Click here to return to Chapter I
This chapter is organized by parts of the building rather than chronologically, as Chapter I was | HAVING in the preceding chapter given the chronicled history of the building, we may now compare it with the different parts in order, quoting the documents as we proceed. The complex manner in which the successive buildings that occupied this site are involved and packed one within the other makes it impossible to shew them intelligibly in a single plan. I have therefore drawn a series of plans to explain the different state of the building after each alteration, in order....[ Editor's note- These plans are embedded in the text where Willis refers to them, though I have also created a page in which they are adjacent so that you can compare them more easily (Click here to see it). If Willis were alive today. he certainly would have understand the potential of the new imaging technology and created 3D models - JV] |
The Original Crypt |
The choir of York has, under the platform of
the high altar, a small Norman crypt, which occupies only the middle aisle
in breadth and one compartment and a half in length. The vault is supported
by six Norman pillars, and the ribs of the vault are Norman but the side
piers or responds are evidently Perpendicular, and the transverse arches
of the ribs are four-centred. These characters seemed to shew that this
crypt, if part of the Norman church, must at least have been altered or
tampered with during the rebuilding, and this was all that could be conjectured
until the unhappy fire that originated with the insane Martin in 1829.
The works consequent on the repairs that followed this miserable event
led to the discovery that the pillars and lower parts of the walls of another
crypt extended under the whole of the western part of the choir and its
side aisles. Also that the crypt above mentioned, which had been so long,
known, was in fact a mere piece of patchwork, made up during the fitting
up of the choir in the fourteenth century, out of the old materials, to
support a platform for the altar, and provide chapels and altar room beneath
it.
The remains of the original crypt had been filled up solid with earth.
This earth, however, by the liberality of the chapter and the ingenuity
of their architect, was cleared out, and the new pavement of the choir
raised upon vaults, so managed that the old crypt may now be visited and
examined with perfect convenience |
The Norman Nave | As for the western portions, or nave and central
tower, the north-western angle of the north-western pier still retains
the Norman ashlaring |
The Norman Transept | Next for the Norman transepts. Amongst the remains of the crypt, I
was fortunate enough to detect a sufficient portion of the exterior wall
of a Norman apse in the north-west corner of the crypt to determine its
existence, position, and very nearly its magnitude, as laid down (at A
in No. I and No. 2 [above]). As there is no instance of a transept which
has a western aisle when the eastern aisle is wanting, and as by the connexion
of this apse with the tower pier it is clear that no eastern aisle was
here., it may be assumed that neither was there a western aisle. The length
of the transepts is mere matter of conjecture. And it is possible that
another apse may have been introduced in each transept between the one
above mentioned and the gable" |
The Norman Crypt | Having now explained the western parts of the
edifice, I will proceed to the eastern, which are more complicated and
difficult to understand....[Click
here for floorplan] In this crypt may now be seen the remains of a
vestibule (C), leading from the church
to the side aisle (D) of the crypt
; for as at Canterbury, Gloucester, Worchester, Winchester, &c., it
appears that this crypt was entered by its side aisles. The door from the
vestibule to the crypt was a beautiful and rich piece of Norman sculpture.
The passage westward from the vestibule to the church is now filled up
and obliterated, but its commencement may be traced, and it could only,
as it appears to me, have been arranged as in the plans, which I will presently
explain at length.
