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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[November, 



work had taken place before the tower was added, with the exception of a 

 slight subsequent disturbance, of which I shall speak presently. 



On the north and south walls, immediii'ely above the Norman string 

 course, may be traced a regular series of apertures, a, b, c, d, e, Fig. 2, in the 

 face of the wall about 11 inches square, in which were evidently once in- 

 serted the beams of a floor or ceiling. These apertures follow the sinking 

 line of the Norman work, and not the level line of the tower work ; conse- 

 quently they indicate the position of the original Norman ceiling, which is 

 now replaced by a vault of the fifteenth centurj'. As the lines of this vault 

 cut through the level of the floor, this last was necessarily removed to make 

 way for it. These holes on the north side, have been rudely stopped up with 

 blocks of tufa — the light substance used in vaulting — from which, we may 

 suppose that the beams were removed and the holes stopped when tlie vault 

 was in progress, and consequently this material at hand. 



At all events, the jointing of the masonry shows very clearly that the floor 

 beams were not removed at the time the walls were carried up ; for it is 

 evident that the new masonry was built round and about the beams, in a way 

 that it is not easy to describe, but which plainly shows that the beams were 

 left undisturbed. (Vide Figs, t and 5, and the explanation of them at the 

 end of the Report.) 



At each angle of the tower, as at g andy, and at the same level as these 

 beam holes, is a diagonal aperture higher than they are, and exteuding nearly 

 through the wall; now the purpose of the beam holes cannot be mistaken, 

 and we have seen that the new masonry was built round them without dis- 

 turbing them, and 1 conclude that these diagonal holes also received some 

 timber work, which in like manner was allowed to remain undisturbed. 



The interior walls of the tower are of a very singular construction: 12 piers, 

 W, Fig. '2, on each side, of compact masonry, beside angle piers, are carried 

 up to the height of 20 ft., and connected half-way up by a horizontal course 

 of stone, X, X, in long pieces, and by an iron bar, which runs all round im- 

 mediately under this bonding course. Upon these gigantic stone gratings, if 

 I may be allowed the expression, the interior wall of the tower rests ; and 

 they also carry the entire weight of the bell-chamber and bells. I believe 

 this construction was entirely adopted for the sake of lightness. 



It is clear that it was never intended to be seen from below, for there are 

 no means provided to illuminate the chamber so formed, which at present 

 derives all its light from the apertures in the floor of the bell-chamber above 

 it. The external walls of the tower were at the time of its erection buried 

 in the roof, of which the pitch was much higher than at present ; and if 

 windows be now inserted in these walls, I am of opinion, that besides weak- 

 ening the tower in a manner, which considering its antiquity and shattered 

 state, cannot be recommended, they will prove wholly inadequate to supply 

 sufiicient light to the chamber in question ; for the piers of the grating are 

 only 4i-in. asun.ler, with the exception of the middle interval, which is 18 in. 

 Moreover the piers of the grating are of different widths, and their bases ir- 

 regular, (Figs. 4 and 5,) and the whole has no decorative character; and in 

 addition to the fact that no light was supplied to this room in its original 

 state, which plainly shows that it was never intended to be seen from below, 

 1 have shown good reason for supposing that the ceiling which concealed 

 it was only removed to make way for the vault, so that in fact it never was 

 seen from below. 



I have now shown, that notwithstanding the shattered state of the piers 

 and arches, the architect of the tower imagined that they might be trusted 

 with the support of his new work. We may at least infer from this, that the 

 settlement had ceased to increase long before the year 1300, for it does not 

 even appear that any attempts were made to repair or fortify the piers for 

 the reception of the new load, with the exception of the north-western. The 

 arch which connects this with the first pier of the nave had a new arch, Z, 

 Fig. 2, inserted uniler it, and the arches which connected tliis pier with the north 

 transept, both on the ground, at (/, Fig. 1, and at the triforium, were tilled 

 up, leaving only a small doorway below. The ball-flower ornament, which 

 is given to this new pier arch and to a string course on the west wall over 

 this small doorway, serves to show that this work was done at the same 

 time as the tower, which is covered with a profusion of the same ball-flowers. 

