Lady Chapel

Summary.  The Lady Chapel, funded by Bishop Walter de Langton, is the best architecture of the cathedral, and has affinities with Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and elsewhere. A finely carved, gilded, wooden reredos tells the story of Christmas.

           There were 17 main cathedrals by 1200 and all but two (Norwich and Rochester) had their east ends extended in later times. Six had their retrochoirs extended considerably and 4, Chichester, Hereford, Salisbury and Lichfield, had a retrochoir extension plus a Lady Chapel added on. A Lady Chapel was usually dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was in a response to St Mary being popular for pilgrimage and prayer for healing. Lichfield’s Lady Chapel is considered one of the best built.

    Many historians have believed the Lady Chapel instigated and funded by Bishop Walter Langton was deliberately modelled on Louis IX’s Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.[1] The following is a comparison of the two shrine chapels, both are dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 

·       Work on the Lady Chapel started around 1315,[2] and was completed by 1336,[3] but dates are uncertain. Work was possibly halted in 1321 on Langton’s death. Quarrying was mentioned in 1323 for use in the Lady Chapel and work was still being undertaken in 1335. Sainte-Chapelle was built nearly 80 years earlier; construction began sometime after 1238 and the chapel was consecrated in 1248. The ‘Holy Royal Chapel’ in Paris was an architectural gem to emulate.[4] This would have been noted by Langton.

The Lady Chapel standing behind the spot where once stood a shrine to St Chad. 

Sainte-Chapelle 1890–1900. 

·                   William Franceys has been suggested as the master-mason employed by Bishop Langton and he might possibly have been a Frenchman.[5] It has been conjectured Parisian stonemasons were employed who knew how Sainte-Chapelle was built. There are many similarities in the construction.

An examination of stonework in 2009[6] found red sandstone was used on the lower half of the Lady Chapel and an orange sandstone on the upper half from the springing line of the windows. The red sandstone is thought to be original and from the cathedral site; the source of the orange sandstone has not been found. It shows there has been significant alteration of the chapel. 

·       Both chapels are tall, narrow extensions to the church. The Lady Chapel is approximately 17 m long, 13 m wide and 18 m high,[7] whereas Sainte-Chapelle upper chapel (there is a smaller lower chamber) is much longer and a little taller, internally, at 33 m long, 10 m wide and 20.5 m high.                                                                                                       

   

 Comparison of plans of the two chapels. The Lady Chapel shape is semi-octagonal with nine external bay elevations and eight buttresses. It is unusual for England, but has French parallels. Sainte-Chapelle has four bays on each side and a seven-sided apse. 

 

Lady Chapel exterior. Note the massive buttresses to hold the mass of window. Also, the three windows are all different indicating alteration. At the base are three recesses and below them at ground level can be seen small windows to a subterranean undercroft. The three small windows were added once the ground level in front had been lowered, c. 1 m, on several occasions.

 

Large buttresses with pinnacles on top

East end showing the step necessary in the base to accommodate the slope of the land, c. 1 m. The outside has 24 niches for statues, which were supposed to be for 12 patriarchs and 12 apostles originally. Today it is an eclectic mix of people that Victorians considered were important to the cathedral. 

·       Deep buttresses strengthened with ironwork were added to both chapels in order to support the considerable glass.[8] Lichfield’s buttresses and ironwork were removed in the 1880’s to 1892 restoration under the supervision of John Oldrid Scot. It was written the ‘much dilapidated buttresses were defaced by iron bands.’[9] At Sainte-Chapelle two metal rings girdle the chapel and are disguised from the outside as bars for the windows. It too has had much restoration, 1840–68. Iron band reinforcement indicates the problem of supporting heavy, leaded windows with huge buttresses, but then the buttresses reducing incoming light.  

·       The windows have simple trefoil tracery. Sections of the three windows in the Lady Chapel apse are original, those on the sides were rebuilt by Scott.[10] At Sainte-Chapelle around two-thirds of the 15 windows are original, one-third were destroyed in the     French Revolution, 1789. The greater loss of original window in the Lady Chapel has to be ascribed to the      Civil War.  

·       Internal niches held statues. In the Lady Chapel it was supposed the original figures were ten wise and foolish virgins (Matthew 25, 2).[11] In 1895, the niches were filled with figures of ten virgin saints and martyrs.[12] Sainte-Chapelle has 12 apostles, of which six are replicas, the originals were destroyed in the French Revolution, 1789. 

·       The arcades are richly sculpted with ‘beasts’, see the post, ‘Beasts in the Lady Chapel’. Sainte-Chapelle also has numerous ‘naturalistic’ beasts sculpted on the capitals. There are similar beasts in the two chapels.

