1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



37: 



exhibited threatening symptoms ; for it has been fortified in a very singular and 

 unsightly fashion by cramping against its face a shell of masonry, T, 9 in. 

 thick. This masonry is composed of very long and narrovp stones set end- 

 long, but is traversed in the middle and terminated at the height of 33 ft. by 

 horizontal courses which serve to bind the work, and probably contain iron 

 bands for the purpose of assisting in keeping the pier together. This casing 

 extends round three sides of the pier, occupying portions of the north and 

 south faces, n, p. Fig. 1, and the whole of the east face, o, o ; but the original 

 Norman shafts still remain upon this latter face to the height of 23 ft., and the 

 surface of the Norman wall, beneath the casing, does not appear to have been 

 broken into. The whole work is apparently the contrivance of a country mason, 

 and as such, its efficacy is not much to be depended upon. The object of the 

 vertical beds may have been to reduce the number of horizontal joints, and 

 thus to avoid or diminish the shrinking of the work, which is always a source 

 of difficulty when new work is united with old. But more probably the evil 

 to be remedied, was a bulging out of the Norman asblering, like that which 

 now appears on the north face of the south-western pier, and on the spandrils 

 of the great arches, and these long stones were intended to act like the 

 splinters applied to a broken leg. 



The north-east pier, A, Fig. 1, is repaired in a totally different manner, 

 being completely cased or enveloped in a coating of solid masonry, Q, R, Fig. 2 

 laid in the usual manner in horizontal courses, which have thickened out the 

 pier upon the plan 9 in. in every direction, as shown at a, b, z, :, d, e, Fig. 1. 

 Whether this masonry is also a mere shell cramped against the undisturbed 

 Norman face of the pier, or whether the Norman asblering has been re- 

 moved and the additional work properly bonded into this pier, I cannot tell, 

 but it is very desirable that this fact should be ascertained, as its present effi- 

 ciency depends very much upon that circumstance. However this may be, it 

 is the work of two different periods. The southern face of the pier shows a 

 nearly vertical fissure or separation of the masonry, and the lines of the beds 

 will be found on examination to be at dilferent levels on the two sides of 

 the fissure which at the bottom and near the top is a mere vertical straight 

 joint. The westein half, Q, Fig. 2, of this casing is the more recent of the 

 two, and their line of juncture at present exhibits the appearance of a dan- 

 gerous crack. This is occasioned by the inevitable shrinking of the late 

 work from the earher ; and as the pier shows no symptoms of giving way 

 in other respects, it does not appear to impair its stability. 



The south-eastern pier, B, Fig. 1, retains its Norman face, on a portion of 

 the southern side, /(, g, but the western and northern faces, as well as the rest 

 of the southern face, have been entirely and substantially rebuilt ; for although 

 the present face advances a few inches beyond that of the original Norman 

 pier, it is evident that the Norman asblering was in this case removed. This 

 pier is in excellent condition, and appears to need no repair or alteration 

 whatever. This work may be attributed to the period immediately succeeding 

 the bull of 1319. The corbel which sustains the tower vault, and which rests 

 upon the string moulding which caps this new asblering, is formed in such a 

 manner as to show that it was intended to rest upon this string course, and 

 consequently must have been inserted after the string course was completed ; 

 the repair therefore in question, must have taken place before the tower vault 

 was inserted in the fifteenth century ; but the western face of this pier seems 

 to have been subsequently under-pinned. 



The south-western pier, D, Fig. 1, retains on its northern face, r,s, a por- 

 tion of the Norman asblering, with about 1 1 ft. of the shafts ; above, and to the 

 east of these, from s to /, the Norman asblering has been removed and rebuilt, 

 probably in the 14th century, when the other piers were repaired. A long 

 corbel is advanced near the upper part, which carries a projecting pier of ma- 

 sonry, for the purpose of supporting the original Norman capitals, which have 

 been respected and preserved as much as possible throughout all these repairs 

 and alterations. This pier, has at some subsequent period undergone a second 

 repair upon its eastern face, which has been underpinned and brought for- 

 ward al)0ut 10 in. to the east. This work, t, v, which is also carried round 

 the southern part of the pier, only extends to 20 ft. in height, and then falls 

 back with a chamfer to the original face. It exhibits no signs of settlement, 

 and appears to have been firmly and substantially executed ; but the junction 

 of these three different works upon the plain northern face of this pier, 

 greatly increases the shattered appearance of its masonry, for each boundary 

 line, at first sight, looks like a fissure. Also the half round pier, r, w, which 

 received the first arch of the nave, has been rudely cut into for the insertion 

 of the pier of a pointed arch, which has been substituted for the Norman 

 arch on this side of the nave ; for as the tower pier in question had declined 

 to the west, as already explained, exactly as the opposite pier had done, the 

 Norman arch, on this side, must have been distorted and shattered in the 



same manner as the opposite one, Z, Fig. 2, and probably in so great a degree 

 as to render it necessary to replace it entirely. 



