Life in a mediæval city

by Edwin Benson

Near the Castle there were the Castle mills, where the machinery was driven by water-power.

Outside the walls there were strays, or common lands. Some of the land immediately around the city was cultivated or used as pasture. There were, besides dwellings, several churches and hospitals, just outside the city. Beyond this suburban area was the forest.

The most notable of the Religious Buildings is the Minster, which was practically completed in the fifteenth century, when the work of erecting the three towers was finished. The architectural splendour of this mighty church must have appealed very strongly to the people of the fifteenth century, for did they not see the great work that had gone on for centuries at last brought to this glorious conclusion? It rose up in the midst of the city, always visible from near and far. The inside was even more magnificent than the exterior. The fittings and furniture were of the richest. The light mellow tone of the white stonework was enhanced by the fleeting visions of colour that spread across from the sunlit stained-glass windows, which still, in spite of time and restoration, add enormously to the beauty of the interior.

The Minster stood within its Close, one of the four gateways of which, College Street Arch, remains. This part of the city around the Minster was enclosed because it was under the jurisdiction of the Liberty of St. Peter.

Originally founded in 627 by Edwin, King of Northumbria, the Minster had been rebuilt and enlarged from time to time. It received its final and present form in the fifteenth century. At one time the Nave was rebuilt: at the same time there was built, near but separate from the main building, the Chapter House, a magnificent octagonal parliament house of one immense chamber: later the Chapter House was connected with the main building by the Vestibule. Then the Choir was replaced by a larger and finer building in the then latest architectural fashion. The new choir contained the east window, which in the eyes of contemporaries was wonderful and unrivalled for its size and painted glass. It occupies nearly all the central space of the east wall from a few feet above the ground to almost the apex of the gable. Gothic architecture was so marvellously adaptable that all these parts, built at widely different times, at various and strongly-contrasted stages of the development of this English mediæval architecture, together make a single building that appears to possess the most felicitous unity of general design and a perfectly wonderful diversity of sectional design, for every part is in complete sympathy with the scheme as a whole.

To the east of the Central Tower is the Choir, which was kept exclusively for the services; to the west, the Nave, the popular part. The entrance to the Choir from the west is made through the stone screen of Kings, which, with the lofty organ which rests on it, prevents people in the Nave from getting anything more than a glimpse of what is taking place in the Choir. Over the western ends of the Nave aisles are the twin west towers, which contain the bells. The high altar and reredos stood in the middle of the Choir between the two choir transepts, the huge windows of which present in picture the life stories of St. Cuthbert and St. William respectively. The Lady Chapel, the part of the choir to the east of the reredos, was very important in pre-Reformation days when the cult of the Virgin was very popular. To the north and south of the Central Tower are the Transepts. From the North Transept the Vestibule leads to the Chapter House. The church is, therefore, of the shape of a cross (the centre of which is marked by the Central Tower) with an octagonal building standing near and connected with the northern arm.

The furniture was of wood and elaborately carved. In the Choir were the fixed stalls with towering canopies, and other seats, which were ranged along the north and south sides and at the west end. Chapels were marked off by wooden screens, often of elaborate tracery.

The cost of erecting this huge and splendid church must have been enormous. The Minster contained the shrine of St. William of York, which, like those of St. Cuthbert at Durham and St. Thomas at Canterbury of European fame, attracted streams of pilgrims, whose donations helped the funds of erection and maintenance. This was an established means of raising funds for church purposes. There was, also, the money from penances and indulgences. The Archbishops were keenly interested in their cathedral church. Citizens gave and bequeathed sums of money to the Minster funds. In addition, the Minster authorities received gifts from wealthy nobles of the north of England. The house of Vavasour, for instance, supplied stone; that of Percy gave wood to be used in building the great metropolitical church. If the money cost was enormous, the completed building, for design, engineering, and decorative work—in stone, wood, cloth, stained glass—was far beyond monetary value.