Cathedral Church Of St Andrew

The Cathedral Church of St Andrew is one of England's most significant medieval cathedrals, representing successive phases of development from the late 12th through the 15th centuries.

Historical Development

A bishopric was established at Wells in 909, and a Saxon cathedral was built, though nothing of this structure remains visible above ground (excavations in 1978-79 revealed its foundations). The see was transferred to Bath in 1090. The church was extended and altered in 1140 in Norman style under Bishop Robert Lewes; part of this Norman work lies beneath the south transept of the present cathedral.

The present church was begun at the east end in 1176 and continued to its consecration in 1239, though with a substantial interruption from 1190 to 1206. The designer was Adam Lock, with the west front probably designed by Thomas Norreys. The nave, west front (but not the towers), north porch, transepts, and part of the choir date from this initial building phase. The bishopric became Bath and Wells in 1218.

The central tower was begun in 1315 and completed in 1322, designed by Thomas Witney. The Lady Chapel was begun in 1323 and completed around 1326, also probably by Thomas Witney. At this stage, the chapel stood as a free-standing structure to the east of the original east end of 1176. The choir and presbytery were extended in 1330 to connect with the new Lady Chapel. Thomas Witney designed this extension, but the presbytery vaults were the work of William Joy.

Following signs of dangerous settlement and cracking under the new tower, the great arches and other structural reinforcement were inserted in 1337 to prevent collapse, designed by William Joy. These are known as the St Andrew's arches or strainer arches. The south-west tower was begun in 1385 to a design by William Wynford and completed around 1395. The north-west tower was built in 1410, and tracery was added to the nave windows in the same year. The central tower was damaged by fire in 1439; repairs and substantial design modifications (designer unknown) were completed around 1450. Stillington's chapel was built in 1477 off the east cloister, designed by William Smyth, who also designed the fan vault to the main crossing. This chapel was demolished in 1552.

Materials and Plan

The cathedral is built of Doulting ashlar with blue Lias dressings, partly replaced by Kilkenny marble, with some Purbeck marble internal dressings and pink rubble outer cloister walls.

The plan is cruciform with an aisled nave and transepts, north porch, cruciform aisled chancel with transeptal chapels and retroquire, east Lady Chapel, north-east chapter house, and south cloister.

Exterior

The cathedral displays Early English Gothic style throughout much of its fabric, with Decorated Gothic style in the chapter house, retroquire, and Lady Chapel, and Perpendicular Gothic style in the west and crossing towers and cloister. Early English windows throughout are mainly filled with two-light tracery dating from around 1415, with a parapet of cusped triangles added around 1320 to all but the chapter house and west front.

Lady Chapel

The five-sided Lady Chapel has angle buttresses, a drip mould, and a parapet of cusped triangles, with wide five-light windows containing reticulated tracery of cusped spheroid triangles. A late 14th-century flying buttress with a square pinnacle stands to the south-east.

Chancel and East End

The north chancel aisles feature an east bay with a shallow two-centred arched five-light window with Decorated tracery, steeper three-light windows to the west bays, and a transept chapel window of four lights with reticulated tracery. The early 14th-century east end of the chancel has flying buttresses to the gable and three east bays. The east end contains a five-light window with Decorated tracery, including two mullions running up to the soffit, and a raised surround beneath a shallow canted parapet, with the coped gable set back and lit by four lozenge windows divided by a wide Y-shaped mullion. The north clerestory windows are of three lights, with the three to the east having ogee hoods, and the three late 12th-century west windows and two north transept windows linked by a continuous hood mould.

North Transept and Nave Aisles

The north transept and nave aisles have a plinth, sill band, corbel table, and parapet, with wide buttresses separating aisle lancet windows containing inserted early 15th-century two-light Perpendicular tracery, and a clerestory with similar moulding and fenestration. The transept gable is in three stages, with clasping buttress turrets and sill bands: three lower-stage windows and one to the end of the west aisle. The middle stage has a blind arcade of six lancets, the middle four truncated beneath three tall stepped lancets to the upper stage, with similar blind panels paired to the turrets and medallions in the spandrels. A weathered band runs beneath an arcade of stepped blind lancets, with panelled turret pinnacles topped by octagonal caps, a third rising from the flanking aisle. The right-hand turret contains a good clock of around 1475 with paired soldiers above striking two bells, and a crenellated canopy. The nine-bay nave aisle corresponds to a ten-bay clerestory, of which the two windows flanking the transept re-entrant are cut off above a mid-14th-century relieving arch.

