How to Visit the English Cathedrals

by Esther Singleton

Gundulf, a monk of Bec in Normandy, was appointed to Rochester in 1076. He immediately turned it into a Benedictine monastery and built a church for his monks. Gundulf was one of the greatest architects of his day: he also built the great Keep of Rochester Castle, portions of the Tower of London and the Castle of Dover. The Saxon Cathedral had suffered from the ravages of the Danes and upon the ruins, Gundulf, with assistance from Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, completed a larger cathedral between 1080 and 1089. The plan was peculiar: it was neither English nor Norman.

“All this work of Gundulf’s is now gone except portions of the crypt, the keep and the nave. Of Gundulf’s nave there remain on the south side five arches, together with the lower parts of the walls of both aisles. It is very doubtful whether he built any part of the triforium or clerestory. At present his work can only be seen in its original condition from the side of the aisles. The pierarches had originally two square orders, which remain unaltered on the side of the aisle (cf. Winchester transept). Gundulf’s masonry was in rough tufa.”—(F. B.)

Gundulf placed the relics of St. Paulinus in a silver shrine at the eastern end of his new cathedral.

Ernulf, Prior of Canterbury, began the second Norman church about 1120. This was continued by his successor, John of Canterbury.

“Subsequently the choir was re-arranged and the nave partly rebuilt, partly re-faced, added to, and finished with the west front, which, to a great extent, still remains. This later Norman work was carried out from east to west during the episcopate of Ernulf (1115-24) and John of Canterbury (1125-37). The upper part of the west front and some of the carving may not have been completed within even that period. What seems certain is, that we are indebted to later Norman builders for the re-casing of the piers of the nave arcade, the greater richness of their capitals, the outer decorated order of the arches, the triforium with its richly diapered tympana, and the west front. Assigning most of these works to the time of Bishop John, as seems best, we can point to others that testify to Ernulf’s architectural skill. He is recorded to have built the refectory, dormitory and chapter-house. Portions of these still remain, and one feature, in the ornamentation of the chapter-house, especially, marks it as his work. This is a peculiar lattice-like diaper, which occurs elsewhere at Rochester—in fragments that belonged probably to a beginning by him of the renovation of the choir—but has only been noticed at one other place: by the entrance to the crypt at Canterbury, where also it is due to him.”—(G. H. P.)

The Cathedral was dedicated in 1130; but while King Henry I., the Archbishop of Canterbury and many of the nobility were still in the city a fire broke out “without any regard to the majesty of the King, grandeur of the church or solemnity of the occasion,” as an old chronicle quaintly observes, and greatly damaged the new church.

Two other fires occurred in the same century, and in 1179 the monks set to work to rebuild the whole cathedral.

“As usual they arranged their building operations so as to avoid interfering with the services in the choir as long as possible. First they rebuilt the north aisle of the choir, but not so high as it is at present. The aisle remained narrow because Gundulf’s tower was in the way. But the south aisle of the choir they doubled in width. Next they set to work at the east end, planning it, as at Hereford, as an eastern transept with an eastern aisle and projecting eastward an oblong sanctuary (cf. Southwell). The new transept was lofty and broad; and it is quite possible that it was built over the top of Gundulf’s east end without disturbing daily services within it. Then when all was finished Gundulf’s east end was pulled down. Unlike the Worcester monks they preserved the level of the Eleventh Century choir, and consequently had to continue Gundulf’s crypt eastward. In the new presbytery is seen the same curious mixture of quadripartite and sexpartite vaulting as in St. Hugh’s eastern transept at Lincoln. All this work was finished in 1227.”—(G. H. P.)

The monks were enabled to undertake rebuilding on this large scale because in 1201 they acquired a new saint. A baker of Perth, named William, famed for his piety, started to the Holy Land. He got as far as the road to Canterbury, where his servant killed him for his money. The monks found the body and buried it in the choir of St. Andrew’s. St. William soon began to work miracles and attracted many of the pilgrims on their way to the Shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury. The choir, rebuilt by means of the offerings, was first used for service in 1227.

“The choir and transepts of Rochester Cathedral are a very beautiful and remarkable example of Early English. The architect was William de Hoo, first sacristan, then prior, and there is some reason to believe that he is the same person as William the young Englishman, who assisted William of Sens after his fall from the scaffold at Canterbury, and completed the work there. A young man at Canterbury in 1185, able to carry on and complete such a work, may very well have become the architect on his own account of the daughter church of Rochester in 1201-1227, and there is great resemblance in style between Rochester and the later work at Canterbury.”—(J. H. P.)