In Britton's "History of Norwich" is a drawing which is reproduced at p. 15. It will be seen that the turrets at each side of the west window are shown finished with stone cupolas, the tops of which were level with the apex of the gable. The two outside flanking turrets are shown finished by circular drums above the parapet, and covered with leaden cupolas; these, with the Perpendicular battlements, were probably added as the mask before referred to, and necessitated by the imposition of an additional storey at the triforium level. Certainly the west front, as shown then, was better far than now. However, in 1875, "restoration" set in, and these cupolas were removed, and stone "pepper-box" pinnacles imposed on the turrets in their stead. The gable was restored, and the character of the work wholly destroyed, crocketted where before plain, and the niche added in the place of the small light over the vault shown in Britton's plate. In the side compartments the Perpendicular battlementing was removed and the round cannon ball holes gratuitously inserted.
The two pinnacles at the sides of the west window have since been removed.
The earlier change in the central compartment of the front from Norman to Perpendicular was effected by the additions of the door and window still remaining. Bishop Alnwyck, who was translated to Lincoln in 1436, added the doorway during his episcopate, and it was probably built right over and covering the original Norman door and arcading. He also left provision in his will for the west window, and this was added by Bishop Lyhart (1446-72), to throw additional light on to the vaulting and sculptures of the nave; from the inside it will be seen that it completely fills the width of the nave, and follows the line of the vault up.
The north side of the cathedral lies within the gardens of the bishop's palace, which can be entered from the interior of the cathedral, through a small door in the north aisle of the presbytery; the eastern end of the cathedral also lies within a private garden, but permission to enter it can usually be obtained.
Exterior of Nave.—Those portions of the precincts near the western end of the cathedral are known as the Upper Close; and, walking round the exterior of the cloisters, we come to the Lower Close. The nave on the south side can be seen well either from the upper or lower Close, and can be better examined in detail from the interior of the cloisters. Its elevation consists of fourteen bays divided by flat Norman buttresses. In height it is composed of what, at first sight, appears a bewildering confusion of arches, arcades, and windows. Over the aisle windows, hidden by the north walk of cloisters, comes a Norman wall arcading; and over this the Norman triforium windows blocked up, and again, above the later Perpendicular triforium, superimposed on the old, and finished with a battlemented parapet. Behind this come the triforium roof, and then beyond the original Norman clerestory, each bay with a triple arch formation, the centre arch pierced for a window. And then above all, the lead roof over nave vault.
The radical changes that have taken place since the nave was built by Bishop Eborard (1121-45) consist of the insertion in the aisles of later "Decorated" traceried windows in place of the original Norman ones, and of the superimposition, before referred to, at triforium level of a whole range of "Perpendicular" windows over the old Norman work, which were blocked up at this period. The pristine aspect, then, of this elevation of the nave would have shown a sloping roof over the aisles where now the later addition occurs. The battlementing, too, over the clerestory to the nave is later work, to correspond with battlementing over the triforium windows. It will be noticed that the two bays next the transept in the triforium are higher than the others, in order to throw additional light into the choir.
