A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



the idea of a vault had been abandoned. The 

 later builders, however, could scarcely have done 

 otherwise than follow in the triforium what had 

 been done in the easternmost bay, and they may 

 have intended from the first to construct a 

 high vault with corbel supports, as had been 

 done on the west side of the north transept." 

 However that may be, there is evidence to 

 show that before the clearstory was reached 

 the construction of a high vault had been 

 thought out, and there can be no doubt that the 

 existing vault was built as the original covering 

 of the nave. 



That a vault was intended before the 

 clearstory was completed is indicated by the 

 clearstory arcade itself (which is designed to 

 fit the lunettes of the vault), and by the con- 

 struction of the abutting arches over the tri- 

 forium. Both the major and minor piers of 

 the triforium are reinforced at the back by 

 broad pilasters of single projection,^ and the 

 vault is abutted by half-arches, or rudimentary 

 flying buttresses,*** of the same width as the 

 pilasters across the triforium stage beneath 

 the roof, \vhich on the outer wall spring from 

 shorter pilasters with chamfered plinths. The 

 fact that these plinths were built with the wall 

 shows that preparation was already being made 

 for the abutment of a high vault, and the arches 

 themselves could only have been built when the 

 outer and inner walls had been carried up to a 

 sufficient height to receive them. The clearstory 

 arcade is of the same type as that of the north 

 transept, but of different proportions and more 

 advanced in character. The semicircular arches 

 spring, as in the transept, from monolithic 

 shafts, but the outer jambs have attached 

 shafts with cushion capitals. The wide stilted 

 arch in front of the windo^vs is decorated with 

 cheverons, but the smaller arches remain un- 

 moulded. It should be noted that the barrel 

 vault over the waU passage is reduced in height 

 through the pier between the openings, a measure 

 for which there would have been no need unless 

 a vault over the nave had been intended, its 

 purpose being to avoid undue weakening of the 

 abutment. The whole of the clearstory is a 

 homogeneous work built at one time ; the 

 cheverons on the middle arches are of the same 

 type as those of the triforium arches below, 

 and the cheveron string-course belongs to the 



*5 Bilson,in Arch. Jour, bcxix, 143. 



** On the easternmost pier on the north side, which is 

 part of the first work, there is perhaps an indication 

 that the first intention was to build a semicircular 

 abutting arch as in the quire and transepts, but there 

 is no such indication on the corresponding pier on the 

 south side. Bilson, op. cit. 143. 



66a "Pyvo orders were added under the flying arches 

 in 1914, which brought some strong critici'^m. Cf. 

 Ptoc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xrviii, 52. 



second building period in its whole length, 

 up to the west side of the crossing. The set-back 

 of the face of the clearstory wall is very slight, 

 varying on the north side from i-J in. to 6 in., 

 and on the south never exceeding 2j in. The 

 height of the clearstory stage is about 12 in. 

 more than in the north transept, and seems to 

 have been controlled by the vault. 



The height of the nave vault was governed 

 to some extent by the semicircular west arch 

 of the crossing, w^hich is slightly stilted. In 

 addition to the three shafts which receive the 

 principal orders of this arch the west piers of 

 the crossing have, as elsewhere, an additional 

 shaft designed to receive the outer order of the 

 arch on that side. This shaft, however, is here 

 utilised for the springing of the diagonal ribs 

 of the east bay of the nave, and the outer order 

 of the crossing arch, which is decorated with 

 cheverons, dies into the cell of the vault." When 

 the walls of the nave were carried up it was in- 

 tended that the great transverses should be 

 semicircular, repeating the west crossing arch, 

 and springer stones were set on the capitals 

 of the great triple shafts for arches of that shape.** 

 The semicircular curve was, however, actually 

 employed for the diagonal ribs, and this in a 

 large measure controlled the design of the nave 

 vaulting, the transverse arches becoming 

 pointed almost as a matter of course in order 

 to keep the ridge level.*' But as the height 

 did not allow of pointed arches of a normal 

 form, they were made segmental, the centres 

 being dropped so considerably that the curves 

 spring from the capitals with great abruptness. 

 The pointed arch, too, avoided the weakness 

 of a flat crown, and the whole vault of the nave 

 shows a remarkable advance on those of the 

 transepts. The transverses have two orders, 

 the wide inner ones moulded with a roll between 

 two hollows, and the outer ornamented with 

 cheverons. In the easternmost sub-bay the curves 

 of the diagonal ribs are very slightly stilted, 



*' The vault springs from the same level as the 

 crossing arches. 



** Mr. Bilson points out that in five cases of the eight 

 the lowest stone of the inner order was thus built for 

 a semicircular arch, but that in the three others the 

 segmental curve of the inner order starts directly from 

 the top of the capital. The lowest voussoirs, or 

 springers, of the outer order are some 5 in. to 7 in. 

 wider than those above them. They were built on the 

 capitals as the work went up, but when the walls had 

 been carried up to a sufficient height to enable the 

 arches and vault to be built the soffit width of the 

 outer order was reduced in order that the diagonal ribs 

 might clear themselves better at the springing. Op. 

 cit. 147. 



*9 The apex of the extrados of the pointed transverse 

 arch is only a few inches higher than the crown of the 

 extrados of the semicircular crossing arch. Bilson, 

 op. cit. 152. 



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