zigzagging liernes, as in St Mary Redcliffe nave or Norwich nave.

The remodelling of the crossing of Gloucester Cathedral between 1450 and 1475 by Robert Tully, features mid-air stone ogee arches set on flat four-centred arches, supporting pendant conoid springers of a lierne net vault. The arches appear to be a development of the flying rib, continuing experiments in spatial juxtapositions which began at Canterbury and Lincoln, but with a Perpendicular vocabulary. The crossing vault at Bristol Cathedral is a centralised lierne star vault, the pattern of which is continued in the transepts, with tiercerons and lierne diamonds. The crossing vault at York Minster is also a centralised lierne vault. The choir vault at Norwich consists of lierne star patterns and tiercerons which spring from the peaks of window heads in the clerestory, or hang from the vault like pendants, creating the effect that the elevations are suspended from the vault. The nave vault of Sherborne Abbey, designed by William Smyth, interweaves tiercerons, lierne patterns, and fans, in a summation of the vocabulary in the development of English Gothic vaulting.

The vault of the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University is a pendant lierne vault designed by William Orchard in 1478. The vault is divided by bundled transverse ribs which appear to be almost flying ribs; spandrels between are decorated with openwork tracery. William Orchard also designed the vault of Christ Church choir at Oxford University, a pendant lierne net vault, with similar transverse ribs suggesting flying ribs, and pendants attached to the transverse ribs as secondary corbels. The crossing vault at Salisbury is a centralised cusped lierne net vault; the crossing vault at Wells, designed by William Smyth, is a centralised fan vault. Bishop Alcock’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral, designed in 1488 by either Adam Lord, Adam Vertue, or Robert Janyns, features a fan vault influenced by St George’s Chapel, with pendant cusping and an undulating canopy screen filled with crocketed gables, ogee arches, and filigree tracery. The composition combines recognisable vocabulary elements into an unprecedented form filled with overlappings and spatial juxtapositions. The vault of Bishop Langton’s Chapel at Winchester features tiercerons, zigzagging liernes, and cusped tracery. The vaulting in the retrochoir or “New Building” of Peterborough was designed by John Wastell, designer of the vaulting of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University. The vault at Peterborough is composed of steep conoid sections of fans decorated with tiercerons and reticulated tracery in the Perpendicular style.

The vaulting at Bath Abbey was designed by Robert and William Vertue and constructed between 1504 and 1508, and restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. The vaulting consists of steep conoid tierceron springer vaults or fans, transverse ribs, cusped tracery, and pendants. The fan vault of King’s College Chapel, the largest fan vault in the world, was designed by John Wastell in 1508. Fans are intersected by transverse arches and segmented by thin transverse ridge lines, and are covered by a tracery of cusped arches and reticulation. The final fan vault in English Gothic architecture is the vault of the Dorset Aisle of Ottery St Mary, featuring thick tiercerons and cusped ogee arch tracery. The upper parts of the fans can also be read as canted spandrels alongside the ridge ribs. The fan vaults at Bath, Cambridge, and Ottery bring English Gothic architecture to a close, in the wake of the Renaissance, and a cultural shift in ideas and outlooks, as well as approaches to architecture. The consistent cultural approach to knowledge and built forms, which produced a homogeneous development throughout the late Middle Ages in England, resulted in what is among the most extraordinary architecture in the history of the world.