North Transept

 Summary. The north transept was built around 1240, this date being supported by architecture of the north door. It is late Early English in style. Its highlights include a cadaver monument, a large font, and a large window by Clayton and Bell that has been criticised by some.

The North Transept, Vestibule and Chapter House were built with the architectural style deemed ‘Late Early English.’[1] From this Willis gave an approximate date of 1240.[2]  However, Bishop Hugh Pateshull died in December 1241 and was buried ‘at the altar of St Stephen’.[3] If the altar was in the North Transept, the transept must have been near completion by 1241. From the architecture of the North Transept doorway, particularly the figure of Christ in Majesty, Thurlby concluded the doorway was executed between 1230 and 1241 by sculptors trained in the west of England.[4]^,[5]

 

North Transept.

 

 
                                                                                                       North Transept from the outside.

 The North Transept is wider than the South Transept.

 

Plan of North Transept. By early-18th century the chapel(s) was used as the Bishop's Consistory Court. 

 

North Transept door. The Virgin and Child in the middle of the doors and the flanking statues of the Virgin and St Chad are modern. The middle pillar of the door is a fine example of Early English work.

Worn statue at the right hand end of the arch said to show a priest baptizing a heathen and oddly interpreted to be Chad baptizing King Wulfhere. 

By the inside of the north door steps lies the cadaver monument thought to be of Dean Heywood (Heywode), who died in 1492.[6] The degraded monument has the upper part missing which would have shown the Dean in full dress. Britton stated the tomb was ‘battered down’ in the Civil War.[7] The lower part shows his body after death and reminds all of earthly and heavenly life. Cadaver monuments are dated to the late Middle Ages, 1250–1500, so if it is Dean Heywood’s monument it is a very late example. Heywood was a successful dean, ridding the cathedral of old practices and bringing in respectable clergy. He also added to the funding and building. 

Supposed monument of ‘Thomas Heywode’.

 

On the outside west face of the north transept can be seen a trace of the old lancet windows arranged in groups of three. These Early English windows are thought to have been changed to a perpendicular style before the Civil War. The groins, roof and walls of the north transept were repaired in 1795 using a massive iron tie-rod bolting the north window together, such was its poor state. In 1813, a Great North window was installed by Betton and Evans, assisted by John James Halls, showing nine historical figures. It was removed in 1893 and is now in the north window of the Guildhall. This stained glass has recently been reappraised as a significant work of art and is a loss to the cathedral.

 

The Great North Window in 1867

 

Great North Window completed in 1892

.    The current window and stonework, known as the Jesse window, shows the genealogy of Jesus according to St. Matthew, placing him in the House of David. At the top is the Virgin with Child. It was made by John R. Clayton and Alfred Bell and installed by John Oldrid Scott. It is in the shape of five lancet windows and thus returns to its original Early English form. The project, at the time of both conception and construction, had fierce criticism.[8]  In 1987, Rodwell found about twenty medieval stones incorporated into the 1893 window that he believed were recycled from a high-level intra-mural passage that connected with the clerestory passageway that remains alongside the window.[9] This line of passage cannot be seen from the floor and is conjectural.

Shaft and vaulting. There are minor differences in decoration with the South Transept.  

          The font was installed in 1860 and is made from alabaster, Caen stone and with has marble pillars. Originally close to the north-west door of the nave, it was moved to the North Transept in 1982. The four faces show entry into the Ark, passage across the Red Sea, baptism of Christ, and the Resurrection. Statuettes are saint Peter, Mary, Chad and Helen.

 

Font from H. Snowden Ward, ‘Lichfield and its cathedral’, (Bradford and London: 1892)

[1] R. Willis, R., 'On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral.' The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 11.

[2] Willis (1861), 20, connected the build of Lichfield Cathedral with York Minster and noted its North Transept was constructed in the years 1241–60.

[3] J. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. (London: 1691), 439.

[4] M. Thurlby, ‘The North Transept doorway of Lichfield Cathedral: Problems of style. RACAR, (1986), 13, 130.

[5] Building the nave must have started soon after the North Transept was finished. A. B. Clifton, The Cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1900).8.

[6] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 55, states the monument is supposed to be that of Dean Heywood. There is an uncertainty.

[7] J. Britton, J.The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1820), 46.

[8] R. Prentis, The Great North Window. (Unpub. paper in Cathedral Library. (2009). The original specification was for four lancet windows, but after much criticism this became five. There are three small lights hidden in the roof.

[9] R. Rodwell, ‘Archaeology and the standing fabric: recent studies at Lichfield Cathedral’. Antiquity (1989), 63, 281–94.