ON THE RECENT DISCOVERIES

THE EAST END OF THE

AT

CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF DURHAM.

By JOHN BILSON, F.S. A.

THE historian of the Norman Conquest, in his chapter on the effects of the Conquest on Art, says that it is to Durham "that we are to look for the highest degree of perfection that has ever been reached by round-arched architecture in its Northern form. Among examples of the specially Norman style, none, either in our own island or beyond the sea, can compare with the matchless pile which arose at the bidding of William of Saint Carilef. The designer of such a

pile, whether Bishop William himself or some nameless genius in his employ, must rank alongside of Diocletian's architect at Spalato, of Saint Hugh's architect at Lincoln. And the church of Durham not only stands thus pre-eminent as an example of Norman art; it holds a place instructive above all others in the history of Norman art. No building more thoroughly supplies the hatchet to their argument who cannot rise above a purely chronological arrangement of architectural works. The work of William of Saint Carilef was far in advance of all contemporary buildings." 1

This last statement is especially true, not only of the decorative features to which Mr. Freeman seems more particularly to refer, but also of the constructional elements which are the basis of the design of all medieval architecture. In the choir aisles of the work of William of Saint Carilef we find, not the unribbed vault of Roman origin, but the ribbed vault, the design of which dictated the plan of the piers and wall-shafts, each separate rib being supported by a separate shaft carried up from the floor to receive it. The vaulting of the nave is, considering its date, a 1 Freeman's Norman Conquest, v, 629-631.

still more remarkable construction. Erected between the death of Flambard (1128) and the accession of Geoffrey Rufus (1133),2 it presents, so far as I know, the earliest example of the introduction of the pointed arch in order to solve the difficulties of the construction of a ribbed groined vault over an oblong space. The design of the vault is no longer based upon a semi-circular transverse rib, as in the transept vaults, but the diagonal ribs are made semi-circular, and the pointed arch follows in the transverse arches, almost as a matter of necessity, though here of a somewhat awkward form. So remarkable at such an early date is this innovation, that more than one writer on Durham has attributed this vaulting to an impossible period in the thirteenth century. But documentary and architectural evidence combine to prove that at Durham, before 1133, the builders adopted a new expedient, which was destined to revolutionize vaulting construction, and which had the most important influence in the development of Gothic architecture. The method was, says Viollet-le-Duc, the sole innovation of the first constructors of Gothic vaults.4

But these considerations lie outside my present subject, and my only reason for introducing them here is to show how important

2 No other conclusion seems to be possible from the passages in the continuation of Symeon which state that Flambard built the nave usque testudinem," and that in the interval between Flambard's death and the accession of Geoffrey Rufus the monks completed the nave. Of Flambard the continuator says, "Circa opus ecclesiæ modo intentius modo remissius agebatur, sicut illi ex oblatione altaris et cœmeterii vel suppetebat pecunia vel deficiebat. His nanque sumptibus navem ecclesiæ circumductis parietibus, ad sui usque testudinem erexerat."-Symeon of Durham, Historia Ecclesiæ Dunhelmensis Continuatio, cap. i, Rolls Series, Ed. T. Arnold, vol. i, p. 139. After Flambard's death, "Vacavitque episcopatus per quinquennium. Eo tempore navis ecclesiæ Dunelmensis monachis operi instantibus peracta est."--Symeon, p. 141. See also Durham Cathedral, by the Rev. William Greenwell, 4th edition, pp. 35-37. The architectural details of the vault and the character of the masonry of its ribs fully confirm the date assigned to it.

3 The transverse arches are struck from centres considerably below the springing line.

4 Dictionnaire Raisonné de l'Architecture Française, iv, 35.

it is that we should be able to complete the plan of the whole of this most remarkable church. With the exception of the eastern termination, the church remains, in all essential features, as it was built during the forty years from its commencement by William of Saint Carilef in 1093. Recent discoveries have enabled us to complete the ground-plan, at any rate, of this eastern termination.

Before describing what has been found, it may be well to give a brief outline of the history of the Norman church. It was commenced by Bishop William in 1093, after his return from exile, Aldhun's church having been pulled down in the previous year. The work was pushed forward with great rapidity, and, although we have no documentary evidence as to the extent of Carilef's work, it seems probable that, when he died in 1096, he had completed the choir, the crossing piers, the eastern side of both transepts, and one bay of the nave arcade and triforium immediately west of the crossing, and that in the interval between his death and the accession of Bishop Flambard in 1099, the monks finished the western side of the transepts. Flambard, who on his accession found the church finished as far as the

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"I here merely state the conclusions generally accepted. Details of the history and references to the authorities on which these conclusions are based (other than those here quoted) will be found in Canon Greenwell's admirable guide to the Cathedral.

