Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle / A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Episcopal See

by C. King Eley

The roof is now an open timber one of the original pitch.

Near the north-east pier of the tower is a well, completely covered over. This, it is said, was done by a former dean, on the supposition that the well, or the water, in some occult fashion, affected the music in the cathedral.

The Tower was rebuilt by Bishop Strickland (1400-19), who used the Norman piers, and placed upon them other columns of about the same length. The Early Norman piers have square-fluted capitals and are a little higher than the arches of the nave. The added columns have capitals carved with birds and foliage, and are carried up to the arches of the tower. This rebuilding was rendered necessary by the shifting of its foundations. The piers sank nearly one foot, and the arches near them have been to some extent distorted. Springs of water are said to run across the transept from north to south, and this may explain the sinking, which probably happened before the erection of the present choir.

Clustered columns uphold the transept arches, but the western and eastern arches are supported on each side by a single column terminating in a bracket at about the level of the base of the triforium. This was arranged so as to increase the width of the passage between the piers from the choir to the nave.

The decoration of the eastern arch capitals consists of the badges of the Percy family—the crescent and fetterlock. Hotspur was Governor of the town and Warden of the Marches under Henry IV., and it is probable that he aided in the work of the bishop. The western arch capitals have, as decoration, the rose and escallop shell alternately—badges of the Dacres and Nevilles, who also may have been benefactors to the cathedral.

Across the north transept from the upper capitals is a depressed arch of stone with Perpendicular tracery.

South Transept.—With the exception of the wall itself, the south arm of the transept is modern. The ancient wall, eight feet thick, is quite suitable for a fortress. A richly-decorated modern doorway has been made, and above it is a window by Powell, representing the "Days of Creation."

The west wall is out of the perpendicular through the shifting of the tower piers, and the Norman arch, opening to the south aisle of the nave has also been distorted. To the left is a round-headed window, filled with glass in memory of the Rev. W. Vansittart, canon and prebendary of Carlisle 1824.