Upon entering the side aisle (D)
of the crypt through the Norman door of the vestibule (C),
(of which only the bases and part of one jamb remains,) we find
a side-aisle wall to the north, with four windows and compartments, after
which is a protecting building (G),
a kind of eastern transept, but which, from the greater thickness of its
walls, was evidently a tower, flanking, as was commonly the case, the eastern
part of the choir. Beyond this, access is now stopped, and the whole of
the eastern part is in fact so occupied by graves that I became impossible
even to explore it, much less to leave it open like the rest. However,
during the repairs enough of the side wall was traced to determine its
extent, as shewn in the plans, and also to shew that it returned at right
angles at the east end, and that there were no traces of an apse at this
part in the centre At the western end of the crypt, a portion, shewn on the plan (at E), was included within strong walls, and filled up solid with earth; but the eastern end was a vaulted apartment, and had stout Norman pillars at the sides, under the piers of the work above, while in the centre the vault, as usual in crypts, was sustained by two rows of single smaller pillars. The larger pillars were of elaborate design, decorated with diaper work, and had four small shafts placed around each. Moreover the vaults were ribbed, instead of being merely groined, these characters all indicating an advanced style, and shewing that the work in question belonged to the age of Archbishop Roger, who, as we have seen, (in chap. i.,) is distinctly recorded as having made the choir and its crypts. As to the arrangement of the eastern portion beyond the towers (G
G) above mentioned, there is no certain evidence, except the
fact just mentioned that the eastern end was square. But from the form
of the east wall and its uniform thickness, as far as it could be traced,
it is most probable that an aisle (H)
passed across the end, and behind the eastern gable The interior walls of the solid part E of the crypt, exhibit remains
of earlier structures that are exceedingly interesting. [See the detail
to the left of the floorplan} Each side wall is in fact a triple wall,
of the entire thickness of between ten and eleven feet. On the outside
is the wall of Roger's crypt, [bright magenta] 3 ft. 6 in. in thickness;
in the middle is a wall apparently of great antiquity, 4 ft. 8 in. thick
[aqua] ; and on the inner side, the third wall, which lines the latter,
and is only two feet thick [bright yellow] |
The chancel of the
Norman Church |
The next question is, how these remains are to be interpreted with
reference to the history of the edifices that preceded Roger's crypt, for
the style of that crypt, as I conceive, fully justifies me in assuming
that it is the crypt which the historian Stubbs ascribes to Archbishop
Roger.
It has appeared from the first chapter of this history, that King Edwin
began a church in 633 which his successor finished; that Archbishop Wilfrid
thoroughly repaired and glazed this church in 699 The nave, the transepts and their apses, and the central tower, I have already explained; their arrangement is precisely similar to that of most early Norman cathedrals, and there can be no doubt that they constituted parts of the church of Thomas. For the remaining part of that church, namely its chancel, there may be two possible suppositions. It appears pretty certain that the ancient walls in the crypt are a part of the Saxon church, for they enclose so narrow a chancel that they could scarcely have been erected by Archbishop Thomas for his new church, and indeed the materials and mode of construction are different from the apse and arch that certainly did belong to that church. The first supposition then, is, that having already repaired the Saxon church, this archbishop retained it, or at least its eastern part, and began his new church by the erection of the transepts, tower, and nave, already described, and that he was unable to complete his plan by rebuilding a chancel of suitable magnitude. In this case the Saxon chancel remained till Roger commenced his operations. The second supposition is, that the Archbishop Thomas pulled down the
Saxon church, and left the lower part of its walls as we now see them,
and that he erected a chancel of befitting magnitude, which, falling in
the way of Roger's crypt and choir, was entirely pulled down so as to leave
no trace at all. And this hypothesis is partly sanctioned by the remains
of masonry, apparently of Thomas' work, which have been already mentioned
as worked up into the inner lining so as to shew that some building of
the age of Thomas was pulled down when that lining was set up This inner lining appears to me to have been introduced to serve as a foundation for the timber-work of the seats of the monks in the choir above, for the central part exhibits no trace of having been vaulted, and as it is closed to the east by a wall of Roger's period, it seems that it was filled with earth in his church. The history of Canterbury at this period throws some light upon that
of York which is worth examining. Lanfranc, the first Norman archbishop
of Canterbury, built that cathedral on the plan and dimensions of St. Stephen's
at Caen, the abbacy of which he had quitted to become archbishop; and accordingly
he furnished that cathedral with a short choir like that of its prototype Now Roger, before he was made archbishop of York, held the office of archdeacon of Canterbury from 1148. The glorious choir of Conrad, as the work of Anselm was called from the name of the prior who finished it, had been completed more than twenty years, and was the pride of Canterbury. What wonder, therefore, that Roger in his new see should imitate this work, by substituting for the short and simple chancel of York minster a complex eastern building, which, making due allowance for its want of equal dimensions with Canterbury choir, is yet evidently planned upon the same system of extending and enlarging the eastern parts of churches. But being squaire-ended and of less extent, instead of the apsidal chapels of its prototype, there. are only altar-places in the eastern aisle, and the flanking towers are made to perform the part also of eastern transepts. |
If the apse in fig. I [above] be examined, it will
be found that there is in connexion with it, on the south side, an arch
of solid workmanship, and of a span of rather more than five feet. This
arch appears to have carried a turret for a staircase, the remains of which
Norman staircase may still be seen in the triforium of
the choir at its western extremity, but the rest of the staircase and turret
have long been destroyed. Its place is shewn ...[in the diagram at right].
