The Splendor of English Gothic Architecture. John Shannon Hendrix

inorganic, structure and pattern. The vault in the crossing at Tewkesbury is a centralised lierne vault in the form of a mandala, a cosmological catechism with octagons and squares and a figure of the sun in the centre, symbolising emanation and creation, and synthesising Christian theology and classical philosophy. The vaulting in the crossing tower of Lincoln Cathedral synthesises the Lincoln vocabulary elements – conoid springers, tiercerons, liernes, and ridge ribs – to form what could be read as a catechism of the celestial hierarchies, or the vaulting of the cosmos.

      Retrochoir, 1174–1179. Canterbury Cathedral.

      The Founder’s Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey contains an early model of the fan vault, with vaulting ribs as applied decoration, and Perpendicular grillwork. The Beauchamp Chantry at Tewkesbury Abbey features fan vaults with pendants in its lower and upper levels. The pendant becomes a defining vocabulary element of the Perpendicular style, as in the vaults at Oxford Divinity School and Oxford Christ Church, Cambridge King’s College Chapel, St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey. The pendant can be seen as a development of hanging corbels, as in the York chapter house, the gradual minimalisation of responds in elevations, or the removal of the umbrella column from the umbrella vault. The pendant is a hanging vaulting corbel with no support, and can be related to experiments at Canterbury and Lincoln. The west cloister walk of Worcester Cathedral, built by John Chapman between 1435 and 1438, contains vaulting composed of conoid tierceron springers, the ridge pole, transverse ribs, and lierne octagons. The choir vault of Sherborne Abbey is the first full-span fan vault. The vault of the Norwich nave contains zigzagging liernes and lierne star patterns. The vaulting of the presbytery of Peterborough is a lierne net vault similar to the St Mary Redcliffe choir vault, with the emphasis on surface texture. The nave vault of Winchester Cathedral, designed by Robert Hulle, is a stellar lierne vault with zigzagging liernes, as in St Mary Redcliffe nave or Norwich nave.

      The remodelling of the crossing of Gloucester Cathedral between 1450 and 1475 by Robert Tully, features mid-air stone ogee arches set on flat four-centred arches, supporting pendant conoid springers of a lierne net vault. The arches appear to be a development of the flying rib, continuing experiments in spatial juxtapositions which began at Canterbury and Lincoln, but with a Perpendicular vocabulary. The crossing vault at Bristol Cathedral is a centralised lierne star vault, the pattern of which is continued in the transepts, with tiercerons and lierne diamonds. The crossing vault at York Minster is also a centralised lierne vault. The choir vault at Norwich consists of lierne star patterns and tiercerons which spring from the peaks of window heads in the clerestory, or hang from the vault like pendants, creating the effect that the elevations are suspended from the vault. The nave vault of Sherborne Abbey, designed by William Smyth, interweaves tiercerons, lierne patterns, and fans, in a summation of the vocabulary in the development of English Gothic vaulting.

      The vault of the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University is a pendant lierne vault designed by William Orchard in 1478. The vault is divided by bundled transverse ribs which appear to be almost flying ribs; spandrels between are decorated with openwork tracery. William Orchard also designed the vault of Christ Church choir at Oxford University, a pendant lierne net vault, with similar transverse ribs suggesting flying ribs, and pendants attached to the transverse ribs as secondary corbels. The crossing vault at Salisbury is a centralised cusped lierne net vault; the crossing vault at Wells, designed by William Smyth, is a centralised fan vault. Bishop Alcock’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral, designed in 1488 by either Adam Lord, Adam Vertue, or Robert Janyns, features a fan vault influenced by St George’s Chapel, with pendant cusping and an undulating canopy screen filled with crocketed gables, ogee arches, and filigree tracery. The composition combines recognisable vocabulary elements into an unprecedented form filled with overlappings and spatial juxtapositions. The vault of Bishop Langton’s Chapel at Winchester features tiercerons, zigzagging liernes, and cusped tracery. The vaulting in the retrochoir or “New Building” of Peterborough was designed by John Wastell, designer of the vaulting of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge University. The vault at Peterborough is composed of steep conoid sections of fans decorated with tiercerons and reticulated tracery in the Perpendicular style.

