PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



north of the old church, and the first work to be 

 undertaken, the eastern arm, was set out so that it 

 could be built without interfering with the Saxon 

 building, which must have been temporarily repaired 

 and used for service. John de Seez died in 1125, 

 leaving the work unfinished, and his successor, Henry 

 de Angeli, 1128-33, wasted the goods of his abbey 

 and did nothing for the building. Martin de Bee, 

 ''33"55> carried on the work, and in 1 1 40 or 

 I 143 (the date is variously given) the new eastern 

 arm was sufficiently advanced for the holding of 

 services, and the monks entered it, and the relics were 

 brought from the old church and honourably in- 

 stalled in their new places. A temporary quire was 

 doubtless fitted up, as it is clear that the final position 

 of the quire, with the pulpitum level with the second 

 bay of the nave w'est of the crossing, was not taken up 

 till the time of Benedict, 1177-94. 



At Martin's death in 1 155 the transepts were some 

 way advanced, and some work in the nave, especially 

 on the cloister side, had been done. 



William of Waterville, I 155-75, finished both 

 transepts, built three stages of the central tower 

 (magistra turris), and went on with the nave, com- 

 pleting two bays of the main arcade and triforium, and 

 one bay of the clearstory, to give the necessary abut- 

 ment to the central tower, besides a good deal of the 

 lower parts of the nave arcades, etc., west of this 

 point. His work was not confined to the church, as 

 he built the infirmary, with a cloister and houses of 

 office ; a chamber, a chapel and offices in the curia, 

 probably the great inner court, and also began the 

 chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury in the outer 

 court west of the church. The progress of the work 

 of the church can be estimated by the fact that he 

 arranged the quire — that is, the permanent quire as 

 distinct from the temporary one set up in the pres- 

 bytery about 1 1 40 — and covered the cloister with 

 lead. 



Benedict, 1177-94, 'built the whole of the 

 nave of the church in stone and wood (i.e., with its 

 walls and roofs) from the tower of the quire (the 

 central tower) up to the front ' ' {usque ad frontem). 

 He also set up the pulpitum at the west end of the 

 quire. The actual extent of his work in the church 

 will be discussed later. 



In the outer court he continued and finished the 

 ohapel and hospital of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 

 begun by his predecessor, and near it built the great 

 outer gate, with a chapel of St. Nicholas over it. He 

 also built the great hall with all its guest chambers, 

 and at the time of his death was working at 'that mag- 

 nificent work next the brewhouse,' which has been 

 supposed by some writers to be the western transepts 

 of the church.' It is a curious fact, but one which 

 can be paralleled from the histories of other great 

 monastic houses, that some of the largest and most 

 important works, in this case the building of the 

 west front of the church, are passed over in silence by 

 the chroniclers. Andrew, 1194-99, and Acharius, 

 1200— 10, must from the evidence of the church 



itself have carried on the work of the west front, but 

 nothing is recorded of this. 



Of Robert of Lindsey, 1214-22, much building 

 is recorded, but only two items refer to the church, 

 the substitution of glass for straw and twigs — probably 

 osier rods — in thirty and more windows, and the 

 whitewashing of the vaults in the retroquire ; and 

 these seem to have been done before his election as 

 abbot. 



Alexander of Holderness, 1222-26, and Martin 

 of Ramsey, 1226-33, ^^^^ nothing attributed to 

 them as regards the church ; but the final com- 

 pletion of the building is marked in the time 

 of Walter of Bury St. Edmunds, 1233-45,' by "^'^^ 

 solemn dedication of the church on 6 October, 1238, 

 by Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, and William 

 Brewer, bishop of Exeter. 



It seems that new stalls were set up at this time, as 

 the abbot gave ten marks to the work of the stalls and 

 the greater part of the timber. 



In 1272, in the time of Robert of Sutton, 1262-73, 

 the Lady chapel of the church, on the east side of 

 the north transept, was begun by William Parys the 

 prior, and finished by him with the glass, the lead, the 

 images and paintings, before his death in 1 286. It 

 was consecrated by Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln, 

 in 1290. A chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury* 

 was built between the church and the Lady chapel by 

 Godfrey of Crowland, abbot 1299— 132 1, while 

 cellarer. 



From this time onwards there are no more records 

 of the architectural history of the church, beyond 

 those supplied by the building itself, which are fortu- 

 nately sufficient, as the only alterations in the structure 

 since the end of the 13th century have been either 

 matters of detail, such as the replacement of the 

 12th-century lights by later windows, or the filling 

 of them with tracery ; or matters of necessity, as the 

 rebuilding of the central tower in the 14th century 

 (and its total rebuilding at the end of the 19th), 

 and the insertion of the chapel in the west front. 

 The latest part of the church, the square-ended 

 building at the east, known as the New Building, is 

 due to Abbot Robert Kirton, 1496-1528, and is the 

 only enlargement of the eastern arm which has taken 

 place. The site has, no doubt, a good deal to do with 

 this, as the Lady chapel would probably have been 

 built at the east of the presbytery if there had been 

 sufficient space ; but the boundary of the monastic 

 cemetery, probably preserving the lines of an arrange- 

 ment which existed before the laying out of the 

 present church in I I I 7, comes too close to the apse 

 to allow of this. 



Valuable evidence as to the extent and arrangement 

 of the buildings is given in the late 14th-century 

 Custumal ' preserved in the Archiepiscopal Librar)', 

 Lambeth ; in the inventory drawn up at the suppression 

 of the monastery, dated 30 November, 1539 ;' in the 

 grant of 4 September, 1541,' detailing the extent of 

 the buildings and grounds of the episcopal palace of 

 the newly formed see ; and in the report of a com- 



1 Sparkc, Scrtprorei, 99. 



* But the position of the brewhouse, 

 known approximately from the survey of 

 1629, makes the suggestion impossible. 



5* Chron, Ang. Pcfrtburgense (Caxton 

 Sx. 1S+5), 134.. 



* Not to be confused with the chapel 

 of the same dcdicatioa in the outer 

 court. 



^ In two volumes, one including the 

 period from Advent to Easter, the other 

 that from Whitsuntide to Advent. A 

 third volume, Easter to Whitsuntide, is 

 unfortunately lost. The directions for 

 processions afford the most valuable evi- 

 dence as to the relative positions of the 

 monastic buildings and the arrangements 

 of the church. The Sunday procession, 



433 



unfortunately, is nowhere given in detail, 

 but the particulars of the procession on 

 the vigils of principal feasts are minutely 

 set forth, as arc those of the Palm Sun- 

 day procession. 



^ Printed in Gunton, History of tki 

 Church of Peterburgh^ p. 5S. 



' Printed in Foedera^ O, riv, 731. 



55 