·       Both have wall arcades. The Lady Chapel has ‘nodding’ ogees, curving forwards at the top of the arch. All are richly decorated.

·       The south side of the Lady Chapel has three small chambers with an undercroft.[13] They were possibly used for anchorite priests to receive visitors for spiritual guidance, see the post ‘Anchorites at Lichfield’. Either this undercroft or the one under the Consistory have been used for imprisonment.[14] Externally there were recesses, presumably for tombs. In the early 18th-century there was a doorway, now removed, allowing access to the Close; was this for visitors to the anchorite priest?

AI enhanced drawing of south side showing the door at the east end of the chapel. From Dugdale Monasticum Anglicanum, early 18th-century. Note also the style of windows before Victorian reordering. Similarly the buttressing is strengthened in the Victorian reordering.

 At Sainte-Chapelle there is a lower storey to the chapel once reserved for courtiers, servants and soldiers of Louis IX’s court. This chapel has a low ceiling and small windows and is consequently dimly lit. It contrasts with the upper chapel with its many windows, rays of coloured light passing through and painted walls and ceiling.

 Roof of the Lady Chapel with its complex rib vaulting.  

Beautiful rib vaulting, bosses and appropriate paintwork. 

·       Vaulting in the Lady Chapel roof is continuous with the nave and choir having a mid-line rib vault. There are seven ribs diverging from the slender shafts like the choir (six only in the nave). There are four transverse ribs, twelve roof bosses and tierceron ribs. Sainte-Chapelle is much simpler with no mid-line vault, only three arch ribs from each wall shaft and five bosses. It appears as a four-part ribbed quoin vault. Clearly the roof for the Lady Chapel is more complex and has a later date; it might not have been the first roof constructed. Civil war damage, especially on the parapet has been found.

 Boss appears to have ‘Green Man’ features.

 

The Lady Chapel modelled on Sainte Chapelle or elsewhere

The Lady Chapel clearly takes inspiration from Sainte-Chapelle, but is on a smaller scale. Its original architecture was innovative for England, but has been much altered. Originally it was a building that framed a sumptuous shrine of St Chad completed probably 1307–8. Today it is a chapel dedicated to St Mary.

          Maddison has linked many features of the Lady Chapel which fit into the architectural fashion of 14th-century England. The decorative motifs have parallels with buildings in Kent, East Anglia and elsewhere.[15] He conjectured an association with Canterbury masons and association with St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster begun in 1292 and continued into the early 14th century. He particularly noted the wall passage at windowsill level that is absent at Sainte-Chapelle, but can be seen at the east end of Westminster Abbey, 1245‑69, and also at Bristol. The passage appears to have no functional purpose and must simply be decorative. He thought the same goes for the small, vaulted chambers on the south side which have a counterpart at Bristol. Maddison pointed out the decorative crenellations follow from those on the tower and the surrounding wall of the Close.

 

Lady Chapel reredos

          A gilded and painted wooden reredos in the form of a triptych, but really five panels, was placed in the Lady Chapel in 1895. The altarpiece was carved by Oskar Zwink in Oberammergau, on the border of Germany and Austria. It was designed by Charles Eamer Kempe, 1837–1907 and tells the story of Christmas.

Lady Chapel reredos.

King David, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Chad are depicted on the back of the side panels and are seen when the triptych is closed. On the sides of the central panel are the figures of Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and Gregory.

AI enhanced reredos behind the Lady Chapel altar before this was removed and repaired by Scott.

 

[1] J. Maddison, ‘Building at Lichfield Cathedral during the episcopate of Walter Langton (1296–1321)’. The British Archaeological Association conference transactions for 1987. XIII Medieval Archaeology and Architecture at Lichfield. (1993), 72.

[2] Ibid, 80. Also M. W. Greenslade, 'Lichfield: The cathedral', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield. (London, 1990), 47-57. 

[3] In 1336, William de Heywood and Robert Aylbrick were admitted as custodians of the fabric of the chapel of the Blessed Mary. This is taken to indicate the Chapel was now being used.

[4] Maddison (1993), 72, conjectured Bishop Roger Meuland, 1275–95, might have strongly considered adding a Sainte-Chapelle type ending to the squared east end of the 13th-century cathedral. He also conjectured, page 70, if Langton formulated the idea of rebuilding the eastern arm of the cathedral before ordering a new shrine for St Chad in the Lady Choir (retrochoir).

[5] Is Franceys a corruption of France? J. Harvey, English Medieval Architects. (Stroud: 1984) 105 conjectured if the builder was William of Eyton instead.