In addition to the various repairs of the piers thus detailed, most of the 

 Norman arches in connexion with these piers have been filled up with solid 

 masonry, leaving only doorways. The only one in fact which remains un- 

 touched, is the arch which opens between the south transept and the side 

 aisle of the choir. At what period these and the other repairs were exe- 

 cuted, it is not easy to determine. However, these fillings up, as well as the. 

 piers of the ox-eye masonry, are shown in the plan of Hereford Cathedral 

 given by Browne Willis, in 1727. This is, I believe, the oldest plan extant, 

 for the Monasticon contains no plan of this Cathedral. Perhaps some of 

 these works are due to Bishop Bisse, who is recorded in the former work a^ 

 having caused the whole fabric to be repaired, and the choir new beautifieil 

 throughout. He occupied the see from 1712 to 1721. The ox-eye mnsonri.' 

 is so termed, because the centre of it is pierced by an opening in the form of 

 the ancient vesica piscis, called by workmen, an ox-eye. 



This masonry, W, Fig. 2, completely fills up the two smaller arches of the 

 tower, namely, the north and south, and is itself supported by two segmental 

 arches branching from an octangular central column. It was, of course, in- 

 tended to support the arches and tower in their evident state of dilapidation, 

 but it is impossible to conceive a more injudicious or useless work than it 

 presents ; in fact, the masonry is so absurdly arranged, that it is unable even 

 to support itself. Its mass has settled in two parts upon its two segmental 

 arches, straightening them and descending and abandoning the arch it was 

 intended to support. The settlements and fissures which now appear in this 

 masonry, are merely the effects of this change of form, and as I do not be- 

 lieve it has had the slightest influence, either for good or evil, upon the build- 

 ing — it may be with safety entirely removed. 



I have thus attempted to develop the causes which have brought the 

 buihling to its present state ; and have endeavoured to show that the settle- 

 ments are of great antiquity, and that many of them are of such a nature, 

 that no apprehensions need be entertained from them, they having taken 

 place immediately after the completion of the work, and not having yielded 

 since ; also that many of them have arisen from the injudicious junction f 

 the new work with old. But when the facts of the fall of the west end in 

 178G, and the evidently impending ruin of the eastern gable of the Lady 

 Chapel are considered, there is too much reason to fear that some of these 

 early settlements may have extended so far, in the first instance, as to weak :n 

 and destroy the integrity of the walls, so as to allow them to sink and lie 

 crushed under the weight of the subsequent additions. This is evidently lie 

 case with the four great Norman arches, the masonry of which and of the 

 spandrel walls above, is in such a state of ruin as to make an immediate 

 repair absolutely necessary for the preservation of the tower. The piers 

 upon which these arches rest, have been, as we have seen, subjected to a 

 series of repairs, many of which have been so substantially executed as to 

 make them perfectly safe. This is especially the case with the south-eastern 

 pier, which is in excellent order, and with the north-eastern, which exhibits 

 only an original vertical fissure, from which nothing need now be apprehended. 

 The two westerly piers are not in such good condition, and these, as we have 

 seen, did, in the first instance, snfter much more from settlement than the 

 others. The mode in which the north-western pier has been repaired or 

 bolstered is unsightly, and may conceal a state of ruin which it is inadequate 

 to prevent. Also the north-western portion of this pier exhibits some frac- 

 tures, from which there is too much reason to suppose that the heart of tlie 

 work is in a very unsound condition. For which reasons it would lie de- 

 sirable to remove this casing, and subject this pier to a thorough repair, in 

 the course of which the real state of the internal parts will become evident, 

 and an opinion may be formed of the necessity for a similar operation upon 

 the south-western pier, of which the northern face exhibits in some parts 

 signs of weakness, which may be merely superficial, but which at all events 

 call for examination and repair. 



I do not think it necessary or expedient to restore the original form of the 

 Norman piers. The repairs, which are, as I have shown, themselves of a 

 sufficient antiquity to claim respect, have so far advanced the faces of these 

 piers in many places, and removed the Norman shafts in others, and the set- 

 tlements have so disturbed the capitals from their true positions, that any 

 attempt to restore the original form and to replace the shafts must be at- 

 tended with very great expense. The existing mode of capping the restored asb- 

 lering with a Gothic string, immediately under the Norman capitals, answers 

 every purpose of uniting the two works, with a due regard to appearance. 

 To the very Itcv. Uoukrt Willis. 



The Dean and Chapter of Hereford, Cambridrje, Oct. 12, IS-1 1. 



3 G 