6 So says Symeon, though we should have expected that at least part of Aldhun's church would be left standing until the choir of the new church could be used for worship. "Ecclesiam xcviij anno ex quo ab Alduno fundata fuerat, destrui præcepit, et sequenti anno positis fundamentis nobiliori satis et majori opere aliam construere cœpit. Est autem incepta M. xciij Dominicæ incarnationis anno, pontificatus autem Willelmi xiij ex quo autem monachi in Dunelmum convenerant xj tertio Idus Augusti, feria v. Eo enim die Episcopus, et qui post eum secundus erat in ecclesia Prior Turgotus cum cæteris fratribus primos in fundamento lapides posuerunt. Nam paulo ante, id est, iv Kal. Augusti feria vi, idem Episcopus et Prior, facta cum fratribus oratione ac data benedictione, fundamentum coeperant fodere. Igitur monachis suas officinas ædificantibus, suis Episcopus sumptibus ecclesiæ opus faciebat."-Symeon, lib. iv, cap. 8, p. 128.

7 I do not intend to imply that Carilef completed the whole height of the choir, though it appears to be certain that his work extended as far as the top of the triforium stage.

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nave, completed the nave up to the vault, which was added between his death in 1128 and the accession of Geoffrey Rufus in 1133. The church was now practically finished. With the later Galilee and the upper part of the towers we are not now concerned.

We have no actual record of the erection of the transept vaults, but they are clearly a little earlier than the nave vault. The walls of the clerestory of the choir still show the lines of the Norman vault, which was evidently of the same character as the transept vaults. A story told by William of Malmesbury, in connection with the translation of the body of St. Cuthbert into the new choir in 1104, affords ground for the supposition that the apse vault at least, if not the whole choir vault, was then completed. However this may be, the whole church was vaulted from end to end before 1133-in itself a sufficiently remarkable fact.

Bishop Pudsey commenced the erection of a Lady Chapel at the east end of the church, presumably beyond the Norman east end, but the work was abandoned, and the existing Lady Chapel, or Galilee, was ultimately built by Pudsey at the west end of the church. Fragments of Pudsey's eastern chapel have been found at different times near where he proposed to build it, and other fragments were found in the recent excavations. The Norman east end is said to have been in an unsafe condition as early as Pudsey's time, but was only removed when the eastern transept, or Nine Altars, was built.10 The greater part of the eastern transept would probably be erected before the Norman east end

8 "Porro prædecessor (Willelmus de S. Carilefo) illius (Rannulfi), qui opus inchoavit, id decernendo statuerat, ut Episcopus ex suo ecclesiam, monachi vero suas ex ecclesiæ collectis facerent officinas. Quod illo cadente cecidit. Monachi enim omissis officinarum ædificationibus operi ecclesiæ insistunt, quam usque navem Rannulfus jam factam invenit."Symeon, Continuatio, cap. i, p. 140.

9 Gesta Pontificum, Rolls Series, Ed. Hamilton, p. 275, lib. iii, § 135. 10 An indulgence of 1235, from Hugh Northwold, Bishop of Ely, speaks of the stone vault over St. Cuthbert's shrine as being then full of cracks and threatening ruin.-Raine's Saint Cuthbert, p. 100, and Appendix, p. 7.

was removed, in order to avoid interference with St. Cuthbert's shrine, which stood in the apse, and which continued to occupy the same position until its destruction at the Dissolution.

Before the recent excavations were commenced it was known that the Norman choir terminated eastward in an apse, and part of the outer face of the apse foundation was seen in making a grave in 1844.11 It is curious, however, that almost every writer on Durham was inclined to believe that the apse was surrounded by an ambulatory.12 This opinion was based on the apparently sufficient reason that, on the outside of both choir aisles, the Norman work extended one bay east of the great arches which cross the choir and aisles between the choir and its apse. The conjecture was a perfectly natural one, though it has proved to be

erroneous.

The accompanying plan (Plate I) shows the recent discoveries 13 in relation to the existing Norman choir, omitting the eastern transept (or Nine Altars) and the eastern bay of the choir which

11 Archælogical Institute, Memoirs of Newcastle meeting, 1852, i, 238. 12 Billings' Durham Cathedral, pl. v. Lectures on Medieval Architecture, by Sir G. G. Scott, ii, 127. History of English Church Architecture, by G. G. Scott, jun.. 108. Durham Cathedral, by the Rev. William Greenwell, 4th ed., p. 29. The Cathedral and Monastery of St. Cuthbert at Durham, by Gordon M. Hills, Journal British Archæological Association, xxii, 202. The Builder, lxiv, 427 (article by C. C. Hodges). A hint of the real plan is given in Raine's Saint Cuthbert, p. 94.

13 Although it was hoped that the exact form of the Norman east end would soon be settled by excavation (Canon Greenwell, ut sup., p. 57), which, in fact, had already been determined on, the recent discoveries were initiated accidentally. In January, 1895, some slight excavations were being made in connection with a proposed new method of heating, under the direction of Mr. C. Hodgson Fowler, F.S.A., the Cathedral architect. One of these was made in the south choir aisle, near its eastern end. Canon Greenwell noticed some peculiarity in the masonry exposed beneath the floor, and told the workmen to go deeper, and to extend the excavation further to the east. This was done, and the result was the discovery of the foundation of the southern apse. This was followed by the excavation of the foundations of the northern apse, and of the remains of the great choir apse. Mr. Hodgson Fowler, under whose superintendence the excavations were carried out, has made full drawings of what was found, which, it is to be hoped, he will be induced to publish. Most of the masonry uncovered has been made permanently accessible.

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