[6] K. Blockley, Lady Chapel, Lichfield, Staffordshire. Standing fabric recording report 665. (2011).

[7] Length and height of the Lady Chapel are taken from T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 72. The height of the Lady Chapel is the same as the Nave.

[8] Sainte-Chapelle upper chapel is said to be two-thirds glass; that is the impression from the inside.

[9] J. G. Londsdale, Recollections of work done in and upon Lichfield Cathedral from 1856--1894. (Lichfield: 1895), 29–30.

[10] Londsdale and others noted the extremely poor state of the exterior of the Lady Chapel before restoration. Tracery was found consisting of Roman cement moulded onto wood with rope, metal and bitumen incorporated. The windows had to be re-leaded. The two western most windows are entirely Scott’s design.

[11] W. Stukeley, Itinerarium Curiosum: or an account of the antiquities and remarkable curiosities in nature and art observed in travels through Great Britain. (London: 1776).

[12] The statues are, 1. St Werburga with pastoral staff and book and a model of Chester Cathedral at her feet. 2. St Cecilia with organ. 3. St Prisca with palm branch, and lion at her feet. 4. St Faith with sword and rack. 5. St Catherine with sword and wheel and open book treading on a monster. 6. St Margaret with book and cross treading on a dragon. 7. St Lucy with palm branch and lamp. 8. St Agnes with palm branch and book and lamb at her feet. 9. St Agatha with palm branch and tongs. 10. St Etheldreda with crown, pilgrim staff, pastoral staff and a model of Ely cathedral.

[13] J. C. Fox, ‘The Mortuary Chapels of Lichfield Cathedral’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal. (1879), 1. A. B. Clifton, The Cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1900), 105, also called them Mortuary Chapels.

[14] Mentioned by T. Harwood (1806), 96, without reference. J. C. Fox (1879), 122, mentions hearsay of Parliamentarian spies being imprisoned during the siege of the Royalists.

[15] Maddison, (1993), 75. See note 1. 

 

Choir area

Summary. Small amounts of stonework in the choir area were described in 1861 as Early English. It had been reordered before construction of the cathedral for worship to continue. Dating has been equivocal.

           Robert Willis,[1] 1800–75, an architectural historian, visited Lichfield Cathedral for two days in August 1859 wrote his seminal conclusions in 1861. He identified the earliest part of the standing cathedral as the choir area, and stated it had Early English architecture.  

Style	Date	Kings
Early English	1189–1272	Richard I (1189–99, John (1199–1216, Henry III (1216–72)
Decorated	1272–1377	Edwards I (1272–1307), II (1307–1327) and III (1327–1377)
Perpendicular	1377–1547	Richard II to Henry VIII (1377–1547)

Architectural periods from J. H. Parker, ABC of Gothic Architecture, (Oxford and London: 1881). Dating for the styles of architecture are putative.

Some architectural historians fix Early English with a shorter time-span of 1180–1250 and that might apply to the cathedral. It was a transitional period from the heavy, monumental Norman way of construction to the lighter, decorated stonework that followed.[2] Features of Early English that applied to the choir are:[3]

·       lancet windows, that were long narrow windows with pointed arches and no tracery. Later came ‘plate’ tracery, so-called because the openings were cut through a flat plate of stone.

·       columns or piers composed of clusters of slender, detached shafts, which ascended to the vaults above.

·       decoration included mouldings which were deeply cut. There is dog-tooth ornamentation around the arches.[4]  

·       the abacus or capital at the top of the columns was circular.

Pier in the north choir aisle near the crossing. The abacus (flat slab forming the uppermost member of the capital) is round. The ornamentation is stiff leaved foliage carved on the bell (the lower portion of the capital). Foliage appears crisp and fine in treatment. The pointed arch is deeply ornamented with ‘double chevron’ arch moulding; which is uncommon.[5]

 A sort of double chevron on the Lady Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey ruins.                                                                                          

              Similar double chevron on the east wall of St David’s cathedral, 12th-century.

 ·       the arcades in the nave occupy the lower half of the side wall. The upper half being divided equally between a triforium and clerestory. There is symmetry.

·       sculptured figures of large size were used, and placed in niches with canopies over them.

Willis's interpretation, 1861, of Early English in the choir.

He identified the first three ‘severeys’ (an archaic term meaning a bay) of the west end of the choir and adjacent aisles as being the earliest Early English.[6] The eastern four bays were later and are in a Decorated style. The boundary between these two styles is obvious in the stonework

The Decorated 4th (middle bay) and 5th (left bay) on the south side of the choir. Notice they are wider than the Early English 3rd (right bay). Notice also a change in the shafts on the piers and the decoration on the arcade wall. The rooms seen through the bays on the south aisle outer wall are Early English. The gallery for St Chad's Head Chapel, seen through the right arcade, was a later addition. There is some stonework in the aisle that appears to be Eaely Englsih.

