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Abstract
Drawing on close archaeological examination, a study of masons’ marks and especially new dendrochronological data, this article defends and develops Christopher Norton’s argument, published in 2009, that Gothic construction at Beverley Minster commenced soon after a well-documented fire in 1188. This dating was widely accepted until the 1860s, but since then there has been widespread consensus amongst scholars that Gothic construction at Beverley began no earlier than 1220. This radical re-dating disassociates Beverley with Lincoln Cathedral, and instead locates its design in relation to early Gothic construction at the abbeys of Fountains, Byland and Jervaulx, together with a wider group of ‘northern’ Gothic churches. New documentary and dendrochronological evidence also provide a more secure dating for Beverley’s 14th-century nave.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Ian Tyers, Alison Arnold and Robert Howard for their work on the dendrochronology, and Stefan King for his earlier work on the roofs. We also thank the Friends of Beverley Minster, who funded the dendrochronology survey over a number of years, and also made a generous grant towards the Open Access publication of this paper. Christopher Wilson kindly answered some queries and supplied copies of John Bilson’s notes on the main arcade mouldings. Janet Burton also kindly helped with documentary queries. We would also like to thank the two anonymous peer reviewers who contributed many useful comments that helped improve the text.
Notes
1 C. Norton, ‘New Light on the Gothic Minster’, Friends of Beverley Minster Annual Report, 73 (2009), 9–15.
2 J. Bilson, ‘Beverley Minster’, Architectural Review, 3 (1894–98), 197–204, 250–59.
3 L. Hoey, ‘Beverley Minster in its 13th-Century Context’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 43 (1984), 209–24; C. Wilson, ‘The Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture of Beverley Minster: Cathedral Splendours and Cistercian Austerities’, Thirteenth Century England III, ed. P. R. Coss (Woodbridge 1991), 181–95.
4 G. Coppack, Fountains Abbey (London 1993), 56 and 58, showing Harrison’s reconstruction drawings of the eastern rose window and arcade of the presbytery. Further work for the Cistercians in Yorkshire project produced a complete 3D model of the whole abbey church: S. Harrison, ‘Jervaulx Abbey and Gisborough Priory: how a study of architectural fragments can inform our understanding of these lost buildings’, Jaarboek Abdijmuseum ‘Ten Duinen 1138’ Novi Monasterii, 9 (2009), 58–73.
5 S. Harrison, ‘Jervaulx Abbey and its Relationship to Beverley Minster’, Friends of Beverley Minster Annual Report, 74 (2010), 8–12.
6 J. Phillips, ‘Of a Fair Uniforme Making’. The Building History of Beverley Minster 1188–1736 (Pickering 2016).
7 Ibid.
8 Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Parker Library, MS 298, fols 151b–52v.
9 Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England, ed. and trans. A. M. Sellar (London 1907), Book V, ch. 2, 303.
10 R. Morris and E. Cambridge, ‘Beverley Minster Before the Early Thirteenth Century’, in Medieval Art and Architecture in the East Riding of Yorkshire, ed. C. Wilson, BAA Trans., ix (Leeds 1989), 9–32.
11 M. Johnson, ‘New Light on the Development of Beverley Minster’, JBAA, 166 (2013), 31–50. Harrison and Norton were consulted on the archaeological sequences and detail during the drafting of his paper.
12 The scale plan of Southwell was expanded slightly so that the naves of both buildings were the same width. Once that revised plan was overlaid on that of Beverley the crossing piers and bay spacings also aligned, which seems to indicate a close affinity in the overall scale of the buildings.
13 Wilson, ‘The Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 183, n. 9.
14 C. Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral, The Architecture of the Great Church 1130–1530 (London 1990), 172–73. Wilson discusses the geometry of the east end, the planning of the bay dimensions and their basis in the Golden Section as allusions to the Trinity. Phillips, Building History, 78–80, discusses the setting out in relation to the use of the measurement of a perch of 16 ft 6 in.
15 Phillips, Building History, 107–08, illus. 4.2, shows what is likely to have been the abutment of the Romanesque nave roof against the western crossing arch. It shows a pitch around forty-five degrees and is set at a lower level than the present roof.
16 In fact, the whole plan of the building as well as the proportions of the elevations are based on multiples of this single measurement.
