PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



level of the top of the parapet with flat heads, on 

 which are large seated figures, which appear to repre- 

 sent our Lord and eleven apostles, those that may be 

 identified being St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. 

 Thomas, St. Philip, and St. Jude. The parapet is like 

 that of King's College chapel at Cambridge, with 

 pierced and cusped openings and triangular-headed bat- 

 tlements. There were originally five entrances to the 

 New Building from the presbytery, one from each 

 aisle, and three from the three eastern bays of the 

 apse, the 14th-century windowsills in which were 

 cut down to the floor level for the purpose, and their 

 jamb-mouldings continued down the sides of the 

 openings thus formed. 



The builder of this work was Abbot Robert Kir- 

 ton, 1496-1528, and his name and device occur on 

 it in many places. Under the windowsills are a 

 series of carved paterae on which are to be seen the 

 initials A R (Abbas Robertus) followed by a church 

 (Kirk) and a bird on a tun (for Kirkton or Kirton), 

 though the meaning of the bird is not clear. In one 

 case his name is given in ribbon letters ARKTON 

 (Abbas Robertus Kirton), and other devices are a port- 

 cullis, the arms of the abbey, a vernicle, a mitre, 

 croziers in saltire, etc., and two rebuses which are 

 difficult to guess, a bird on a branch and a flower 

 (.? rose) springing from, a tun. The arches opening 

 to the aisles of the presbytery have large paterae 

 with, in the case of that on the north side, Kirton's 

 rebus — a church on a ton — a mitre, and other devices, 

 and on that on the south the inscription ' Omnis 

 spiritus laudet dominum,' the abbey arms, etc. On 

 the bosses of the roof, beginning from the south side, 

 are shields with a saltire for St. Andrew, two swords 

 in saltire between four crosslets, two keys in saltire 

 between four crosslets,' a cross flory between four 

 lions for St. Oswald, the emblems of the Passion, the 

 arms of St. Edmund of East Anglia, the arms of St. 

 Edward the Confessor, the leopards of England and a 

 cross between four devices, three of which are a 

 tilting spear on a bend, a church or gateway, and a 

 chained animal, the fourth being indistinct. 



On the cornice, below the external parapet, the 

 abbot's name occurs several times as lAR (church) 

 TON, the meaning of the first letter not being clear, 

 and in another case the R and church seem to be 

 combined. In the parapet a carved device occurs in 

 the opening beneath each battlement, of which there 

 are three in a bay. The central device in each bay 

 is a sacred monogram, and the other two are foIi.age 

 patterns, except in one instance where Kirton's rebus 

 occurs. 



The transepts have eastern aisles and arcades of 

 four bays, the central columns being octagonal and the 

 others circular. The arches have the same' section 

 as those in the presbytery, and the same billet label 

 over them. Above is a string with zigz.ag, which 

 stops at the north-east and south-east angles respec- 

 tively, being continued round the transepts with a 

 plain roll ; this change of detail marking here, as in 

 the presbytery, a pause in the work. The triforium, 

 like that of the presbytery, is set out symmetrically in 

 four bays, but the arrangement is different, the middle 

 pier and the north and south responds in each tran- 

 sept, having two engaged shafts on either side of the 



central half-column, instead of the quarter cylinders 

 which occur in the other two piers. The tympana 

 over the sub-arches have the masonry set in a lozenge 

 pattern in three of the bays in the north transept, and 

 the imbricated masonry pattern, as in the presbytery, in 

 the fourth bay and in all the bays of the south tran- 

 sept except the southern b.iy, where the tympanum 

 is plain. Of the zigzag string above the triforium 

 only a small piece at the south end of the north 

 transept exists, the rest having a plain roll. The 

 clearstory is like that of the presbytery, with the same 

 inserted tracery, and the half-round shafts between 

 the bays start from bases set on the abaci of the 

 capitals of the main arches, and run up to plain 

 scalloped capitals at the level of the wooden ceilings. 



There are vices in the eastern angles of the gables in 

 both transepts, entered from the eastern aisles. That in 

 the north transept has a tympanum ornamented with a 

 scale pattern and cable border ; while the head of that 

 in the south transept has been rebuilt. In the south 

 transept there is a second doorway, west of the south 

 respond of the east arcade, externally of four moulded 

 orders with nook-shafts and a plain tympanum, which 

 shows traces of radiating lines meant either as false 

 joints or guides for setting out some ornament which 

 was never executed. The doorway originally led to 

 the monastic cemetery, and probably to the infirmary 

 by a passage east of the chapter-house. 



The vaults of the aisles have the same details as 

 those of the presbytery, but in neither transept is the 

 original arrangement of the east wall of the aisles pre- 

 served. In the north transept an original window 

 remains in the north wall of the aisle, with the usual 

 inserted 15th-century tracery, and a hatched string at 

 the sill level, but the two northern bays of the east 

 wall are pierced with late 13th-century arches 

 formerly opening to the Lady chapel, and now 

 blocked, with 15th-century windows inserted in the 

 blocking, their history being the same as that of the 

 windows in the north aisle of the presbytery. Under 

 the window in the second of these bays from the north 

 is a plain arched doorway, of the date of the blocking. 

 The third bay is filled with a window of f. 1275, 

 with three uncusped lights and three cinquefoiled 

 circles in the head, inserted to lighten the aisle when 

 the Lady chapel was built against its two northern 

 bays. 



In the south transept there is a window of this kind 

 in the east wall of each bay, while an original window 

 remains in the south wall, with inserted 15th-century 

 tracery, and below it a wall arcade of three arches. 



In neither transept are there any remains of a wall 

 arcade below the east windows. Both aisles were 

 divided into chapels, in the north transept by wooden 

 screens, and in the south by thin stone walls. The 

 latter, which still remain, are but little later in date 

 than the aisles. In that between the south aisle of 

 the presbyter)' and the north chapel of the transept 

 aisle is a I2th-centur)' recess with a moulded semi- 

 circular arch, a label with billet moulding, and short 

 engaged shafts in the jambs. It now contains the 

 effigy of an abbot and a 'restored" inscription which 

 calls it the burial place of three abbots, John de Scez, 

 1125, Martin de Bee, 1 155, and Andrew, 1201. 

 Above it is a hatched string, and in style it belongs to 



1 This and the preceding coat refer to 

 the abbey, but their precise attribution is 

 unknown. 



' Except the third arch from the north 

 in the south transept, which has no torus 

 on the soffit of its inner order. 



437 



' Gunton, op. cit. 27, • late in ancient 

 Saxon letters, but now in the ordinarj-, 

 renewed.' 



