A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



still exists in a restored form, but with these 

 exceptions the building seems to have remained 

 pretty much as completed in the first half of the 

 1 2th century. It consisted of two bays, each 

 covered by a quadripartite vault, and a third 

 bay over the apse, the vault of which was set 

 out by keeping the four western ribs in straight 

 Hnes on plan, thus making them of unequal 

 length and throwing the keystone to the east of 

 the centre of the apse curve.-* The transverse 

 arches were semicircular, and the ribs of the 

 vaults had a shghtly pointed soffit roll flanked 

 by cheverons of convex profile : in the apse the 

 ribs sprang from large figure corbels and the 

 soffit roll was flanked by a row of star ornaments 

 and cheverons.-' A wall arcade of semicircular 

 intersecting arches ran round the building, 

 except at the west end, below which was a stone 

 bench raised on two steps, and in the middle of 

 the east wall, standing on a dais, was a con- 

 temporary stone chair in which the bishops were 

 installed. The floor was covered with monu- 

 mental slabs of the bishops buried beneath it, 

 including those of St. Calais, Flambard, Geoffrey 

 Rufus, and Pudsey, and at the west end of the 

 south wall was a doorway with flat lintel and 

 semicircular reheving arch similar to those of 

 the transept turret staircases.-* The destruc- 

 tion of its east end reduced the length of the 

 chapter house to about 35 ft., making it practi- 

 cally a square room. The whole of the vault 

 was demoHshed and a new coved roof erected, 

 cutting across the great west window, the walls 

 being covered with lath and plaster, and the 

 windows flanking the west doorway blocked. 

 In 1830 part of the lath and plaster on the north 

 side was taken down and the whole was removed 

 in 1847, when the wall arcades were restored. 

 In 1857 the west wall, including the doorway 

 and the window above, was restored, and in 

 1874 excavations were carried out on the site 

 of the destroyed part of the building, the floor 

 of which was exposed and the graves of Bishops 

 Flambard, Geoffrey Rufus, WiUiam de Ste. 

 Barbe, Robert de Insula, and Kellaw were 

 opened.^^ 



The rebuilding of 1895-6, under the direction 

 of Mr. C. Hodgson Fowler, restored the chapter 

 house to something like its former appearance, 

 the east end being erected on the old plan, 

 though the original design of the apse vault 

 was not followed, and round-headed windows of 

 12th-century type take the place of the 14th- 

 century windows destroyed by Wyatt. The 



28 Bilson, ^owr«. Roy. Inst. Brit. Archts. vi, 318. 



2' Three of the corbels and the keystone have been 

 preserved ; the former are in the Chapter Library. 



2* These particulars are taken from Greenwell, 

 op. cit. 47, based on drawings by Carter, made in 

 1795- 



2* The excavations are described in Arch, xlv, 385. 



height to the crown of the new vault is 44 ft., 

 above which is a low-pitched lead-covered roof. 

 The stone bench and steps round the building 

 have been reconstructed and the wall arcades 

 renewed. The removal of the floor in the 

 western part, constructed in 1796, brought to 

 light several fragments of early sculptured 

 crosses, probably of late 10th-century date, and 

 also the arms of the stone chair, which have been 

 worked into a new chair in the original position. 

 The reconstructed doorway'" at the west end 

 of the south wall leads to a small chamber be- 

 longing to the earliest buildings, against which 

 the chapter house was erected. The juxta- 

 position of the two walls is plainly seen within 

 the recess of the doorway, the depth of which 

 is about 5 ft. This chamber, which in the later 

 days of the monastery was used as a PRISON 

 for light offences, is about 23 ft. long from west 

 to east, and 12 ft. wide, and is Hghted by a 

 round-headed window. It has a flat wooden 

 ceiling, and on its south wall are traces of painting 

 representing Our Lady in glory,'' while in the 

 north end of the west wall is a triangular-headed 

 recess. A doorway in the south wall leads to 

 two smaller chambers, or cells, in the first of 

 which is a hatch for conveying food to the 

 prisoner, and in the inner a latrine. These 

 cells were under the stairs to the first dorter, the 

 doorway to which still remains in the cloister 

 wall, together with the first two or three steps 

 of the staircase itself. The face of the wall here 

 is of rubble, in contrast with the squared ashlar 

 north of it, a break, or setback of 14^ in., in 

 the wall at the south end of the chapter house 

 marking the junction of Rufus' work with that of 

 Walcher. The staircase doorway is, however, 

 an early 1 2th-century insertion and has been much 

 restored ; it has a semicircular arch of three 

 orders, the innermost square and the others 

 with a roll on the edge, springing from moulded 

 imposts on single nook-shafts with cushion 

 capitals and moulded bases.'- Beyond this, 

 at the end of the eastern cloister wall, is the 

 so-called ' Usher's Door,'" a restored 15th- 

 century pointed doorway with a single con- 

 tinuous hollow moulded order with label, which 

 opened to ' the entrie in under the Prior's 

 lodginge, and streight in to the centorie garth.' ^ 



'* The original design has not been followed. 



'1 Greenwell, op. cit. 49. 



'- Tlie shafts are modern restorations. The impost 

 moulding remains in its entirety on the inner faces 

 of the jambs, but has been mutilated on the outer side, 

 apparently when the opening was blocked. It is now 

 opened out and is fitted with a door, which gives on 

 to the remains of the stairs. 



" ' Here probably the gentleman usher waited to 

 attend the prior to the church, as the verger still 

 waits for the dean ' ; Fowler's notes in Rites, 256. 



^ Rites, 87. 



126 



