The two western towers (Norman) were built in the Twelfth Century. The arcading (which is not the same in both) shows where they ended and where the Perpendicular stories were added, carrying them two hundred feet higher. Like the central tower, they were originally crowned with tall wooden spires, covered with lead. These spires became unsafe and were removed in 1807. In the northern, or St. Mary’s, hung “Great Tom of Lincoln” and its successor until 1834. The southern tower, called St. Hugh’s, has a ring of eight bells. Under St. Hugh’s the Ringers’ Chapel is naturally situated; and there is a corresponding chapel under St. Mary’s Tower.
Beneath St. Mary’s Tower we find the Northwest Chapel; under St. Hugh’s, the Ringers’ Chapel. Both chapels are vaulted with stone and date from the first half of the Thirteenth Century.
The Nave, a very characteristic example of the first half of the Thirteenth Century,
“exhibits an Early English style in its highest stage of development: massive without heaviness, rich in detail without exuberance, its parts symmetrically proportioned and carefully studied throughout, the foliated carving bold and effective, there seems no deficiency in any way to deteriorate from its merits.”—(G. G. S.)
There are seven bays. The first bay was converted into a sort of vestibule by arches constructed in the Eighteenth Century to add strength to the western towers. The big arch, separating the vestibule from the nave, dates from about 1730. The vaulting under the western towers dates from the Fourteenth Century; also the tracery covering the walls of these compartments.
“Each pier is surrounded by round shafts of Purbeck marble. The arch mouldings, like those of St. Hugh’s choir, were considered ‘beautiful specimens’ by Rickman. They are deeply cut, and throw good, bold shadows. In the triforium each bay contains two arches, supported by clustered columns with foliaged capitals. The spandrels are decorated with sunk trefoils or quatrefoils. In most cases the arches are each divided into three sub-arches with clustered shafts, the tympanum being pierced with quatrefoils. A difference is noticeable, however, in the easternmost arch and the two westernmost bays (five arches altogether) on both sides. Here the sub-arches are only two in number. The narrowness of the two western bays accounts for the variation at that end. The clerestory is the same throughout its length, having three tall narrow windows in each bay, with slender banded shafts. In the nave we have, according to Fergusson, ‘a type of the first perfected form of English vaulting.’ He calls it ‘very simple and beautiful.’ At the junctions of the ribs are elaborate bosses of foliage. The compartments are covered with plaster, once decorated in colours and gold. In the second bay from the east is the name: W. L. PARIS:—evidently intended as a record of some repairs to the vault. The springers rest on clusters of three long slender vaulting-shafts, rising from foliaged corbels just above the capitals of the nave piers.
“In the aisles, each bay has two lancet windows, except the easternmost bay on the south side, which has only one. In the jambs are slender Purbeck shafts, twice banded. Just beneath these windows, an arcade of trefoiled arches runs along the whole length of the nave, being continued on the screen walls to the western chapels. The arches are deep, with bold mouldings, and are supported by clustered columns. There are five arches in each bay, but they are not placed in the same manner on both sides of the nave. On the south, the arches are arranged in groups of five, with blank spaces of wall between, in front of which pass the vaulting-shafts. On the north, the arcade is continuous, and is so arranged that each cluster of shafts supporting the vault passes in front of an arch. The work on the south side is more elaborate; tooth ornament is used, a string-course runs along at the height of the capitals, and foliaged bosses are found in the lower corners of the spandrels. In addition to the clustered vaulting-shafts already mentioned, there is a single vaulting-shaft in the centre of each bay, between the windows, rising from a corbel above the wall-arcade. On the north side these corbels merely have plain mouldings, but on the south side they are foliated. The arrangement of the vaulting-ribs is different in the north and south aisles; and in the latter it will be noticed that some of the bosses have figure-subjects, besides the foliage met with on the north side. The Agnus Dei carved on the boss in the fourth bay from the west should be noticed. To such minor differences, continually found in the corresponding parts of a Gothic edifice, the style undoubtedly owes a peculiar charm.”—(A. F. K.)
The great West Window was inserted, as we have seen, in Bishop Grosseteste’s time (1235-1253). Its tracery, however, dates from the end of the Fourteenth Century and is Early Perpendicular. The upper lights are filled with fragments of Fourteenth Century glass; but the glass in the lower lights is modern. The cinquefoil above, of the same date, contains modern glass also. The central figure represents Remigius, with his bishop’s staff in one hand and the church in the other. The rest of the glass in the nave is also modern.
Under the last arch on the north side of the nave we come to a slab supposed to mark the original burial-place of Remigius. This slab was discovered in the cloisters and is supposed to date from the time of that worthy prelate.
The neighbouring Pulpit is probably of the Eighteenth Century. On the other side of the nave stands the black basalt Norman Font, reminding us of the font in Winchester. Around the sides of the square basin a row of grotesque monsters is carved in low relief.