Bangor.

The work at Bangor falls into four periods.

I. Originally the cathedral was a small Norman church, probably without aisles, with nave, transept, choir of one bay, and apse. Of this building nothing is visible except a buttress and window on the south side of the choir. It seems to have received great damage in 1247.

II. Between 1267 and 1305 the cathedral was practically rebuilt by Bishop Anian. The Norman apse was demolished, and the choir was extended two bays farther to the east, and ended square. The transepts also were lengthened half a bay each. A chapel was added to the north of the choir; and aisles, either now or not much later, to the nave.

III. In 1402 the cathedral was burnt by Owen Glendower. Between 1500 and 1532 Bishops Dene and Skevynton rebuilt the eastern part of the presbytery, the nave arcade and the clerestory above it, the two windows on the south side of the choir—set high because the lower part of the wall was blocked with the stall-work—the western tower, and the stump of a central tower.

IV. In the restoration of 1866 many fragments of Anian’s cathedral were found in the walls, and were used up by Sir G. G. Scott in rebuilding the transept after what he imagined to be Anian’s design. The choir-chapel was also rebuilt as organ-chamber, library and chapter-house. The aisles also, and the central tower, were almost wholly rebuilt.

Llandaff.

Llandaff, though practically but a suburb of the busy town of Cardiff, still remains picturesquely environed by woods and meadows and hills and the Taff. Externally it adds one more to the endless varieties of English cathedral architecture. No central tower is here, and the position of transepts is inadequately occupied by the chapter-house on the southern side. One unbroken roof, as at Dorchester abbey church, extends for the whole length of the cathedral, the Lady chapel excepted. Its west front, indeed, is cathedral-like, now that a south-west tower and spire, in French Gothic, has been added. Internally, the absence of a triforium gives it a parochial appearance. Indeed, both externally and internally, it has the appearance rather of a magnified parish church than the seat of one of the most ancient bishoprics in the country. Nevertheless, as at Wakefield, and Dorchester, it is quite possible that, though now it is a vast oblong, 200 feet by 70 feet, it was originally a Norman cruciform church. But whether it had originally a central tower, or towers flanking the choir, somewhat after the fashion of those of the old cathedral of Como or those of Exeter, it is impossible to ascertain. The architectural record of Llandaff is incomplete, and the evolution of the ground-plan is a puzzle not to be disentangled. Of Norman work there are two sets. One is to be found in the presbytery: it consists of the east wall and its arch, and of fragments of an arch and window in the south wall. This seems to be the work of Bishop Urban, c. 1120. The nave was probably not completed till late in the twelfth century; the only visible remains are the north and south doorways (Transitional).

It would seem that it was determined subsequently to rebuild not the whole eight bays of the nave and choir, but only the interior of them. The walls of the low Norman aisles, with their doorways and windows, were left untouched. But a new set of piers and arches carrying a clerestory were put up in place of the Norman work. It is possible that the nave was not given a triforium, because there still survived low unvaulted Norman aisles on either side of it. All this is excellent Lancet work, done between 1193 and 1229. To this period also belongs the fine west front and the vaulted vestibule to the chapter-house.

Between 1244 and 1265 a little southern transept was built to serve as a chapter-house. Below, it is square, but nevertheless has a central stalk like the octagonal chapter-houses at Salisbury and Westminster. The upper story is octagonal, and has a steep octagonal roof.

Then it was determined to have a large eastern Lady chapel. Not to interfere with the services, this was probably built completely detached from the cathedral, as at Lichfield and elsewhere. When it was finished the Norman apse would be pulled down, and the Lady chapel joined on to the presbytery. Two chapels also were built, one on each side of the westernmost bay of the new Lady chapel. This work was probably done c. 1280.

The next step was to continue the northern of these chapels eastward, so as to provide the presbytery with a northern aisle of two bays, and to pierce the north wall of the presbytery with a couple of arches. No doubt they would have liked a couple of arches in the southern wall; but unfortunately the bay of the aisle on the other side of it had been vaulted, and so only one arch was inserted, leaving as much wall as possible to support the vault. Under this arch the sedilia were placed.