17 J. Bilson, ‘Norman Work in the Nave Triforium of Beverley Minster’, The Antiquary, 27 (1893), 18–23, at 21, shows an elevation and plan of the triforium that indicate the depth and size of the rear arches.
18 Wilson, ‘The Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 185, n. 20.
19 Phillips, Building History, 80, illus. 3.32.
20 The Itinerary of John Leland In or About the Years 1535–1543, ed. L. Toulmin Smith (London 1907), 46.
21 A. F. Leach, Memorials of Beverley Minster: The Chapter Act Book of the Collegiate Church of St John of Beverley, A.D. 1286–1347, Surtees Society 98, 2 vols (Durham 1898–1903), II, 54; M. Woodworth, ‘Unnatural Ornament: Beverley Minster, Historical Consciousness and the Early English Style’, in Art and Nature: Studies in medieval art and architecture, ed. L. Cleaver and K. Gerry (London 2009), 23–38.
22 Roger of Howden, Chronica, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series 1868–71), II, 354; Copies of Inscriptions in Beverley Minster, Hull History Centre, Papers of the Constable Maxwell Family, U/DDEV/5/1; W. Dugdale, The Visitation of the County of York, ed. R. Davies, Surtees Society, 36 (Durham 1859), 22.
23 S. E. Wilson, The Life and After-Life of St John of Beverley, The Evolution of the Cult of an Anglo-Saxon Saint (Aldershot and Burlington 2006), 13 and 217–18.
24 J. Raine, Historians of the Church of York and its archbishops, I (London 1879), 345–47.
25 Wilson, The Life, 217–18.
26 Wilson, ‘Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 183, n. 13, suggested that it was a spire; L. F. Salzman, Building in England Down to 1540, 3rd edn (Oxford 1997), 26, suggested a ‘short conical spire’.
27 Notably, the four corner stair turrets in the eastern crossing are partly capped off with broken sections of octagonal Purbeck marble shafts, similar to those used in the clerestory arcades: Phillips, Building History, 76, illus. 3.31. The use of Purbeck marble must surely relate to the present building rather than an earlier Romanesque structure that was modified.
28 T. Rickman, Gothic Architecture—An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation, 6th edn (Oxford 1862); T. Meadley, The History of Beverley Minster, from it Foundation: Including Its Antient Monuments etc. With a Description of St Mary’s Church, Collected from Antient Records (Hull 1804); George Poulson, BEVERLAC: or, The Antiquities and History of the Town of Beverley … etc. (Beverley and London 1829), 537; J. Britton, The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, 5 vols (London 1807–35), V, 22; J. Coltman and W. R. Johnson, A Short History of Beverley Minster etc. (Beverley 1835); J. L. Petit, ‘Remarks on Beverley Minster’, Memoirs Illustrative of the County and City of York Communicated to the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 1846 (York 1848), 7; J. J. Sheahan, An Antiquarian Ramble through the Town of Beverley (Beverley 1856), 15.
29 Petit, ‘Remarks’, 7.
30 In his footnote to Petit, Willis suggested that the quatrefoils represented part of an earlier east wall, destroyed when the east transept and east end were added to an existing four-bay presbytery. His comments suggest that he never actually saw the evidence but may have commented from a drawing. See also Wilson, ‘Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 194, n. 55. The use of Purbeck marble shows it was always an internal feature as no Purbeck is used externally at Beverley.
31 Bilson, ‘Beverley Minster’, 202; Wilson, Gothic Cathedral, 170–74; P. Draper, The Formation of English Gothic: Architecture and Identity (New Haven and London 2006), 167–68; Hoey, ‘Beverley Minster’, 209–24.
32 Hoey, ‘Beverley Minster’, 212, n. 13. See also Wilson, ‘Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 194 and nn. 29 and 57.
33 S. Harrison and M. Thurlby, ‘Observations on the Romanesque Crossing Tower, Transepts and Nave Aisles of Selby Abbey’, in Yorkshire Monasticism: Archaeology, Art and Architecture, ed. L. Hoey, BAA Trans., xvi (London 1995), 54–56. The medieval central tower of Beverley was taken down in 1721 and only one poor illustration of it is known. In three of the four corners are stair turrets rising from clerestory level. The spandrels of the crossing arches are decorated with quatrefoils and were clearly meant to be seen. In other words, the medieval central tower was also designed to have a lantern.
