The Splendor of English Gothic Architecture

By John Shannon Hendrix

This book explains and celebrates the richness of Englishchurches and cathedrals, which have a major place inmedieval architecture. The English Gothic style developedsomewhat later than in France, but rapidly developed itsown architectural and ornamental codes. The author, John Shannon Hendrix, classifies English Gothic architecture in four principal stages: the early English Gothic, the decorated, the curvilinear, and the perpendicular Gothic. Several photographs of these architectural testimonies allow us to understand the whole originality of Britain during the Gothic era: in Canterbury, Wells, Lincoln, York, and Salisbury. The English Gothic architecture is a poetic one, speaking both to the senses and spirit.
churches and cathedrals, which have a major place in medieval architecture. The English Gothic style developed somewhat later than in France, but rapidly developed its own architectural and ornamental codes. The author, John Shannon Hendrix, classifies English Gothic architecture in four principal stages: the early English Gothic, the decorated, the curvilinear, and the perpendicular Gothic. Several photographs of these architectural testimonies allow us to understand the whole originality of Britain during the Gothic era: in Canterbury, Wells, Lincoln, York, and Salisbury. The English Gothic architecture is a poetic one, speaking both to the senses and spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Parkstone International
• Release date: Dec 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781783107940

Book preview

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