Soon afterwards the outer wall of the south aisle of the presbytery was rebuilt. But the presbytery was very dark, having no windows to the east, and being much blocked on the south side by the sedilia and by the mass of Norman walling which it had been necessary to retain. So it received a clerestory and very large aisle-windows. Nor were the nave and choir well lighted. In the clerestory and west front they had only lancet windows; and, if the low Norman aisles still remained, they could contain but very diminutive windows. There was nothing for it but to rebuild the whole of the eight bays of each aisle. This rebuilding probably went on between 1315 and 1360, for the windows have ogee dripstones and ogee patterns in the tracery. When the aisles had been rebuilt the whole cathedral had been reconstructed, with the exception of two Norman doorways and two or three Norman arches in the presbytery. To us it may seem a topsy-turvy mode of procedure to first rebuild the inside—the pier-arcade and clerestory—of a church, and the outside walls afterwards; but it is the mode of procedure adopted in scores of parish churches, even the humblest. One constantly finds the aisles, as at Wakefield, of later date than the pier-arcade, and that pier-arcade a rebuilding of something older.

After this great reconstruction, first of the interior, then of the exterior, there remained only to complete the west front. The south-west tower seems to have become ruinous or to have collapsed, and the materials of it helped to build a new north-west tower erected at the cost of Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII. Then came the Reformation; and the south-west tower was not rebuilt till the present century. Since 1843 nave, choir, and presbytery have been almost wholly rebuilt.

St. Asaph.

This is the smallest of the Welsh cathedrals, and consists of an aisled nave of five bays, an aisleless transept, a central tower, and a chancel. The chancel was built by Sir G. G. Scott in 1868; the rest between 1284 and 1352. The arcade and clerestory of the nave are exceptional in character. The piers have no capitals; so that the mouldings run uninterruptedly round the arch; they consist simply of chamfers with a wave moulding. These continuous mouldings are not uncommon in late work—e.g., in Antwerp cathedral; but are seldom found in early Gothic, though a thirteenth-century example occurs in the vestibule of Chester chapter house. The clerestory windows are square, but cusped. The central tower is massive and effective. The cathedral is finely situated, on elevated ground, above the beautiful valley of the Clwyd; and may be seen from the London and Holyhead railway. There are good stalls (1471-1495), and an interesting effigy of a bishop (c. 1300).

St. David’s.

Far away in the extreme west of Pembrokeshire, sixteen miles from the nearest railway station, Haverfordwest, is one of the most interesting cathedrals in the British Isles. Dedicated to the great patron saint of Wales, it is as complex in plan as Winchester or St. Alban’s, and abounds in lovely detail of the Transitional and Curvilinear periods.

The earliest work belongs to the episcopate of Peter de Leia (1176-1198), and comprises parts of the presbytery, the western walls of the transept, the western piers of the tower, and the whole of the nave except the outer portion of the west front (Sir G. G. Scott), and the south porch and the exterior of the south aisle (1328-1347). Though built quite late in the twelfth century, when Gothic architecture had got good hold in Ripon, Canterbury, and Wells, St. David’s—partly perhaps from its remote situation—is still sternly Romanesque. The pier-arcade is low, the piers massive and squat; their arches are semicircular, as also the windows of the clerestory; there is a profusion of Norman zigzag ornament. On the other hand, pointed arches appear in the triforium, the bases have the water-holding hollow, and there are all sorts of beautiful varieties of Transitional capitals—from the early cushion-capitals, much subdivided, in the pier-arcade of the choir, to the later foliated capitals, of great beauty and diversity of design, which abound in the nave. The triforium and clerestory, formed into a single member by a containing-arch of zigzag, are a charming anticipation of the design of Southwell choir.

