Hitherto the north wall of the Saxon nave, if built, may have been retained to shut in the cloister on the north. Now it would be pulled down and replaced by the wall of the present south aisle of the nave. Then would come the wall of the north aisle, and finally the pier-arcade and triforium, but not yet the clerestory of the nave. The nave was to be in plan precisely like that of Durham: it was to be a short nave; the central aisle to have eight bays; the side aisles were to have only seven bays, the end of each aisle being occupied by a tower, as at Durham. The ground stories of these towers now form the third bays from the west on either side of the nave. It will be noticed that the third piers from the west are exceptionally massive and strong, and that in this bay the aisle-walls are thickened. The wide arches of these bays were intended to open up the towers into the nave.
VAULTING UNDER SOUTH-WEST TOWER.
But the towers were not built. The Ely monks over the way were building a nave with no less than twelve bays, and with a western transept as well. The Peterborough monks would not like to be outdone by Ely; so they determined also to have a long nave and a western transept as well. They built only ten bays to the twelve of Ely; on the other hand, their nave, excluding western transept, was 211 feet long, while that of Ely was only 208 feet. About the same time, or probably a little earlier, the clerestory of the nave—in which pointed arches occur—was built. All this work may be assigned to Abbot Benedict (1175-1193), who is said by Swapham and John to have built the whole nave as far as—but not including—the present west front. The statements of Swapham, however, must be wrong here. He was still living c. 1240; so that he was only a boy when the nave was finished. He may possibly in his boyhood have seen the clerestory of the nave built, and, in writing half a century after, have thought that Benedict who built the clerestory, had built the triforium and ground-story also. But the documentary evidence at Peterborough must be received with the utmost scepticism. All that we know for certain is that the choir and the eastern portions of the central transepts were built between 1118 and 1140; and that the central transept, central tower, nave and western transept were built between 1140 and 1190.
III. Lancet (1190-1245).—The east end of the church consisted of three parallel apses. The apses of the aisles were now replaced by narrow oblong bays: those next to the New Building.
WEST FRONT.
In the middle of the Lancet period was erected the grand façade in front of the Transitional western transept. It is not so much a façade, however, as an open portico or piazza. Several interesting engineering problems were involved. One was, how to keep up the three gigantic arches. If they had spread to north or south, the whole façade would have collapsed. To prevent their spreading, therefore, flanking towers were built to north and south; which in later days were weighted with spires. But there was a more serious danger. The two great isolated piers might be pushed outwards by the western thrust of the arches of the nave. These thrusts the builders stopped by building two towers; one over the westernmost bay of each aisle of the nave. The northern of these towers was soon after heightened; the other—the Bell Tower—remains low. The central gable had to be narrow, because it is the termination of the nave roof. The side-arches and side-gables had to be wide, to span the space from the nave to the sides of the Transitional façade behind. Though much narrower, however, the central gable rises as high as the lateral gables, being made to spring at a higher level; and it is made to look as important as the broad side-gables by being given the company of two powerful pinnacles. Thus the main features of this magnificent design are due to difficulties of planning and construction. The design is said to be drawn from Lincoln; it is more likely that it is an amplification of John de Cella’s lovely design for the west front of St. Albans. Abbot Acharius, who may well have commenced the work (1200-1210) had been Prior of St. Albans under John de Cella. Judging from the billet and nebula ornament on the gables, and from the arcading, in which semicircular arches and round-headed trefoils occur, the façade was designed in the very beginning of the thirteenth century.
GABLE.