We have no account of the condition of the edifice immediately before its destruction in 1385, but it must (as above mentioned) have been to a large extent rebuilt before that time.
It is said that during the restoration which took place in 1870-80,[157] traces of fire were observed on the pillars of the choir, and it is inferred that these pillars must have existed before the burning caused by Richard II. This view is confirmed by the fact that, after 1387, when, doubtless, the town authorities were doing all they could to complete the restoration of St. Giles’, they entered into a contract with certain masons to erect five chapels along the south side of the nave, having pillars and vaulted roofs, covered with dressed stone slabs[158] These chapels still exist, and the wall rib of the vaulting is yet visible on the south side of the arcade, next the south aisle; but the vault and stone roof have been removed, and a plaster ceiling of imitation vaulting substituted. The above contract indicates that the walls of the nave then existed.
We must, therefore, assume that the church had been rebuilt previous to the destruction of 1385, and that the above contract was an addition to the building connected with its restoration two years after the fire. Although, doubtless, much injured by the conflagration, the walls and pillars of the church seem to have escaped total destruction. The style of the architecture would lead to the same view; the octagonal pillars of the choir, with their moulded caps, being most probably of the fourteenth century.
The church, as restored and added to after 1387, would then consist ([Fig. 824])[159] of a choir of four bays, with side aisles; a nave of five bays, also with side aisles; a central crossing, north and south transepts, and the five chapels just added south of the nave. A large open porch, to the south of the central one of those chapels, was also erected along with them. It had a finely groined vault in the roof, and over it was a small chamber,
Fig. 824.—St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. Plan.
lighted by a picturesque oriel window, supported on a corbel, carved with an angel, displaying the city arms ([Fig. 825]).[160] The upper story, which is supposed to have been the revestry, was reached by a bold turret stair on the west side of the south porch.
The whole of the main divisions of the structure were vaulted; but the vault of the central aisles was low, being little higher than that of the side aisles. The massive octagonal piers of the crossing appear to have been raised about this period. The traces of the caps, which were cut off, are visible at a lower level ([Fig. 826]), and the few courses of ashlar work above them, with the new caps at the heightened level, may be traced as additions ([Fig. 827]). The vaulting of the crossing, with its central opening, was, doubtless, executed during the restoration of about 1400.