34 Bilson, ‘Beverley Minster’, 199–200.
35 O. Lehmann-Brockhaus, Lateinische schriftquellen zur Kunst in England, Wales, und Schottland vom Jahre 901 bis zum Jahre 1307, 5 vols (Munich 1955–60), I, 88, no. 336.
36 Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office (London 1891–), Henry III, 3, 1232–47: Westminster, 14 May 1235, Protection with clause rogamus, for seven years from Whitsuntide, for the church of St John of Beverley, and the preachers thereof, gathering alms for the building of the said church (repeated at Woodstock, 15 June); Calendar of the Close Rolls, 47 vols (London 1900–63), Henry III, 7, 1251–53: 25 March 1252, ‘De Quercibus datis- Mandatumn est G. de Langel’, justicario foreste, quod in foresta regis de Shirewude faciat habere procutori ecclesiae Sancti Johnannis Beverlac’ xl. quercibus ad maeraemium fabricam ecclesiae supradicte, de dono regis. Teste ut supra. Per regem (Teste rege apud Westmonasterium XXV die Marcii)’.
37 Beverley Cartulary: London, British Library, Add. MS 61901, fol. 83.
38 Norton, ‘New Light’, 11.
39 Wilson, ‘Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 194–95 and nn. 57–59.
40 Norton, ‘New Light’, 12–13, also interpreted a blocked opening in the south aisle of the presbytery that would look into the eastern transept as a former window in the first east end. Along with another on the north side and two others at the north and south ends of the eastern transept chapels, all looking into the east end, it is instead an opening to admit light and air into the aisle roof space. These blocked openings can clearly be seen inside the church.
41 Hoey, ‘Beverley Minster’, 212–13.
42 These have been catalogued as far as possible and the distribution of the marks can be interrogated in conjunction with other detail to obtain indications of the building sequence.
43 Phillips, Building History, 279.
44 Hoey, ‘Beverley Minster’, 214.
45 J. Bilson, ‘On the Discovery of Some Remains of the Chapter-House of Beverley Minster’, Archaeologia, 54 (1895), 425–32. Unfortunately, Bilson did not include any masons’ marks.
46 Phillips, Building History, 85–88, illustrates the buttress capital variations and where they occur.
47 Wilson, ‘Early Thirteenth-Century Gothic Architecture’, 194–95, following P. Brieger, English Art 1216–1307 (Oxford 1957), 50–51, also suggested that the eastern crossing piers had been rebuilt by cutting back and refacing the originally fully shafted piers.
48 Assessing the full extent of their area of construction is hampered by the fact the north-eastern bay of the Lady Chapel was completely reconstructed in the 18th century, and that all the lancet windows in the east wall of the Lady Chapel, the south-east transept, and those in the south choir aisle were replaced with Perpendicular tracery windows in the early part of the 15th century.
49 A. F. Leach, Memorials of Beverley Minster: The Chapter Act Book of the Collegiate Church of St John of Beverley, A.D. 1286–1347, Surtees Society 98, 2 vols (Durham 1898–1903), II, 299.
50 Ibid., 224–25.
51 Ibid., 299.
52 R. K. Morris, ‘Thomas of Witney at Exeter, Winchester and Wells’, in Medieval Art and Architecture at Exeter Cathedral, ed. F. Kelly, BAA Trans., xi (London 1991), 79, n. 14, established that the shafts were made from the same template.
53 N. Dawton, ‘The Percy Tomb at Beverley Minster: the Style of the Sculpture’, in Studies in Medieval Sculpture, ed. F. H. Thompson (London 1983), 122–50, discusses the likely date and the identification of the occupant of the tomb in detail.
54 Ibid., 124.
55 Leach, Memorials, 299.
56 Ibid.
57 W. H. Thompson, ‘The Black Death in Yorkshire (1349)’, The Antiquary, 37 (1901), 134–37.
58 There was clearly a partition which separated the east end of the building from the nave, just west of St John’s tomb. It was probably a wooden wall keyed into the main fabric. There is evidence for its removal in the spandrels of the second and third bays of the nave, where new ashlar was inserted into the walls. This can be dated to the third phase of the nave building because it shares masons’ marks with the two west towers.
