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Shrewsbury Churches - iii)
Nov. 5th, 2011 11:00 amOr...
An architectural conundrum. And not one which I can glibly present you with an answer for.
I'm not a natural born building historian. I had a few fascinating tutorials from an ex-boss who's an authority on castles and mansions, and picked up some very handy tips from another architectural historian I worked with briefly. I cut my teeth on a heavily modified Georgian mansion in Ayrshire, and have since obtained most of my buildings expertise from a succession of farmsteadings and a rather large munitions factory.
Churches are a whole different beast entirely.
It is, of course, back to the church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Shrewsbury, for one last post which demonstrates just how difficult it can be to disentangle the various phases of a church's history.
What do we know about this one?
1) It originated as a 9th century Saxon church, before being completely rebuilt by the Normans in the mid-12th century.
2) It was substantially rebuilt (Romanesque features replaced by Transitional ones) just a couple of generations later.
3) Major alterations took place in 1477. The central tower was removed, a clerestorey level added throughout and the original steeply pitched roof given a much shallower pitch, with the ornate timber ceiling added,
4) I suspect it was also heavily mucked about with in the nineteenth century...
So here's the conundrum. There's a chapel currently used by the Drapers, called the Trinity Chapel, which sits in the south-east corner of the church. It's clearly a later addition - I presumed at the time that it was part of the 15th century remodelling, but the guide book informs me (as indeed do the arches...) that it took place much earlier, during the change from Romanesque to Transitional. Some parts of it make some kind of sense. Here's a view of the west wall of the Trinity Chapel, showing what would originally have been the external wall of the south transept with a Transitional Arch (with moulded captial) added into the earlier fabric:-
Plenty of external features remain here., including what appears to be an old raggle marking a former roofline, running up the wall over the arch which leads through to the former transept.
Moving into the former south transept, and looking down towards the west end of the nave, we see another Transitional arch hacking its way through an earlier lancet window:-
So
An architectural conundrum. And not one which I can glibly present you with an answer for.
I'm not a natural born building historian. I had a few fascinating tutorials from an ex-boss who's an authority on castles and mansions, and picked up some very handy tips from another architectural historian I worked with briefly. I cut my teeth on a heavily modified Georgian mansion in Ayrshire, and have since obtained most of my buildings expertise from a succession of farmsteadings and a rather large munitions factory.
Churches are a whole different beast entirely.
It is, of course, back to the church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Shrewsbury, for one last post which demonstrates just how difficult it can be to disentangle the various phases of a church's history.
What do we know about this one?
1) It originated as a 9th century Saxon church, before being completely rebuilt by the Normans in the mid-12th century.
2) It was substantially rebuilt (Romanesque features replaced by Transitional ones) just a couple of generations later.
3) Major alterations took place in 1477. The central tower was removed, a clerestorey level added throughout and the original steeply pitched roof given a much shallower pitch, with the ornate timber ceiling added,
4) I suspect it was also heavily mucked about with in the nineteenth century...
So here's the conundrum. There's a chapel currently used by the Drapers, called the Trinity Chapel, which sits in the south-east corner of the church. It's clearly a later addition - I presumed at the time that it was part of the 15th century remodelling, but the guide book informs me (as indeed do the arches...) that it took place much earlier, during the change from Romanesque to Transitional. Some parts of it make some kind of sense. Here's a view of the west wall of the Trinity Chapel, showing what would originally have been the external wall of the south transept with a Transitional Arch (with moulded captial) added into the earlier fabric:-
Plenty of external features remain here., including what appears to be an old raggle marking a former roofline, running up the wall over the arch which leads through to the former transept.
Moving into the former south transept, and looking down towards the west end of the nave, we see another Transitional arch hacking its way through an earlier lancet window:-
And a close-up of the window (plus a good view of the clever way in which the original string course has been incorporated into the archway...)
So far, so good. But this little section really had me stumped. I stared at it, I scratched my head, I stared some more, and I just couldn't explain it. It's the north wall of the Trinity chapel, where the original Romanesque arch has been replaced by a pointy Transitional one, and the space progressively infilled on successive occasions, forming a much narrower opening with what again appears to be a Transitional arch.
As per usual, answers on a postcard please... Oh, and full acknowedgements for the information on the history of the church must go to Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Shrewsbury, Shropshire by Peter Williams (Churches Conservation Trust, 2000) .
So far, so good. But this little section really had me stumped. I stared at it, I scratched my head, I stared some more, and I just couldn't explain it. It's the north wall of the Trinity chapel, where the original Romanesque arch has been replaced by a pointy Transitional one, and the space progressively infilled on successive occasions, forming a much narrower opening with what again appears to be a Transitional arch.
As per usual, answers on a postcard please... Oh, and full acknowedgements for the information on the history of the church must go to Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Shrewsbury, Shropshire by Peter Williams (Churches Conservation Trust, 2000) .
So