North Porch

The fine north porch is two bays deep with blue Lias shafts and 18th-century outer doors. The entrance archway is of five orders with alternate paired banded columns featuring stiff-leaf capitals to the west, carvings showing the martyrdom of King Edmund to the east, and a roll-moulded arch including two orders of undercut chevron mouldings with filigree decoration over fine doors of around 1200. Clasping buttresses have octagonal pinnacles matching the transept, and the gable features six stepped lancets beneath three stepped parvise lancets with sunken panels in the spandrels.

The interior is of two bays, articulated by banded vault shafts with stiff-leaf capitals to a sexpartite vault. Side benches are backed by arcades of four bayed seats with stiff-leaf spandrels, beneath a string bitten off at the ends by serpents. A deeply recessed upper arcade of three arches to each bay features complex openwork roll mouldings intersecting above the capitals, on coupled shafts free-standing in front of attached shafts, enriched spandrels, and openwork Y-tracery in the tympanum beneath the vault. The south end is decorated similarly to the front entrance, including a moulded arch with a chevron order, and containing a pair of arched doorways with a deeply moulded trumeau and good panelled early 13th-century doors with 15th-century Perpendicular tracery panels.

South Elevation

The south elevation is similar to the north. The chancel wall of the 1340 extension is recessed for the three east bays with flying buttresses; the windows to the west have uncusped intersecting tracery.

Crossing Tower

The crossing tower has a blind arcade of around 1200 rising to a string level with the roof ridge. The upper section of 1313, remodelled around 1440, has ribbed clasping buttresses leading to gabled niches with figures and pinnacles with sub-pinnacles. Each side is of three bays separated by narrow buttresses with pinnacles, a recessed transom with openwork tracery beneath, and louvred trefoil-headed windows above, with gabled hoods and finials. Corbels within indicate provision for a spire, which was destroyed in 1439.

West Front

The west front screen is a double square in width, divided into five bays by very deep buttresses, with the wider nave bay set forward. The towers stand outside the aisles, with the design of the front continued around both ends and returned at the rear. The front contains statues dating from around 1230 to 1250, arranged according to an uncertain iconographic scheme. It is divided vertically into three bands beneath a central nave gable and Perpendicular towers, with arches featuring originally blue Lias shafts (now mostly Kilkenny marble) and stiff-leaf capitals.

A tall, weathered plinth supports a central nave entrance of four orders with paired doorways and a quatrefoil in the tympanum containing the seated Virgin with flanking angels, and smaller aisle entrances of two orders. Above is an arcade of gabled hoods over arches, containing paired trefoil-headed statue niches with bases and fifteen surviving figures. Two-light Perpendicular tracery windows stand between the buttresses outside the nave, with sunken quatrefoils in the spandrels cutting across the corners of the buttresses.

The third and principal band contains three tall, slightly stepped nave lancets, paired blind lancets between the outer buttresses, with narrower arches flanking them and to the faces and sides of the buttresses, all with banded Lias shafts and roll-moulded heads. The three arches to the sides and angled faces on the south-west and north-west corners have intersecting mouldings as in the north porch. All except the window arches contain two tiers of gabled statue niches with figures—taller ones in the upper tier—and across the top runs an arcade of trefoil-headed statue niches with seated figures and carved spandrels.

The nave buttresses have gabled tops containing cinquefoil-arched niches and tall pinnacles with arched faces and conical tops. Above the nave rises a three-tier stepped gable with a lower arcade of ten cinquefoil-arched niches containing seated figures, a taller arcade of twelve niches with figures of the Apostles from around 1400, and a central top section with outer trefoil arches and corner sunken quatrefoils. The central oval recess with cusped sides and top contains a figure of Christ in Judgement from 1985 beneath a pinnacle, with crosses and finials on the weathered coping.

The Perpendicular towers continue the buttresses upward with canopied statue niches to their faces and blank panelling to the sides, before raking them back into deep angle buttresses. Between are a pair of two-light west windows, louvred above a transom and blind below, with a blind arcade above the windows and a low crenellated coping.

Interior

Lady Chapel

The Lady Chapel forms an elongated octagon in plan, with triple vault shafts featuring spherical foliate capitals supporting a tierceron vault forming a pattern of concentric stars, with spherical bosses and a paint scheme of 1845. The three west arches with Purbeck marble shafts opening onto the retroquire have blind arched panels above. Beneath the windows is a sill mould with fleurons, and a bench runs around the walls. The stone reredos has six statue niches with crocketed canopies and smaller niches between them, with four 19th-century sedilia featuring cusped ogee-arched and crocketed canopies and a 14th-century cusped ogee trefoil-arched south doorway. The floor is laid with 19th-century encaustic tiles.

