The general character of Holy Island Priory is Norman, or to speak more correctly, Romanesque. The West front is almost perfect—remarkably so when we consider that, in buildings of that period, this part has generally undergone a change, by the insertion of windows of a later style, leaving only the Norman door below to point to the real date of the structure. Here, we have a door of great depth and richness of effect from the number and boldness of the ornaments. On either side are plain semicircular blank arches—but not intersecting—and the whole were flanked by towers, one of which still exists. Of the nave, the southern portion as well as the south aisle, is entirely gone, but that on the north is tolerably complete. The piers, with their capitals, which bore up the arches, are of various patterns, channelled, lozenged, shafted, and shewing in their sculptured surfaces, and the various fretwork of the arches, that is, in the only decoration which the style admitted—the germ of that inexhaustible variety and multiplicity of ornament which was in the sequel to characterize the Gothic.
The nave, as well as aisles, has been vaulted in stone, as is evidenced from the vaulting shafts, and commencing springers still seen at the junction of the nave and transepts, and from the curve of the vault itself, yet traceable at the west end, but denuded of its ribs. This is a remarkable and almost singular instance of the centre aisle of a Norman building receiving a vault of stone. Both in England and on the Continent, the nave was covered simply by a flat boarded roof, to which were in a great degree owing the frequent and destructive fires of our early churches.
There are six arches in the nave, but the last is of smaller dimensions than the rest. This peculiarity is not unfrequent in Norman and Gothic churches, as if the architect had not previously calculated the space to be occupied by his arcade. The effect here has been to produce a horse-shoe instead of a semicircular arch, from its being of the same height, but lesser span, than the others. This arch is very rare, even in Norman buildings.
Above the pier-arches there has existed a triforium, of which the only remains are a single shaft at either end of the nave, the beginning and termination of the arcade. The Norman triforium is in England simply a row of openings or pannels in the wall, to fill up, ornamentally, what would otherwise have been a blank space. In Germany it is a real gallery, and appropriated to the young men, and called the Männer-chor.
Of the vaulting of the north aisle one arch still remains, but flattened at top, and only retained in its position by the wedge-form of the stones which compose it. This will soon fall, and yet might be easily preserved. The vaulting was quadripartite—the piers, with their cushioned capitals, and transverse ribs, are yet seen. In one or two places, the vaulting from pier to pier yet remains, though the ribs which would have appeared to support it are gone. This is a proof that the ribs used in vaulting were introduced merely to satisfy the mind by appearing to support the arches above, and that the eye, which had been accustomed to strong lines in every other part of the building, should not here rest in a blank surface.
We now reach the intersection of the nave and transepts. Here in the strong and massive piers, we have slender circular shafts set in square recesses—a style of transition from the short and heavy Norman to the loftiness and exility of the Gothic, by which the weights above being distributed to different and independent props, an air of lightness and grace is produced without any diminution of security or strength.
Above, arose the tower which crowned the whole structure, but of its existence the only remaining evidence is the most singular and beautiful feature of the ruin. It is the great cross rib traversing the vault diagonally from N.W. to S.E., and spanning the mid-air free and unconnected with the building but at its spring. Had this been a pointed arch, it would have fallen with its superstructure, but the pressure of the round arch being only at the sides, it is likely to endure as long as the parts which buttress it up.
The chancel beyond the transepts had originally a semicircular termination, as is still discernible on the floor—a feature retained in all the Norman churches abroad. In this part of the edifice, it is to be regretted, is a departure from the unity of style which pervades the rest of the fabric—the circular apse has given place to a rectangular, lighted by pointed windows, in compliance with the fashion of the day, and in violation of the grave simplicity of the rest of the structure.
Buttresses of slight projection run all round the building. They were scarcely needed by the Norman architects, from the enormous thickness of their walls, and their inferior height; but in them we may trace the rudiments of what became, in the hands of the Gothic builders, so beautiful and necessary a member, shooting up into airy pinnacles and spires, and impressing a lofty and majestic character upon the whole.
Of the conventual buildings the traces are few and indistinct. The most important to their comforts—the vast kitchen chimney yet remains in all its original strength and completeness. The large walled space adjoining was probably the Refectory, with which the kitchen would communicate by the buttery-hatch.