A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



alone set Durham in the first rank of the 

 great Romanesque churches of the north, but 

 an exceptional value is added to it by the 

 complete structural evidence of the intention 

 to cover the whole building with stone rib-vaults 

 as part of the original scheme. There is no 

 surviving church in Normandy which can show 

 so early a use of this construction, but that it is 

 of Norman origin is equally certain. So much of 

 the building energy of the Normans was trans- 

 ferred to English soil after the Conquest that an 

 advance in development on this side of the 

 Channel is not a matter for surprise. Certain 

 features, however, which do not occur in Nor- 

 mandy at this date, must be noted. The long 

 eastern arm of four bays, as at St. Albans, has 

 no existing counterpart in Normandy, where a 

 presbytery of two bays is normal, and the 

 cushion capital, practically unknown in Nor- 

 mandy, is used every^vhere in Durham to the 

 exclusion of the Norman volute capital, so that 

 it may be said that the Norman designer of 

 Durham Cathedral did not come direct from 

 Normandy to Durham, but had had previous 

 experience of building in England. 



It is not possible to say exactly how far the 

 work had advanced between August 1093 and 

 Bishop William's death in January 1096, but the 

 first design continues unaltered through the 

 eastern arm and as far as the top of the triforium 

 on the east side of both transepts. The west 

 walls of the transepts are of simpler character 

 and suggest that lack of funds after the bishop's 

 death may have affected this part of the design, 

 but a more impressive witness to a modification 

 of the original scheme is seen in the temporary 

 abandonment of the intention to vault the 

 transepts. The clearstory of the south tran- 

 sept, with its continuous arcade of tall arches, is 

 clearly designed for a wooden ceiling, and since 

 no hesitation was shown in vaulting the eastern 

 arm, it is reasonable to conclude that this alter- 

 ation was due to lack of funds. 



A landmark in the progress of the work is 

 made by the record of the translation of St. 

 Cuthbert to his shrine in 1104; the details of 

 the story make it clear that the stone vault over 

 the eastern arm was finished by this date, and 

 it may be suggested that the south transept 

 with a wooden ceiling was completed by that 

 time. The two eastern bays of the main arcade 

 of the nave, and of its aisles, together with one 

 bay of the triforium, belong, with certain small 

 modifications, to the earlier work of the church, 

 and it is reasonable to suppose that the north 

 transept was finished and its stone vault built 

 as part of this work. The limit of date may be 

 c. II 10. At the continuation of the building 

 of the nave a new feature appears, namely the 

 cheveron ornament, introduced in the arcade 

 arches and the ribs of the aisle vaults. It also 



occurs in the vaults of the south transept, which 

 must have been undertaken while the continua- 

 tion of the nave was in progress. It must be 

 assumed that the lack of funds which followed 

 on Bishop William's death had been overcome, 

 and possibly the translation of 1104 brought a 

 new era of prosperity. 



The last stage of the work, the building of the 

 stone vault over the nave, falls within the five 

 years 1128-1133, and it is a matter of much 

 interest to note, as a landmark in the story of 

 vault construction, that the springing stones of 

 the great transverse arches are designed for a 

 semicircular curve. The weakness which by 

 then may have been evident in the presbytery 

 vault, owing to the flatness at the crown of the 

 diagonal ribs, must have suggested the use of a 

 higher trajectory in the nave, and the substitu- 

 tion of pointed transverse arches for the semi- 

 circular arches was the result. 



Geoffrey Ruf us (i 1 30-40), then,found the cathe- 

 dral church practically complete, together with 

 the greater part of the monastic buildings. The 

 slype between the south transept and the chapter 

 house, with its barrel vault, had been built in 

 the time of William, or in the interval between 

 his death and the appointment of Flambard, but 

 the chapter house was still incomplete, though 

 there can be no doubt that its plan had long been 

 settled, and probably the walls had been set 

 out to the level of the string below the wall 

 arcading. Ruf us completed the chapter house, 

 with a very rich doorway in whose capitals the 

 centaur occurs, together with mermaids and other 

 monsters carved in spirited fashion. 



Hugh Pudsey (1153-1195) began to build a 

 Lady Chapel at the east end of the church, but, 

 taking the failure of his work as the result of 

 divine prohibition, abandoned it and built the 

 Gahlee Chapel at the west end, c. 1175. He also 

 enriched the exterior of the south-east doorway 

 of the nave. His work, which can be identified in 

 many places throughout the diocese, is always 

 characterised by boldness and originality. 



Richard de Marisco (1217-1226) probably 

 completed the western towers. 



Richard Poore was translated from Sahsbury 

 in 1229, and by 1235 the serious condition of 

 the quire vault seems to have decided him to 

 substitute for the then existing triapsidal eastern 

 termination of the church a building which is 

 now represented by the Chapel of the Nine 

 Altars. The work was not actually begun till 

 1242,^ under the direction of Prior Melsonby 

 (1233-1244), but there can be no doubt that the 

 ground plan was influenced by Bishop Poore, 

 whose connexion with the building of Salisbury 

 testifies to his interest in the task. There is 

 evidence that the design was altered in several 



^ Hist. Dun. Script. Ires (Surtees Soc), p. 41. 



94 



