It is probable that all this work was done before 1349, when the Black Death made its appearance at Hereford, and again in 1360.
IX. Perpendicular (1360-1485).—The lighting improvements were now completed by the insertion of two huge windows in the south transept, the southern of which has recently been filled with magnificent glass by Mr. Kempe. On the north side of the choir Bishop Stanbury (1455-1474) built for himself a pretty little chantry-chapel, like those at Lincoln. It has fan-vaulting.
X. Tudor.—Bishop Audley (1492-1502) built himself a pentagonal chantry-chapel, two stories high, projecting from the south side of the Lady chapel. But, as he was translated to Salisbury, he had the trouble of building another chantry-chapel there. To this period belong the Bishop’s cloister—three-sided, as at Chichester—and probably the Vicars’ cloister, with picturesque timber roof, and a fan-vault over the entrance to the Vicars’ college. Bishop Booth (1516-1535) built the outer north porch—an admirable specimen of late Gothic design.
XI.—In 1786 the western tower collapsed, and Wyatt pulled down the westernmost bay of the nave and the whole of the triforium and clerestory, whether damaged or sound, and rebuilt both, together with the west front, in the Gothic of his day. About 1843 Cottingham did much work; rebuilding the east end of the Lady chapel and the upper part of that of the choir, and also securing the central tower. He found that the Norman piers which support it consisted of a thin ashlar casing, the interior of which was filled with a rubble core, composed of broken stones, loam and lime grouting. The ashlar facing and the engaged columns on the face of the pier, not being well bonded and deeply headed into the rubble cores, had split and bulged, and the cores, for want of a proper proportion of lime, had diminished and crushed to pieces. The gaudy choir-screen and coronal were designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, and executed by Skidmore of Coventry.
FROM NORTH-WEST
The Cathedral Church of St. Chad and St. Mary, Lichfield.
