A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



2. DETAILED 

 DESCRIPTION 

 OF CHURCH 



The church consists of 

 an Eastern Transept, 

 129 ft. 5 in. long intern- 

 ally from north to south 

 and 34 ft. 2 in. wide, 

 Aisled Quire of five bays, North and South 

 Transepts, each of four bays in length, with 

 eastern aisle, Central Tower, Nave of eight bays, 

 with North and South Aisles terminating at the 

 west with Towers projecting in front of the 

 aisle walls, and a Western Porch, or Chapel, 

 known as the Galilee. 



The Quire is 125 ft. long by 32 ft. 8 in. 

 wide, and the total width across Quire and Aisles 

 77 ft. 2 in., the Aisles being each 15 ft. 3 in. wide, 

 and the piers of the arcades 7 ft. thick. Each 

 of the Transepts is 62 ft. 9 in. long, by 33 ft. 7 in. 

 wide, exclusive of its Aisle, the total length across 

 Transepts and Central Tower being 171 ft. 9 in. 

 The Nave is 198 ft. long and 32 ft. 4 in. wide 

 and the width across Nave and Aisles 81 ft. i in., 

 the Aisles being each about 17 ft. 6 in. The 

 Western Towers are each about 24 ft. 8 in. 

 east to west and 26 ft. north to south, and the 

 Gahlee measures 76 ft. 6 in. from north to 

 south and 48 ft. from west to east. All these 

 measurements are internal. 



The whole of the building is faced with dressed 

 stone, very much renewed, and the roofs of the 

 Nave, Quire, North Transept and Chapel of 

 the Nine Altars are slated. All the other roofs 

 are covered with lead.* 



The eastern transept, or CHAPEL OF THE 

 NINE ALTARS, is divided vertically into three 

 main sections marked externally by major but- 

 tresses on the east side in hne with the walls of 

 the quire, the middle section being thus much 

 narrower than the others, each of which inter- 

 nally is divided into three bays. The north- 

 west and south-west angles are each covered by 

 a massive octagonal staircase turret, and at the 

 north-east and south-east angles are strong 

 piers of masonry forming buttresses weighted 

 by lofty pinnacles. The chapel is vaulted at 

 the same level as the quire, but additional 

 height is obtained by placing the floor 2 ft. 8 in. 

 below the quire aisle floor, an arrangement due 

 primarily to the fall in the ground at the east 

 end of the church. The walls, with the excep- 

 tion of the north wall, are divided horizontally 

 into two main stages, the division between the 

 stages being slightly above the triforium level 

 of the quire. A passage, approached by large 



* The slated roof of the nave and quire appears to 

 have taken the place of the older higher-pitched cover- 

 ing of lead subsequent to 1 775. A pordon of the old 

 lead covering remained in 181 2 over the nave adjoin- 

 ing the central tower, but it was renewed in the 

 foUomng year : Raine, Durh. Cath. (1833), 122. The 

 roof of the chapel of the Nine Altars is sho^vn leaded 

 in Billings' drawing, 1842. 



vices in the western angle turrets, is carried 

 through the north, east, and south walls at the 

 sill-level of the windows in the lower stage, and 

 there is a second passage in the east and south 

 walls at the base of the upper stage, which is also 

 the sill-level of the upper windows. Smaller 

 vices at the top of the main vices lead to passages 

 on the west side through which access is gained 

 to the eastern compartment of the quire clear- 

 story. A vice in the turret capping the south- 

 east buttress formerly led from the upper wall 

 passage to the roof, but was blocked at the 

 time of Wyatt's restoration. 



In the ground stage the wall surface below the 

 windows and between the vaulting-piers is 

 entirely occupied by an arcade of elaborately 

 moulded trefoil arches inclosed by labels with 

 headstops, over the intersections of which are 

 elongated quatrefoil panels touching the sill 

 string, but not meeting over the heads of the 

 arches. Two of these panels, in the east wall, 

 are enriched — one with foliage and the other with 

 a sculptured figure — but all the rest are plain. 

 The arches spring from detached marble shafts 

 with stiff-leaf capitals and water-table bases 

 standing on a boldly moulded pUnth, which on 

 the east wall is stepped upwards to clear the 

 altars which formerly were placed along it and 

 drops at the extremities of each section nearly 

 to floor level, the outermost shafts as originally 

 designed being nearly twice the length of the 

 others. 



The east wall is divided internally into seven 

 bays by the vaulting-piers and externally by four 

 major and four minor buttresses. The width of 

 the great central bay was governed by that of the 

 quire, of which it now forms the structural 

 eastern termination ; three altars were placed 

 in it, and the three bays on either side were set 

 out to contain one altar each, the clear -.vidth of 

 each bay between the vaulting-piers being roughly 

 equal to one third of the central bay. 



The central bay is occupied by three lancet 

 windows in the lower stage and a large wheel 

 window above. Each of the narrow side bays 

 contains a large lancet wndow with a second and 

 less lofty lancet above it. The vaulting-piers 

 flanking the central bay are of half-lozenge plan, 

 each having seven detached marble shafts, 

 three on either face, and one, somewhat stouter, 

 at the apex of the pier. These are separated from 

 each other by stone shaft-rolls, and all have 

 richly carved stiff-leaf capitals some 4 ft. 6 in. 

 above the siU-level of the upper windows. The 

 shafts are encircled by annulets at the sill-level 

 of the lower tier of windows, and again at a point 

 about midway between this level and their 

 capitals. The vaulting-piers which divide the 

 three bays on either side are of the same char- 

 acter and rise to the same height, but they are 

 of slighter proportions, having each only 



96 