Willis identified the clerestory above the first three west bays was Decorated and in a lighter coloured stone. From this he assumed the upper original part was replaced by a new Decorated clerestory when the rest of the bays (4 to 7) in the choir and presbytery were added sometime in the 13th-century.

South side first three bays of the choir with the arcades and piers originally being Early English and the clerestory above being Decorated. It now has Perpendicular windows with rectilinear tracery. Willis thought the original windows of the clerestory had lancets.

 North side second bay of the choir showing Early English piers. The clerestory above is Decorated with Perpendicular panelled windows.

 

He found the 3rd piers were Early English on the west side and Decorated on the east side. Clearly this is the ‘join’ between the two phases of construction.

Drawing in ‘Lichfield Cathedral’ in The Builder, 1891, of the change in piers from Early English to Decorated with the 3rd piers split on two sides.

  In the side aisles the transverse rib of the last Early English vault (2nd column) still rests on its Early English pier. The 4th south pier retained beneath its current plinth (base or pedestal)[7] a portion of the plinth of an Early English pier. This portion was the lowest course; now under the floor and consisting of 8 inches of stone. The base of the plinths (Willis used the word footstall) for the 5th and 6th piers was said to be the same as the 2nd pier and so must be Early English. These piers now have plinths with angled stone and are Perpendicular in form. Finally, the very large footstall to the 5th south pier was thought to be earlier than Early English, but this is a paradox.[8]

Eastern sides of plinths from the 4th south pier (left), 4th north pier (middle) and 5th north pier, west side (right) to show the different shapes caused by adding extra bays to the second cathedral layout. According to Willis the centre of the 4th south pier stands 7 inches more to the east than that of the original Early English pier. The 5th north pier is Late Decorated or Perpendicular. The bases of the plinths are under the floor.

Willis drew the prime conclusion for the choir area was this was the oldest part of the cathedral, and this was reliably based on the bottom stone of the piers, now columns.[9]

Plinths

Throughout the cathedral are piers with plinths moulded in an Early English style that has a hollow roll known as a ‘water-holding’ base.[10] This deeply cut roll echoed the deeply undercut moulding on the capital. They are very different from the simpler, round rolls of earlier piers and the elaborate ‘triple rolls’ of later Decorated piers.

Second south pier in choir showing clustered shafts around the pier, with some decoration on the capital and a ‘water-holding’ plinth. This pier is typically Early English.

 Plinth from the second pier in the nave showing a more elaborate set of rolls that is late Early English, or even Early Decorated.

 Exact dating for the choir

On trying to date the architecture Willis stated, “The present choir is so early in its details that it must have been commenced (or considerably reordered?) near the beginning of the century,” that is, the 13th-century. The investigation and conclusion were repeated in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1861;[11] However Willis was uncertain and called his visit ‘a curious investigation’.

Willis wanting to fix a timeline to the cathedral found it difficult to give dates for the revealed second cathedral foundation and for a foundation of a rectangular chamber under the presbytery. He was cautious on the timeline for the different levels of the central tower. His dates for the rest of the cathedral have more-or-less been accepted, but they too are approximations.

Anomalous font

In the floor of the presbytery was found a very large, square, font.[12] Willis did not see this (?) and the font has since disappeared.

Font drawing by John Hamlet 1854. It had been reddened and cracked by fire.   Below is an AI rendition of the drawing.

                                        AI rendition of the possible font 

Placing an unwanted font under the high altar suggests it had historic value. It could therefore have been more ancient than the dates affixed to the standing cathedral, see the post ‘Dating the cathedral’. If it is still under the high altar floor and could be re-found, it would, if datable, give insight to the second cathedral.

 

Rodwell’s view

Rodwell saw it necessary to split the Early English period into three (c. 1200–20, c. 1220–30 and c. 1230–40) to explain the rooms on the south choir aisle.[13] He thought construction was continuous with the choir, crossing tower and transepts, but in that order. This is a challenge to confirm and ignores King John’s Interdict, March 1208–July 1214, when all cathedral activity supposedly stopped. There is no reason to ignore the notion that work continued on all three areas at the same time.