 However, the confidence of the architect in his old piers and arches was 

 unhappily misplaced ; the new walls which have been described as resting on 

 the Norman string, exhibit settlements and fractures not nearly so great as 

 those of the Norman work immediately below them, but still of a very alarming 

 character. In the interior of the tower it is evident that the worst of them 

 IS due to the fractures of the stones over the apertures, which as already 

 described, were occupied originally by the beams and ancient wood work_ 

 At thCi^ngles ejpecially, the corner piers of the gratings are carried by large 



stones which cover the diagonal apertures, and are thus unsupported in the 

 middle, and these stones have fractured in every instance, allowing the piers 

 to descend more or less. Also the great eastern arch, the crown of which 

 had sunk so considerably before the tower was added, appears to have sunk 

 about an inch subsequently, which has allowed the stone grating on that side 

 to descend, and has produced rents and fractures at its junction with the 

 walls. The outer surface of the tower walls exhibits similar symptoms to 

 those already described of the interior. .\t the junction of the Norman and 

 Gothic masonry, the same sagging of the old work over the arches, and the 

 same shaping of the new course of masonry to accommodate this sagging, 

 may be observed, and it will also be seen, that the worst and most alarming 

 settlements are in the old work. 



Nevertheless it is evident that the dislocations of this old work had pro- 

 ceeded so far as to destroy the cohesion of the walls, and allow crushing of 

 the stone work to begin, which has proceeded, and probably continued from 

 time to time up to the present, and has now reached to such an extent as to 

 make a thorough repair and renewal of tlie ashlering of this portion of the 

 walls necessary to prevent the entire ruin of the tower. The upper part of 

 the tower was originally so substantially built, that when the older portion 

 has been reinstated, this will need comparatively little repair to make it per- 

 fectly sound. 



Having now disposed of the tower, I will return to its piers in the church 

 below. These piers have evidently been subjected from time to time to a 

 series of repairs and casings which it is not very easy to understand. 



I may here refer to a curious document preserved in the archives of the 

 Cathedral which will throw some light upon their history. In this is a bull 

 of Pope John XXII., dated 1319, by which the churches of Shenyngfeld and 

 Swalefeld are assigned to the uses of the fabric of the church of Hereford 

 in the usual form. But the preamble recites that whereas sometime since 

 the dean and chapter of Hereford did, upon an ancient foundation which in 

 the opinion of skilful masons was held to be firm and solid, erect a sump- 

 tuous budding upon which more than 20,000 marks were expended ; that 

 now from the weakness of the foundation, this building so threatens ruin, 

 that the entire fabric must be completely repaired from the foimdations up- 

 wards ; which they are unable to undertake, being also burthened with debts 

 incurred in the procuring of the canonization of Thomas of Cantilupe, &c. 



This document must allude to the tower and north transept, which were 

 both of them built upon or in connexion with Norman work, the "funda- 

 mentum antiquum " here mentioned. It is important, as showing that the 

 settlements in the new work, consequent upon its erection on so shattered a 

 substructure, must have begun to show themselves immediately after its 

 completion. But as the repairs which were intended to avert this threatened 

 ruin, appear to have been confined to the piers below, and not to have been 

 extended to the great arches and their ruined spandrils, we may conclude 

 that the settlements were imputed to the failure of the piers alone ; 

 and it may be presumed that the movement was arrested, since we find 

 that the present vault was substituted for the wooden ceiling sometime 

 in the fifteenth century, to judge by its mouldings and fashion, and probably 

 at the same time that the similar vault of the south transept was erected ; 

 for if the tower were then in a threatening state, it would hardly have been 

 tampered with by such an alteration. It must be confessed, however, that 

 the ribs of this vault are remarkably thin and light, and that it stands com- 

 pletely free of the walls on all sides, resting merely upon the four corbels. 

 This vault must be taken down to obtain proper access to the spandrel walls 

 in the course of the proposed repairs, but it may be replaced. 



I will now describe the present state of the four piers in order : — 

 I have already shown that the south face of the north-west pier was ori- 

 ginally traversed by a fissure, which allowed the upper western portion to 

 descend ; and it is easy to see that the whole of the Norman ashlering to the 

 west of the fissure has been removed and entirely rebuilt. At the upper 

 part, where the shattering and dislocation was the greatest, the face of this 

 new work is brought forwards a few inches ; but the remaining portion has 

 the same face as the Norman work, which shows that this repair was not a mere 

 casing like some of the others, but an actual renewal of the original ashlar. 

 This repair is crowned by a Gothic string moidding which lies immediately 

 under the Norman capitals ; one of these capitals, K, Fig. 2, having been, as 

 I suppose, crushed, has been replaced by a plain block of stone, and the 

 whole of the capitals on the eastern face of this pier have been also removed 

 and the new masonry carried much higher than on the southern face. This 

 work, or at least the southern face of it, is probably an ancient repair con- 

 sequent on the threatened ruin mentioned in the bull of 1319 ; but the re- 

 maining Norman face of this pier seems in course of time to have again 



