The west end of the aisle is the work of Abbot Morwent (1421-1437).
A heavy stone screen, dating from 1820, closes the east end of the nave. We pass through a small arch in this screen, and beneath the broad platform on which the great organ stands.
This was originally built in 1663-1665 by Thomas Harris, and was painted and gilded in 1666. The oak case is in the Renaissance Style.
Little idea of the beauty of the Choir can be obtained from the Nave. We enter from the north aisle. It is 140 feet long; 33 feet 7 inches broad; and 86 feet high.
“Looking upwards, the visitor will note the beauty of the vaulting and the bosses placed at the intersection of the ribs. These bosses at the east end of the choir chiefly represent a choir of angels playing on various kinds of musical instruments, and a figure of Our Lord in the attitude of blessing. All the roof was originally probably painted and decorated, but the existing colour and gilding is recent work, having been done by Clayton & Bell. At first sight the groining of the roof looks most complicated, but, if analysed and dotted down on paper, it will be seen to be in reality a simple geometrical pattern. The bosses will repay careful examination with a glass.
“Viewed from the door in the screen, the choir looks in very truth a piece of Perpendicular work, as the Norman substructure is then for the most part concealed. A closer examination, however, will prove that the Norman work is all there—that it has been veiled over with tracery from the floor level to the vaulting with open screen-work, fixed on to the Norman masonry, which was pared down to receive it.”—(H. J. L. J. M.)
The general impression is striking:
“The choir on which you are now looking is very long—not too long, however, for its great height—for the fretted roof, a delicate mosaic of tender colours set in pale gold, soars high above the vaulting of the nave. The proportions are simply admirable. From the lofty traceried roof down to the elaborately tiled floor, the walls are covered with richly carved panelled work, broken here and there with delicate screens of stone. The eastern end, hard by the high altar, is the home of several shrines. There is happily no lack of colour in this part of our cathedral. The western end is furnished with sixty richly-carved canopied stalls of dark oak, mostly the handiwork of the Fourteenth Century. The curiously and elaborately fretted work of the roof we have already spoken of as a rich mosaic of gold and colours. The floor, if one dare breathe a criticism in this charmed building, is too bright and glistening, but it is in its way varied and beautiful. The carving of the reredos, a work of our own day, is, to the writer’s mind, open to criticism, but is still very fair, telling in every detail of loving work and true reverence.”—(S.)
The High Altar occupies the same site as the ancient one. The sixty Choir-stalls have been restored in part; the sub-stalls date from Sir Gilbert Scott’s restoration (1873). On the south side of the High Altar there are four Sedilia also restored. Redfern’s figures in the niches are Abbot Edric, Bishop Wulstan, and Abbots Aldred, Serlo, Foliot, Thokey, Wygmore, Horton, Froucester, Morwent, Seabroke and Hanley. The three angels over the canopies, playing on a tambour and trumpets, deserve notice.
On the north side of the Presbytery we pause to look at the chantry Tomb of Abbot Parker, where the carving of vine and grapes on the stone screen is fine. The curious cross in the form of a growing tree at the foot of the tomb is also striking. Parker, who died in 1539, was buried elsewhere. Then we pass to the more famous Tomb of Edward II., erected by Edward III. The alabaster figure is probably the earliest of its kind in England. The tomb was opened in 1855 to satisfy curiosity as to whether the king was really buried there after his murder in Berkeley Castle nearby.