 

The conundrum of the roof

In 1243, Henry III commissioned Walter Grey, Archbishop of York, to expedite the works at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and to construct a lofty wooden roof, like the roof of the new work at Litchfield. It was to appear like stone work, with good ceiling and painting.[14] So which roof was Grey to model his wooden roof? It would be logical to assume he is modelling from a wooden roof at Lichfield. Willis thought there was originally a wooden roof above the south transept and this was the model.^[15] Wall shafts under the vault in the south transept have on their top an Early English abacus and above that a later abacus in Perpendicular style suggesting the stone vault roof was added considerably later than when the lower walls were built.^[16],[17] Rodwell thought the choir had originally a wooden roof. He wrote, “The buttresses along the aisles were rebuilt and were adapted to receive fliers from the high roof of the choir. Thus, the choir was undoubtedly vaulted at this stage, although perhaps in timber rather than in stone. Surely this is what Henry III admired in the late 1230s and ordered its replication at Windsor in 1243.

Clifton thought the date, 1240s, would better suit a timber roof above the transepts than the choir. There is in all this conjecture an ignoring of the phrase to appear like stone work. Could this mean Grey modelled from a stone, vaulted roof at Lichfield, but had to construct the roof at Windsor in timber? The current roof in St George’s Chapel does not resemble any roof at Lichfield. Three-quarters of the nave roof is in timber and made to resemble stone work. Having an earlier timber roof and then soon after changing to a stone roof seems unlikely, though not impossible. It is another uncertainty.

---

[1] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’. The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 1–24.

[2] The general view is the crossing tower, first three, western bays of the choir, the chapel on the south side of the choir and the south transept are Early English. There are also indications parts, such as the vestibule and chapterhouse, on the north side of the choir aisle are also Early English. The north transept is probably late Early English, but has indications of also being early Decorated.

[3] Taken from B. F. Fletcher. A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method for the Student, Craftsman, and Amateur. 5th ed. (London: 1905).

[4] The simplest form of chevron was introduced to Britain between the years 1120–30, according to A. W. Clapham, English Romanesque Architecture after the Conquest. (Oxford: 1934), 128.

[5] There is a similar moulding around the north doorway of Llandaff Cathedral and in the Glastonbury Abbey ruins. There is a Norman moulding called a Lozenge, but it does not have the middle line of stone running through the chevrons.

[6] Willis (1861), 11–13.

[7] The plinth can be a flat, square stone originally intended to keep the bottom of wooden pillars from rotting. Willis did not rule out the Early English piers were originally wooden. Willis (1861), 4 footnote.

[8] The Early English plinths and portions of the flat buttresses to piers on the south side aisle were observed again by J. T. Irvine in April 1880 and reported in The Archaeological Journal, (1880), 37, 214. Irvine’s drawings titled ‘Plinths and ancient buttresses of south aisle of quire, Lichfield Cathedral, laid open April 22, 1880’ are in Staffordshire Record Office, LD30/6/2/55.

[9] Willis concluded, “The buildings, although showing differences of detail and of construction which prove they were erected at considerable intervals, and under different architects, do follow the same general design, and were they dated would greatly elucidate the chronology of the Early English style.”

[10] H. Braun, An introduction to English Medieval Architecture. 2nd edition (London: 1968), 271, Fig. 201. The water-holding aspect is fanciful; it is more likely to hold dirt.

[11] R. Willis, an address to the Archaeological Institute. The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review March. (1861). 210, 296–300. 

[12] This font was of the simplest form, a block 1.4m square (4 feet 6 inches) and 0.6m thick (2 feet), with a hemispherical cavity, 1m diameter (3 feet 3 inches). It had a small square rebate sunk round the margin of the cavity to receive a cover. It was made of ordinary sandstone of rather fine grit, and had been coloured a strong red, and cracked throughout by means of intense heat.

[13] W. Rodwell, ‘The development of the choir of Lichfield Cathedral: Romanesque and Early English.’

in J. Maddison (Ed.), XIII Medieval archaeology and architecture at Lichfield. The British Archaeological Association. (1993), 17–35.  

[14] W. H. Pyne, The History of the Royal Residences, (London: 1819), 1, 35 and A. B. Clifton, ‘The cathedral church of Lichfield a description of its fabric and a brief history of the episcopal see.’ (London: 1900), Bell Series, 68. Also VCH, Staffordshire, 3, 149.

[15] Willis (1861), 18.

[16] The later roof is said to have been instigated by Bishop Walter Langton. See J. Britton, The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1820), 28. It could have also been undertaken in the 1350s, see note 5.

[17] The position of the south round window between the lower stone vaulted roof and the upper external roof, so that it cannot be seen from inside the cathedral, has been said to be proof for the stone roof added later. See, J. C. Woodhouse, A short account of Lichfield Cathedral. Lichfield: (Lichfield: 1811), 5.