Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon / A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric

by Cecil Walter Charles Hallett

DECORATED CAPITAL IN CHOIR.

Though the three eastern bays (still on the north side) are chiefly Decorated, portions of Archbishop Roger’s work have been retained or used again. Thus the fourth column from the west is his, and perhaps the fifth up to the abacus, which is convex and of limestone. The respond against the east wall is of his pattern, but it has not the circular plinth, and the capital is of limestone, has the abacus moulded with rounds upon the edge, and is covered with delicate foliage in the Decorated manner. In these arches the lower order has exactly the same mouldings as in the western bays, and is of gritstone, while the upper order is of limestone, and has fillets upon the larger mouldings. It would seem, therefore, that the later builders have used the original archivolts again, and have merely added another order or orders over it. The plane of the wall above, indeed, is brought forward to the face of Archbishop Roger’s vaulting-shafts: yet without being really thickened, since it is set back from his wall on the exterior. At the junction of the old vaulting-shafts with the additional order of the first Decorated arch the later builders have carved a group of grotesque faces. In each bay of the Decorated triforium there is a round arch filled with tracery consisting of three round-headed and trefoil lights with two circles enclosing trefoils above them; and on either side of this arch (but on one three only, in the first of the side bays) is a sunk lancet panel enclosing a pointed arch impaling a trefoil. The clearstorey has a second plane of tracery, a feature not very common in England. The vaulting-shafts are in clusters of three and are filleted, and the string-course below the triforium is not carried round them. Each cluster springs from a semicircular corbel resting on a head, and has its capitals enriched with foliage. The last pendentive of the vaulting rests on a single shaft springing directly from a head-corbel. The string-courses are not of the same pattern with those on the older bays.

Watson, Ripon, Photo.]

THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CHOIR.

(Junction of Transitional and Decorated work.)

On the south side the westernmost Perpendicular bay, up to the triforium, is solid and covered with cinquefoil panelling. In the next two bays the mouldings of the arch, among which a broad hollow is conspicuous, are continued down the column, and there is no capital—a sign of decadence more common in the Flamboyant work of the Continent than here. There is, however, a debased half-capital on the east side of the last Perpendicular column, and on the west side of it are three small heads at the impost-level. These columns are lozenge-shaped in section, wider from north to south than from east to west, and though the mouldings end before they reach the bottom of the column, there is no proper base. Each column has a shaft at the front and another at the back, the former carrying the rim of the arch and having a stilted polygonal base but no capital, while the latter has capital as well as base (both polygonal), and helps to carry the aisle-vault. The spandrels of these arches are filled with panelling, in which are several shields (one bearing the arms of Pigott). The triforium again shows in each bay a round arch; indeed, no better example than this choir could be found of the truth that the form of the arch is not a safe guide to the date of a building, but was often dictated by convenience; for here in the triforium are round arches, of which some belong to the twelfth, others to the thirteenth, and others to the sixteenth century. The fact that the distance between the string-courses was already settled by the Transitional bays, compelled the later builders to make their arches round, as a pointed arch of the requisite width would have been too tall. Here the round arch, which is again flanked by two panels, comprises three cinquefoil lights, and the mullions are carried up through the head. The panels are pointed and divided each into two cinquefoil divisions. The Perpendicular clearstorey windows have their rims moulded, but are not splayed. The vaulting-shafts resemble those in the Decorated bays, but their corbels are polygonal and have the sides slightly hollowed, and the abacus of the capital is a half-lozenge. The string-courses have not been made to match either the Transitional or the Decorated. The whole of this Perpendicular work is of very late character, and justifies the belief that it was the last important alteration in the fabric before the dissolution. Moreover, where it meets the tower there seems to be a ‘straight joint,’ which indicates that these bays are at any rate later than the tower piers.

East of the Perpendicular pillars the next column is Archbishop Roger’s, and perhaps the next also, with the exception of its capital, which has two rings upon the necking, with the rectangular top imposed directly upon them and chamfered beneath, while the abacus (which is of limestone) is convex.[93] The respond against the east wall is again of the old pattern, but without the circular plinth, and its capital resembles that just described. In the westernmost of these southern Decorated bays three styles meet. The lower order of the arch seems again to be Transitional work, while in the triforium and clearstorey Decorated arches have been filled with Perpendicular tracery. In the two remaining bays the main arches are entirely Decorated, the lower order being of limestone and the large moulding under the soffit having a fillet. Over the last two complete columns there is a little foliage, and of the corbels of the vaulting-shafts one is enriched with foliage while the other consists of a head between two embracing figures. There is foliage upon the capitals of these vaulting-shafts, and upon the capital and base of that which supports the last pendentive of the vaulting. With the exceptions mentioned, these bays resemble those opposite.

It has been remarked that the choir was probably as long in the twelfth century as it is now. The point is indeed proved if (as there seems no reason to doubt) the last complete column on either side is original and occupies its original position; but a further indication is to be found in the fact that the fragment of the original south wall, the end of which is visible on the exterior between the south aisle and the apse, extends well into the last bay of the present choir.[94]