A spiral staircase, in the same position, occurs at Norwich, and its use
is to conduct to the upper galleries of the church, and also to the upper
chapels of the apses ; for these transeptal apses had commonly a chapel
on the triforium level as well as below
Whether Archbishop Thomas did really erect a chancel, or whether the remains
and fragments of his work that are found in the lining walls belonged to
such a chancel, or only to the repairs and alterations which he had made
in the Saxon church, must always remain a matter of doubt; and I prefer
to leave the question in this state, as far as I am concerned, rather than
to attempt to argue from such insufficient data; however, it appears to
me very probable that he did only repair the Saxon chancel, and leave it
to be rebuilt after his nave and transepts were completed. |
|
Entrances and steps to the crypt |
I will now examine more particularly the arrangement of the entrances and steps of the crypt. ...[Above] is a section from west to east of a part of the crypt, taken along the middle line from E, and passing in front of the pillar F [See Plane of Section on image below right] The latter pillar, marked 0 Pin the section, has upon its abacus about eighteen inches remaining of the vault ribs (Q -R.) The curvature of these shews that the complete arch was a horseshoe in form, as shewn by the dotted lines ; and from measurements, as accurately made as the nature of the fragments allowed, I determined the height of the surface of the vault (at S) to have been originally seven feet above the level of the abacus. The piers are seven feet two inches, and allowing sixteen inches for the thickness of the vault and pavement, it follows that the pavement of Roger's choir was fifteen feet and a half above the pavement of his crypt. At Canterbury this distance was about the same (sixteen feet.) The floor of the crypt is seven feet five inches below that of the present south side aisle of the choir, which is the general level of the nave and transepts. But the old pavement of the nave, according to Mr. Browne (p. 110), was four feet lower than at present, therefore the floor of Roger's crypt was only three feet and a half lower than the Norman nave, and his choir was twelve feet higher. At Canterbury the present heights are four feet and twelve feet respectively. So far therefore the arrangement of the respective levels of the nave, crypt, and choir was the same in the two cases; and we may confidently employ the Canterbury example as a guide in investigating the whole arrangement of the steps. Now at Canterbury The crypt was terminated to the west by a strong wall, which connected the two eastern tower piers, and which was more than fifteen feet high. In this wall, close to each tower pier, the archways must have been pierced that led to the vestibules C, and a passage B under the upper landing of the choir would provide a convenient access to these archways, and at the same time a passage from one transept to the other as at Canterbury. The six or eight steps necessary for the descent into the crypt were
probably thus distributed. Two, as far as I remember, still descend from
the vestibule C to the side aisle
D. Possibly three or four more were placed in the archways,
and one or two between the transepts and the passage
B. The arrangement of the landing place under the tower, and
of the steps that led down from it to the nave and transepts, I have assumed
to have been the same as at
Canterbury, and as such have introduced them
into plans No. 2 and 3 The hard surface H, I appears to forbid the conjecture that this stair ever conducted to the crypt of Roger, neither is it likely that it would have opened abruptly upon the bench table J This bench-table is quite perfect along this crosswall, although the wall itself is so ruined as not to shew whether there was a door in it leading to this staircase. But in the earlier churches, both Saxon and Norman , the crypts were much smaller than in the later ones, and were confined to the extreme east end of the church under the high altar. That of the Saxon church of Canterbury was entered in the middle by a stair similar to this. I conjecture, therefore, that this was the stair which led to the small crypt or "confessio" of the Saxon chancel. |