Retroquire

The retroquire extends laterally into east chapels on each side and transeptal chapels, all with ogee-arched piscinae with crockets and finials, under a complex asymmetrical lierne vault on Purbeck marble shafts and capitals. The three east bays of the choir were added in the early 14th century, and the high lierne vault of squares was extended back over the three late 12th-century west bays, on triple vault shafts—Purbeck marble with roll-moulded capitals for the 14th-century work and limestone with stiff-leaf capitals for the 12th-century work. Above the two-centred aisle arches and below the clerestory walk is a richly carved openwork grille of statue niches with canopies, containing eight early 20th-century figures across the east end. The clerestory walk has ogee-arched doorways. Rich canopies rise over the choir stalls on Purbeck marble shafts, and five sedilia have enriched canopies. Ogee-arched doorways with crockets and pinnacles on each side of the choir give onto the aisles, which have lierne vaults forming hexagons.

Transepts

The transepts are three bays deep and three wide, with cluster columns and stiff-leaf capitals, including some fine figure carving in the south-west aisle. Paired triforium arches stand between the vault shafts. The chancel aisles are entered by 14th-century ogee-arched doorways with cinquefoil cusps and openwork panels on each side. The north transept has a doorway from the east aisle with a depressed arch and moulded sides containing a panelled Perpendicular ridge door, and Perpendicular panelled stone screens across the arcade. The south transept has an early 14th-century reredos with cusped ogee arches. The openings to the crossing contain inserted cross ogee strainer arches with triple chamfered moulding; on the west one stands an early 20th-century raised crucifix with flanking figures on shafted bases. The roof has late 15th-century fan vaulting with mouchettes to the springers.

Nave

The ten-bay nave has compound columns of eight shafts with stiff-leaf capitals enriched with figures, and a continuous hood mould with carved stops until the four west bays, which also have more richly carved stiff-leaf. A continuous triforium arcade of roll-moulded lancets with moulded rear arches runs three to each bay, with enriched tympana and paterae in the spandrels above, carved corbels, and springers to vault shafts above supporting a quadripartite vault without ridges. The vault is painted to a scheme of 1844. A panelled gallery of around 1450 occupies the south clerestory window six bays from the west. The aisles are vaulted as the nave, with enriched stiff-leaf corbels.

The west end has a trefoil-headed blank arcade on blue Lias shafts and a central stilted depressed-arch doorway, beneath the three west windows. The aisles end with a lateral rib from the vault to the west arcade. Chapels beneath the towers have sexpartite vaults with an enriched hole for the bell ropes. The south-west chapel has a shallow arch to the cloister beneath three cusped arched panels.

The parvise over the north chapel contains a rare drawing floor. Two chantry chapels set between the east nave piers have fine openwork Perpendicular tracery and cresting. The south chapel of St Edmund, around 1490, has a fan-vaulted canopy over the altar and two statue niches with canopies, and an ogee-arched doorway. The north Holy Cross Chapel, around 1420, has quatrefoil panelling to the east canopy, distressed statue niches, and four-centred arched doorways.

Fittings

Lady Chapel

The brass lectern of 1661 has a moulded stand and foliate crest.

Retroquire, North-East Chapel

This area contains a fine oak 13th-century cope chest with two-leaf top doors, and a panelled 17th- or 18th-century chest.

North Transept Chapel

The north transept chapel contains a 17th-century oak screen with columns, formerly part of cow stalls, featuring artisan Ionic capitals and cornice, set forward over the chest tomb of John Godilee. The floor retains 14th-century tiles.

South-East Chapel

The south-east chapel houses a bound oak 14th-century chest for the chapter seal.

North Transept

The north transept contains a very fine clock of around 1390, considered the second oldest in the world after Salisbury Cathedral. The face represents heavenly bodies with four knights riding around above, and a quarter jack in the corner strikes bells with a hammer and his heels. A pine chest with bowed top is also present.

Choir

The choir contains very fine stalls with misericords dating from around 1335. The bishop's throne of around 1340, restored by Salvin around 1850, is wide with a panelled, canted front and stone doorway, and a deep nodding cusped ogee canopy above, with three stepped statue niches and pinnacles. Opposite stands a 19th-century pulpit, octagonal on a coved base with panelled sides and steps up from the north aisle. The organ within the chancel arch was rebuilt with a new case in 1974.

