Bath
In reviewing medieval English cathedrals, Bath Abbey can either be included because it was a cathedral during the relevant years (a joint see with Wells), or excluded as it’s no longer a cathedral today and hasn’t been one since 1539. In my view, the clinching argument for including it is that it is the only medieval cathedral that was conceived totally as a Perpendicular church and thus has architectural significance.
A Saxon church existed on the present site for several centuries before being turned into a Benedictine monastery by St. Oswald around 970. In 1090, John de Villula, the king’s physician, basically bought the Wells bishopric (and most of the town of Bath) and decided to move the see to the abbey church at Bath. This provoked a running dispute between the canons of Wells and the monks of Bath that was to last for the next 400 years. A truce of sorts was arranged in 1218 when it was decided that the see should be a joint one and that the Bishop of Bath and Wells should be elected by equal numbers of canons and monks and should have a seat in both churches.
Beginning in 1107, Bishop John began the construction of a large, cruxiform plan Norman church – nothing of this church remains today, but it was much larger than the Abbey that we see today, extending east from today’s church almost to the banks of the Avon. Today’s Abbey occupies the space that was taken up by just the nave of John’s Norman church.
When Bishop King took over the see in 1495 he found a church (and city ) that was in a very poor state. He determined that he was going to completely rebuild the church to be a full and glorious exploitation of all that was possible in full, mature Perpendicular style. He retained the royal masons, Robert and William Vertues, (who also worked on Westminster Abbey and Kings College chapel, Cambridge) to work on his church and in 1500 he demolished the Norman nave of Bishop John’s church and began building west from the quire of the Norman church which was retained for use in the interim. His new church exploited Perpendicular to the full – walls of glass with slim, tall, lancet windows; fine, slender columns; and, above all, the most wonderful, glorious fan vaulting overhead.
Unfortunately, Bishop King died in 1503 and his successors were very slow in moving the work along – at the Dissolution the choir and aisles were complete and vaulted, but the nave was unfinished, and immediately after the Dissolution, the remaining quire of the Norman church was demolished. The unfinished church was stripped of it’s joint-tenancy in the bishopric (which reverted 100% to Wells) and was offered for sale to the city, who declined the offer. Over the next few years it was stripped of all its fittings and degenerated almost into a ruin. Eventually it was bought by the MP for Bath whose son, Matthew Colthurst, gave it to the city as a parish church in 1572. Little further was done until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I when the monarch led a campaign for funds to restore the church, such that in 1610 the nave was finally roofed (though not with the original fan-vault design) -- the original fan-vault design was eventually installed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in the mid-1860s.
Despite all these trials and tribulations, Bath represents that only example of full Perpendicular gothic in a cathedral and it is a wonderful and glorious example of this style.
A Saxon church existed on the present site for several centuries before being turned into a Benedictine monastery by St. Oswald around 970. In 1090, John de Villula, the king’s physician, basically bought the Wells bishopric (and most of the town of Bath) and decided to move the see to the abbey church at Bath. This provoked a running dispute between the canons of Wells and the monks of Bath that was to last for the next 400 years. A truce of sorts was arranged in 1218 when it was decided that the see should be a joint one and that the Bishop of Bath and Wells should be elected by equal numbers of canons and monks and should have a seat in both churches.
Beginning in 1107, Bishop John began the construction of a large, cruxiform plan Norman church – nothing of this church remains today, but it was much larger than the Abbey that we see today, extending east from today’s church almost to the banks of the Avon. Today’s Abbey occupies the space that was taken up by just the nave of John’s Norman church.
When Bishop King took over the see in 1495 he found a church (and city ) that was in a very poor state. He determined that he was going to completely rebuild the church to be a full and glorious exploitation of all that was possible in full, mature Perpendicular style. He retained the royal masons, Robert and William Vertues, (who also worked on Westminster Abbey and Kings College chapel, Cambridge) to work on his church and in 1500 he demolished the Norman nave of Bishop John’s church and began building west from the quire of the Norman church which was retained for use in the interim. His new church exploited Perpendicular to the full – walls of glass with slim, tall, lancet windows; fine, slender columns; and, above all, the most wonderful, glorious fan vaulting overhead.
Unfortunately, Bishop King died in 1503 and his successors were very slow in moving the work along – at the Dissolution the choir and aisles were complete and vaulted, but the nave was unfinished, and immediately after the Dissolution, the remaining quire of the Norman church was demolished. The unfinished church was stripped of it’s joint-tenancy in the bishopric (which reverted 100% to Wells) and was offered for sale to the city, who declined the offer. Over the next few years it was stripped of all its fittings and degenerated almost into a ruin. Eventually it was bought by the MP for Bath whose son, Matthew Colthurst, gave it to the city as a parish church in 1572. Little further was done until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I when the monarch led a campaign for funds to restore the church, such that in 1610 the nave was finally roofed (though not with the original fan-vault design) -- the original fan-vault design was eventually installed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in the mid-1860s.
Despite all these trials and tribulations, Bath represents that only example of full Perpendicular gothic in a cathedral and it is a wonderful and glorious example of this style.