      The vaulting at Bath Abbey was designed by Robert and William Vertue and constructed between 1504 and 1508, and restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. The vaulting consists of steep conoid tierceron springer vaults or fans, transverse ribs, cusped tracery, and pendants. The fan vault of King’s College Chapel, the largest fan vault in the world, was designed by John Wastell in 1508. Fans are intersected by transverse arches and segmented by thin transverse ridge lines, and are covered by a tracery of cusped arches and reticulation. The final fan vault in English Gothic architecture is the vault of the Dorset Aisle of Ottery St Mary, featuring thick tiercerons and cusped ogee arch tracery. The upper parts of the fans can also be read as canted spandrels alongside the ridge ribs. The fan vaults at Bath, Cambridge, and Ottery bring English Gothic architecture to a close, in the wake of the Renaissance, and a cultural shift in ideas and outlooks, as well as approaches to architecture. The consistent cultural approach to knowledge and built forms, which produced a homogeneous development throughout the late Middle Ages in England, resulted in what is among the most extraordinary architecture in the history of the world.

      Chapel interior, elevations 1444–1485, vaulted 1508–1515. King’s College, Cambridge.

      Early English

      Courtyard. Canterbury Cathedral.

      The eastern part of Canterbury Cathedral was destroyed by fire in September of 1174, as documented by Gervase of Canterbury, one of the monks. That part of the cathedral was rebuilt between 1175 and 1185, which was also documented by Gervase. According to him, the monks of Canterbury summoned masons from England and France, and were impressed by the French mason William of Sens, who decided to demolish the Norman arcades and clerestory which survived the fire. Gervase chronicled the construction year by year. In 1175, two piers on each side of the west end of the choir were constructed. In the next year an additional pier was added on each side, with arches and supporting aisle vaults for the first three bays. Two more bays were added the following year, along with a gallery, clerestory, and vault for the first five bays of the choir. In 1178, the sixth bay of the choir and the transept were constructed. The building project went smoothly for the entire ten years, except for the accident of William of Sens in 1178, when he fell from scaffolding while supervising work on the vault over the high altar, after having completed the sixth bay of the choir and the transepts, which forced him to retire to France, and to be replaced by William the Englishman. The new architect completed a new crypt by 1181, and began construction of the outer walls of the Trinity Chapel. The piers for the chapel were completed by the next year, and the walls of the Corona behind it, Becket’s Crown.

      The shrine of Thomas Becket, who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170 and canonised as St Thomas of Canterbury in 1173, was added to the short Norman choir built under Bishop Lanfranc (1070–1077), after the Norman Conquest, which consisted of two bays and an apse, and was extended in the 12th century under Bishop Anselm (St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1093–1109) and Bishop Conrad (Prior Conrad, d. 1127) to include a pair of eastern transepts and the chapels of St Anselm and St Andrew. The body of Thomas Becket, which was originally buried in the crypt, was placed in the new shrine, Trinity Chapel, built by William the Englishman, in 1220. For the Trinity Chapel, William the Englishman followed the main lines of the choir.

      Becket was murdered after he returned from exile in Sens, which resulted from his arguments with King Henry II. In the north transept of the crossing, four knights, acting in support of the king, stabbed Becket to death. Afterwards, a hair shirt swarming with lice was found under his robe. He was recognised as a saint, and Henry II performed penance at his tomb, being flagellated by monks. The tomb of Thomas Becket became the most important pilgrimage destination in medieval England, as Becket became a symbol of resistance to tyrannical authority. The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer were inspired by the journey along the Pilgrim’s Way from London to Canterbury to see the shrine. So many offerings accumulated at the shrine that by 1538, when it was destroyed by Henry VIII, who was determined to