South Transept

The south transept contains a round font from the former Saxon cathedral, with an arcade of round-headed arches on a round plinth, topped by a cover of around 1635 with heads of putti around the sides.

Nave

The nave contains the pulpit and tomb of William Knight, mid-16th century, built out from the Sugar chantry, with panelled buttresses, curved sides, and a cornice.

Library

The library contains good shelves and desks with panelled ends, cornices and scroll crests, and benches with ogee ends featuring ball finials, all dating from 1686.

Monuments

Quire Corpus Christi North Transept Chapel

This chapel contains a marble chest tomb of Robert Creyghton, died 1672, with an alabaster effigy on a sarcophagus with bowed sides; a chest tomb of John Middleton, died around 1350, with the effigy set beneath the window; and a chest tomb of John Godelee, died 1333, with an effigy on a chest featuring an open ogee arcade.

North Quire Aisle

The north quire aisle contains chest tombs of Bishop Giso, died 1088; Ralph of Salisby, died 1463, in alabaster; and two further effigies of around 1230 of Saxon bishops, all on mid-20th-century plinths. A panelled chest tomb with three heraldic panels and moulded top is also present.

South-East Chapel of St John the Baptist

A chest tomb encloses the north side, with arcaded sides, thin mullions to a good openwork top with cusped gables, and a canopy to the east end.

St Katherine's Transept Chapel

This chapel contains a chest tomb of John Drokensford, died 1329, with a painted effigy on a chest with open ogee arcade, similar to that of John Godelee; and a chest tomb of John Gunthorpe, died 1498, with five heraldic panels and moulded top.

South Chancel Aisle

The south chancel aisle contains an effigy of John Bernard, died 1459, on a mid-20th-century plinth; a fine chest tomb of Bishop Bekynton, died 1464 but made around 1450, with a cadaver within the open lower section featuring enriched shafts and angel capitals, and a painted marble figure on top, surrounded by a fine 15th-century wrought-iron screen with buttress stanchions; a raised, incised coffin slab in blue Lias of Bishop Bytton, died 1274; a large chest tomb of Bishop Harvey, died 1894, with five trefoil panels and an effigy with putti to the head; three effigies of around 1230 of Saxon bishops on mid-20th-century plinths; and a chest tomb of Bishop Harewell, died 1386, with a marble effigy on a 20th-century plinth.

North Transept, East Aisle

The east aisle of the north transept contains an enriched marble chest tomb of John Still, died 1607, with black Corinthian columns to an entablature and sarcophagus with alabaster effigy; and a chest tomb to Bishop Kidder, died 1703, in marble with an enriched naturalistic reclining figure of his daughter in front of two urns of her parents.

South Transept

The chapel of St Calixtus in the south transept contains a fine unnamed chest tomb of around 1450, with carved alabaster panels and effigy. The chapel of St Martin contains a chest tomb of William Bykonyll, around 1448, with an arcaded front, cusped shallow arch over the effigy, panelled ceiling, and rich crested top. Both chapels have 15th-century wrought-iron gates. In the south wall stands a good monument to Bishop William de Marchia, died 1302, featuring three cusped cinquefoil-headed arches on moulded shafts, ogee hoods and pinnacles to a crenellated top, with an effigy within under a three-bay segmental vaulted canopy, decorated with six carved heads beneath.

Stained Glass

Original early glass survives mainly in the choir and Lady Chapel; the Parliamentarians caused extensive damage generally in August 1642 and May 1643. The earliest fragments are in two windows on the west side of the chapter house staircase, dating from around 1280 to 1290, and in two windows in the south choir aisle, around 1310 to 1320. Of principal interest is the Lady Chapel range, around 1325 to 1330. The east window includes extensive repairs by Willement in 1845, and the other windows retain substantial complete canopy work, otherwise much in fragments.

The choir east window contains a fine Jesse Tree including much silver stain, flanked by two windows on each side in the clerestory with large figures of saints, all dating from around 1340 to 1345. A further window on each side is late 19th century.

The chapel of St Katherine has interesting panels of around 1520, attributed to Arnold of Nijmegen. These panels in the south and east windows were acquired from the destroyed church of St John, Rouen; the last panel was bought in 1953.

The large triple lancet at the nave west end was glazed at the expense of Dean Creyghton at a cost of £140 around 1664. It was repaired in 1813, but the central light was largely replaced to a design by A K Nicholson between 1925 and 1931.

The main north and south transept end windows are by Powell, 1903 to 1905. The nave south aisle has four paired lights dating from 1881 to 1904, with a similar window at the west end of each aisle.