Early in the thirteenth century, c. 1220, the central tower collapsed, as at Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, etc. It fell towards the east, and seems to have broken down the arches of the presbytery. The Transitional piers were retained, more or less altered; but new pointed arches were built, and lancet windows were inserted in the new clerestory and east wall. In the aisles may be seen the low shafts of a Norman vault, and the corbels of a higher Lancet vault; it is uncertain whether either was ever executed. To this period belongs the very remarkable shrine of St. David: a very plain structure, designed for use—for very strange uses. Down below in each side are three openings, allowing three sick people at a time to lie beneath. (Perhaps they lay there all night, waiting for the Saint to come and touch them, as was the case in some shrines of Pagan Greece.) On the side next to the aisle are two large and shallow upright openings, and three small circular openings—the latter, perhaps, as in St. Alban’s shrine, to allow the patient to insert a diseased arm. A parallel to the lower openings may be found in the remains of the shrine now inserted under the effigy of Lord Stourton at Salisbury. When the restoration of the choir was completed (c. 1248), the next task seems to have been to build a processional aisle. The eastern walk of this was built fifteen feet east of the eastern wall of the cathedral, thus leaving a little open courtyard between the back of the east wall and the east walk of the new processional aisle. In the east wall there was a lower range of three tall lancets, which gave much light to the high altar beneath them. The authorities may then have left the little open courtyard to preserve the light of these three windows. But at Winchester and elsewhere the lower lights were sacrificed without demur; and the space between the east wall of the presbytery and the processional aisle, instead of being wasted, was utilised as a saint’s chapel or feretory, where—in the most honoured position in the church, close to the high altar—the shrine of the patron saint of the church was placed: shrines of St. Swithun and St. Birinus at Winchester, that of St. Werburgh at Chester, of St. Ethelreda at Ely, of St. Wulfstan at Worcester, of St. Cuthbert at Durham, of St. Chad at Lichfield. Now the shrine of St. David is artistically rude and uncouth, and occupies a by no means specially honourable position. May one conjecture that the original intention was to open arches in the east wall of the presbytery, and to build a new shrine for St. David, placing it above and behind the high altar, where it would be conspicuous to the very farthest end of the nave,—and that Welsh conservatism refused either to have a new shrine or to change the position of the old one? Before commencing the south walk of the processional aisle, the Lady chapel was erected (1290-1328). Its buttresses are late Gothic.

Then came the great building-prelate of St. David’s, Bishop Gower (1328-1347). (1) He completed the processional aisle, building the whole of the south walk and completing the north walk. (2) Like Abbot Thokey, at Gloucester, he transformed the Norman south aisle of the nave into the style of his day (Curvilinear), and built a south porch. (3) East of the north transept he built a three-storied building, the lower part as a chapel to St. Thomas of Canterbury, the upper part as a chapter-house. (4) He raised the tower one stage above the roofs. (5) He raised the walls of the aisles, and inserted Curvilinear windows. (6) He separated the presbytery from the choir, which as at Gloucester is beneath the central tower, by a parclose screen—a very rare feature. (7) He built the wood throne of the bishop; it seems, however, to have been reconstructed in the fifteenth century. (8) He built for himself the magnificent palace, and another at Lamphey, besides Swansea castle and church. (9) His most beautiful work is the magnificent choir-screen, one of the grandest examples of mediÆval art. It consists of three compartments of stone, surmounted by a coved cornice of wood. The southern compartment has two pointed arches, with compound cusping and rich crockets; and within, the tomb and effigy of the bishop. The central compartment is occupied by the doorway and vaulted vestibule leading from the nave to the choir; on either side of the vestibule are effigies of priests. The northern compartment seems to consist of thirteenth century arcading, which has been worked up to serve as a reredos to an altar.

To the Perpendicular period belong the stalls, which have good misereres (1460-1480); the elaborate wooden roof of the nave (1472-1509) and that of the presbytery, which is a little earlier.

Early in the Tudor period Bishop Vaughan (1509) added another story to the tower, and built himself a chapel in the empty space between the east wall of the presbytery and the east walk of the processional aisle, vaulting it with fan-tracery.

Externally, the cathedral is simple and plain, in harmony with its bleak and wild surroundings. Internally, like Canterbury and Winchester, it gains dignity from the greater height of the choir. The whole floor of the nave slopes upwards from west to east, and the choir is elevated eight steps above the level of the nave.