About 1361 the spire and parts of the tower were blown down, and the presbytery was damaged. Therefore, the clerestory was rebuilt, and in the transitional style from Decorated to Perpendicular. The Cloisters date from about this time, and so does the Erpingham Gate. In the middle of the Fifteenth Century the nave vault was constructed; and it was under the two rules of Bishop Lyhart and Bishop Goldwell that the Cathedral was practically completed as we see it to-day. Dean Gardiner pulled down the Lady-Chapel and the Chapter-House in the Sixteenth Century, and in the Seventeenth Century Cromwell’s soldiers took possession.
Bishop Hall tells us how they behaved:
“Lord, what work was here, what clattering of glasses, what beating down the Walls, what tearing up of Monuments, what pulling down of Seats, what wresting out of Irons and Brass from the Windows and Graves! What defacing of Armes, what demolishing of curious stone work, that had not any representation in the World, but only of the cost of the Founder and skill of the Mason, what toting and piping upon the destroyed Organ pipes, and what a hideous triumph on the Market day before all the Countrey, when, in a kind of Sacrilegious and profane procession, all the Organ pipes, Vestments, both Copes and Surplices, together with the Leaden Crosse which had been newly sawne down from over the Green-Yard Pulpit, and the Service books and singing books that could be had, were carried to the fire in the publick Market place; A leud wretch walking before the Train, in his Cope trailing in the dirt, with a Service book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorne the tune, and usurping the words of the Letany; neer the Publick Crosse, all these monuments of Idolatry must be sacrificed to the fire, not without much Ostentation of a zealous joy.”
The Precincts are, like those of all English cathedrals, lovely, and these are fortunate enough to be entered by several ancient gates. The one on the south, St. Ethelbert’s Gate (Early Decorated), was built in the Thirteenth Century, after the riots and fire of 1272. The Gate House (Perpendicular), on the north, is the entrance to the Bishop’s Palace.
Opposite the west front we find the Erpingham Gate, built about 1420, by Sir Thomas Erpingham, whose figure stands in the niche over the wide arch. It is a greatly admired piece of Perpendicular work.
The West Front (Perpendicular) clearly defines the width of the nave and the aisles on either side. Over the centre door is the large west window of nine lights, often compared to the window of Westminster Hall. Above is a gable, surmounted by a cross. The doors date from 1436, and the west window from Bishop Lyhart’s time (1446-1472). There are no towers here; for the pinnacles placed on the side turrets in 1875 are not deserving of this name.
“The Tower and Spire stand at the intersection of the choir and transepts, covered with vertical shafts on the face of each. The tower is Norman buttress, which is finished by a crocketed pinnacle. Between these buttresses are horizontal bands of design: the lowest, a Norman arcade of nine arches, three of which are pierced as windows; then, above this, a smaller wall arcade with interlaced arches; and then, above again, the principal feature, an arcading of nine arches, three pierced for windows, and the others filled with wall tracery of diamonds and circles; then, between this last and the battlemented parapet, occur five vertical panels, each comprising two circles, the upper pierced for a window. Above, soaring upward, rises the later crocketed spire. The rest of the tower was finished during the reign of Henry I., and is a beautiful specimen of the work of that time; the stonework was almost entirely refaced in 1856. The tower was crowned by a wooden spire from 1297; this was blown down in 1361, damaging the presbytery so badly that the clerestory had to be rebuilt. The wooden spire was constructed probably at the same time, and the present Early Perpendicular turrets were added. The spire was again in 1463 struck by lightning, and again falling eastward, went through the presbytery roof. The present spire was then constructed in stone by Bishop Lyhart (1446-72), and was finished by his successor, Bishop Goldwell (1472-99), who added the battlements.
“It will hardly be necessary to enlarge on the beauty of this spire of Norwich, as the dominant feature, seen from the south-east, rising above the curved sweep of the apse, and strongly buttressed by the south transept, it stands up, clearly defined against the western sky, and points upward, significant and symbolical at once of the ends and aspirations of the church below.
“The eastern arm, or presbytery, takes its history from the tower. Here, as in the nave, the original triforium windows are blocked up, and a range of Perpendicular work superimposed on the old. Above and beyond this, supported between each bay by flying-buttresses, comes the transitional Decorated to Perpendicular clerestory, higher than the original Norman clerestory remaining to the nave. At the base of each flying-buttress are figures of saints. The roof and Norman clerestory were damaged by the falling tower in 1361, but were rebuilt by Bishop Percy, 1355-69. This work is transitional Decorated to Perpendicular. The presbytery was then re-roofed with a framed timber construction, which was consumed by the falling of the burning spire, struck by lightning in 1463. The present stone vault was added in its place by Bishop Goldwell, 1472-99. This necessitated the addition as well of flying-buttresses to take the thrust of the vault.
“The battlementing to the presbytery also was added at the same time as the flying-buttresses.