The Screen, separating the choir from the nave, dates from 1870-1876. The Choir-stalls were made from 1660 to 1672 to replace the originals destroyed by the Scottish prisoners incarcerated in the Cathedral in 1650 after the battle of Dunbar.
Above the high altar rises the splendid Neville Screen, erected about 1380 chiefly at the expense of John, Lord Neville of Raby. It runs along the entire choir, and forms sedilia of four seats on either side. The screen was originally filled with 107 statues. The Virgin stood in the centre, and one side of her was St. Cuthbert, and on the other St. Oswald.
“The prior of the day employed at his own expense seven masons for nearly a year to fix the screen, the execution of which is supposed to have been the fruit of the labours of French artists. The screen originally was much more elaborate than at present, being covered with rich colour and every niche filled with sculptured figures, but even now its present appearance is graceful.”—(T.)
The Neville screen is pierced by two doors that lead directly to the Shrine of St. Cuthbert in the Chapel of the Nine Altars just behind it; for in this chapel repose the bones of the patron saint. Facing the great rose window there is an oblong platform (37 × 23 feet), about six feet higher than the floor. The shrine was placed here in 1104 and remained until 1540, when the body was taken from it and buried beneath this spot.
The Chapel of the Nine Altars was so named because beneath the nine lancet windows formerly stood nine altars to the following saints: (1), St. Andrew and St. Mary Magdalen; (2), St. John the Baptist and St. Margaret; (3), St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Catherine; (4), St. Oswald and St. Lawrence; (5), St. Cuthbert and St. Bede; (6), St. Martin; (7), St. Peter and St. Paul; (8), St. Aidan and St. Helen; (9), St. Michael the Archangel.
“It is approached from the aisles by steps, the floor level being lower than that of the church proper. It is altogether a remarkable and interesting structure. With its lightness and loftiness contrasting grandly with the massive Norman nave and choir, its clustered columns of polished marble alternating with stone, its fine bold sculpture, its splendid vaulted roof and rich arcading, it forms a perfect example of the Early English style. Though regular and symmetrical in general design, the detail shows great variety, and even irregularity, a quality so often present in old work, and so much to its advantage.
“The ‘New Work,’ as it was always called, was commenced in the year 1242. The eastern wall, with its rose and nine lancet windows, is the earliest part of the chapel, the north and south walls being later. The joining and blending of the work with the Norman of Carileph’s choir had evidently been accomplished when the chapel was almost completed. The eastern wall is of three bays, each bay having three lofty lancet windows. The bays are not of equal width, the centre one being regulated by the width of the nave of the church, and narrower than the north and south bays.
“A very beautiful arcade runs completely round the walls. It is of trefoil arches deeply and richly moulded, supported on marble columns carved with foliage. Over the arches is a hood-mould terminating with heads. In the spandrels are a series of deeply sunk and moulded quatrefoils, two of which contain sculpture. The bases of the columns rest on a plinth. Surmounting this arcade is a moulded string from the level of which rise the windows, and above the windows another string-course and a second range of windows. In the centre bay, however, is the large rose window, which is over thirty feet in diameter.
“The division of the chapel into three bays is effected by two main vaulting arches, which spring on the western side from the piers of the east end of the choir, and on the eastern side from responds of clustered shafts alternately of marble and stone, banded at intervals and having richly carved capitals. The arches themselves are deeply moulded and ornamented with dog-tooth ornament and foliage. The vault of the central bay has eight ribs—two springing from each of the clusters just described, and two from each of the choir piers. The vaulting of the remaining bays is quadripartite, but has peculiarities which are worthy of notice, arising from inequality of width. We must not omit to call attention to the exquisite sculpture of the vaulting. The centre has figures of the Four Evangelists, while in the north is a beautifully executed carving of vine and grapes, and in the south, figure subjects. Among the sculptured heads on the wall arcade at the south end, at the western side of the two bays into which the south wall is divided, are two which are portraits of the men to whom we owe the design and execution of the beautiful sculpture of this chapel. One is an elderly man, the other much younger, and both wear linen dust-caps over their heads.”—(J. E. B.)