A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



third bay of the north aisle, continuing as a plain roll, 

 and just east of the north doorway of the nave in the 

 sixth bay is a break in the masonry, accompanied by 

 a change' in the section of the pilaster buttresses, the 

 small rolls on their angles being enlarged so as to take 

 up the full projection of the buttress. 



All the windows in both aisles belong to the type 

 already noted as inserted in the south aisle of the presby- 

 tery, and the outer vault cells have been altered to accom- 

 modate them. The string above the wall arcades has 

 been cut away and replaced by one contemporary with 

 the inserted windows, except in the eighth and ninth 

 bays of the south aisle, where it remains, of a like 

 section with that in the transepts, but plain, without 

 the hatched ornament. 



The north doorw.ay of the nave is in the sixth bay, 

 and has a round arch of four orders with a moulded 

 label, the three outer orders being ornamented with 

 horizontal and vertical zigzag. The jambs have three 

 nook-shafts a side, with fluted and scalloped capitals, 

 the inner pair having small volutes at the salient 

 angles. 



In the south aisle are two doorways opening to the 

 cloister, and forming the eastern and western procession 

 doors. The first, called in the Custumal the door 

 next the book-cupboard, is in the second bay of the 

 aisle, and has a round arch of four orders with a 

 billeted label, the outer order being ornamented with 

 zigzag, and the inner with a foliage pattern divided 

 by a zigzag band with pellets, while the two inter- 

 mediate orders are moulded with a roll and hollow. 

 The jambs have four nook-shafts a side, with plain 

 cushion capitals. The other doorway, the St. 

 Paul's door of the Custumal, is of 1 3th-century 

 style, with a pointed arch of four moulded orders 

 and nook-shafts with moulded capitals, and three lines 

 of dogtooth ornament in the jambs. All the stone- 

 work in this doorway is modern. 



The eighth pier of the nave arcade on both sides is 

 much more massive than the rest, and the transverse 

 arches in the aisles at this point are of two orders 

 instead of one. In the bay of which this pier forms 

 the eastern respond the aisle wall is a foot thicker 

 than elsewhere, and in the south triforium there re- 

 mains against the south side of the main pier, on the 

 line of the wide transverse arch in the aisle below, 

 the responds and springing of a second arch, designed 

 to span the triforium passage, and the buttress in the 

 outer wall at this point is 6 ft. wide instead of 

 4 ft. 3 in., the normal width elsewhere. The arch 

 has evidently been built, and the wall over it carried 

 up for a considerable height, though both are now 

 destroyed, for on the east side of the block of rubble, 

 which is all that remains of the southern respond of 

 this arch, is a roughly built stone staircase leading to 

 the leads over the triforium, which shows clear traces 

 of having been built against a vertical face on its west 

 side, or, in other words, against the now destroyed 

 wall which crossed the triforium at this point. In the 

 north triforium nothing of the sort is to be seen. 



The ninth pair of piers of the nave arcade are of 

 the normal plan on the west side, but the arches 

 between them and the eighth piers are 5 ft. wider 

 than the rest, and the responds have engaged shafts 

 instead of the quarter-cylinders as elsewhere in the 

 nave. 



' A like change in the buttress-section above the first string- 

 course takes place in the north transept at the north-west angle, 

 here also coinciding with a pause in the work. 



There are traces also in the base of the ninth pier 

 of the south arcade of the start of a wall crossing the 

 aisle at this point. 



All these features clearly point to the fict that these 

 bays were to have been occupied by towers, that on 

 the south side having been actually built to a con- 

 siderable height. The scheme was, however, abandoned 

 before the work was complete, and the nave, which 

 was at first designed to end at this point, was pro- 

 longed westward for two more b.iys, the west walls of 

 the towers being destroyed and the westward piers 

 altered to suit the change of design. 



This new or second west front was to have had 

 towers over the aisles of the nave, flanked on the north 

 and south by shallow transepts. Of the design of the 

 west wall of this scheme it is impossible to speak, as 

 nothing of it remains above ground, but the arrange- 

 ment of its inner face, as far as regards the responds in 

 it, must have been that which exists. 



It is probable that this design was stopped by the 

 death of Abbot Benedict in 1 1 94, and the evidences 

 of the stoppage are very clear. At the time it took 

 place the ninth bay was complete to the top of the 

 clearstory, and the tenth bay to the sills of the 

 clearstory windows. At the junction with the tran- 

 septs the work had reached the floor of the clearstory 

 passages, and at the eastern angles of the transepts it 

 was some 6 ft. below that point. In the gable ends 

 of the transepts the wall was only as high as the 

 springing of the large north and south windows, and 

 at the west angles of the transepts had sunk to the 

 level of their sills, while, as before noted, there is no 

 masonry belonging to this work in the west walls of 

 the transepts. 



The details of the bases in the nave are of value in 

 showing the order of building. 



In the main arcades the base A used in the two 

 eastern bays also occurs in the third and fourth piers 

 of the north arcade, and again in a few cases in the 

 eighth, while in the south arcade it is used exclusively 

 in all piers up to the eighth. A second and later 

 type, B, begins in the fifth pier of the north arcade, 

 and is used in all piers up to the tenth, while in the 

 south arcade it first occurs on the west side of the 

 eighth pier, and is used in the ninth and tenth. 



In both aisle walls base A is used for the responds as 

 far as the west side of the eighth bay, and base B in the 

 two west of this point in the south aisle, and in one 

 only in the north. The remaining respond in the 

 north aisle, that at the south-east angle of the north- , 

 west transept, has a third base, C, of still more ad- 

 vanced section, and this occurs also, in conjunction 

 with B, in the tenth pier of the north arcade, and 

 there is one example of it, whether in position or re- 

 used, in the respond in the west wall opposite the 

 tenth pier. The capitals show a less regular develop- 

 ment, as the general design of the nave follows the old 

 lines throughout, but the scallops and flutes become 

 more numerous as the work proceeds, and the wall 

 arcade in the last bay of the north aisle has bell 

 capitals and foliage. 



The cast windows in the western transepts are tall 

 and narrow, as the triforium passages stop at the west 

 ends of the aisles, and are not continued round the 

 east and gable walls of the transepts, thus leaving the 

 wall space from the clearstory string downwards to be 

 treated as one stage. The heads of these windows are 

 pointed, but that in the north transept appears t.i 

 have been round, and was perhaps altered when the 



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