English Cathedrals Illustrated / Second and Revised Edition

by Francis Bond

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.