59 Romanesque chevron-decorated voussoirs from several arches were used as relieving arches in the back of the triforium in this area: Bilson, ‘Norman work’.
60 A. C. Armstrong and D. Cant, ‘Carpenters of the nave roof’, in Who Built Beverley Minster, ed. P. S. Barnwell and A. Pacey (Reading 2004), 59–80.
61 A. Arnold and R. Howard, ‘Reused Timbers of the Nave Roof, Beverley Minster. Tree Ring Analysis of Timbers’ (hereafter NTRDL) (unpublished report, John Phillips Collection archive, East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, Beverley, September 2021).
62 I. Tyers, ‘The tree-ring analysis of timbers from The Minster, Beverley’ (unpublished report, John Phillips Collection archive, East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, Beverley, July 2012).
63 NTRDL.
64 Phillips, Building History, 111, illus. 4.7.
65 London, British Library, Lansdowne MS 896, part III, fol. 40v.
66 R. G. Davies, ‘Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York 1374–1388’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 47 (1975), 87–101.
67 Calendar of the Close Rolls, 47 vols (London 1900–63), 1385–89, Richard II, 3, 413: ‘June 10. To John Godard escheator in Yorkshire. Order to deliver to the Westminster, chapters of St. Peter York and St. John Beverley, their attorneys or deputies, for the works of those churches divers oaks for timber in his woods of Skaholme and “Southburdonwode” which were freely given them by Alexander late archbishop of York, and were cut down before the judgment of forfeiture rendered against him, his forfeiture or the seizure of his goods and chattels notwithstanding. By C.’.
68 NTRDL.
69 A. F. Leach, Beverley Town Documents, Seldon Society, 14 (London 1900), 24.
70 Salzman, Building in England, 229–32.
71 N. Lloyd, A History of English Brickwork (Woodbridge 1925), 96, with a table of measurements.
72 F. W. Brooks, ‘A Medieval Brickyard at Hull’, JBAA, 4 (1939), 151–74.
73 A. F. Leach, ‘The Building of Beverley Bar’, Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, 4 (1896), 26–37; John Bilson, ‘The North Bar, Beverley’, Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, 4 (1896), 37–49.
74 Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, BCIV/14//1: ‘Beverley Minster Minutes and Accounts 1718–1731’.
75 Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, I DDBC/3/104, 1750: ‘Cash paid to workmen upon stripping and Covering, viz., the North End of the Cross Isle being the High Roof from the Dome to the North Gable End’.
76 Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, BCIV/14/1, ‘Beverley Minster Minutes and Accounts 1718 to 1731’.
77 Phillips, Building History, 210–27.
78 Ibid., 217–18, illus 9.11 and 9.12.
79 Another aspect of the medieval appearance of the church was observed from scaffolding on the south-east transept. The corbels and cornice beneath the later parapets show extensive traces of limewash in areas that have been protected from the weather. It seems likely that the whole building had been limewashed externally in the medieval period.
80 The amount of debris lying on top of the high vaults east of the central tower testifies to the reconstruction of the roofs and also the defrassing of timbers that had been attacked by beetles. It contains wood shavings and a lot of sawdust reduced to a fine grey overall consistency with time. Recent releading and replacement of timbers in the nave roof generated a considerable amount of similar debris which the contractor had to remove.
81 Adapted from explanatory text by NTRDL.
82 Given the time sequence we have demonstrated between the western choir, south transept, north transept and nave, it seems impossible that these roofs once covered the refurbished burnt-out Romanesque building following the 1188 fire and were then transferred piecemeal to cover the new building.
83 R. R. Laxton, C. D. Litton and R. E. Howard, Timber: Dendrochronology of Roof Timbers at Lincoln Cathedral, English Heritage Research Transactions, 7 (London 2001), and .
84 The stiff-leaf capitals bear a remarkable resemblance to those of the chapter-house capitals at Jervaulx Abbey, for which see below.
85 Bilson, ‘Chapter-House of Beverley Minster’, 425–32.
86 S. Harrison, ‘The Architecture of Byland Abbey’ (unpublished MA dissertation, University of York, 1988); Byland Abbey, English Heritage guidebook (London 1990); Wilson, ‘The Early Thirteenth-Century Architecture’, 191–92.
87 W. H. St John Hope and H. Brakspear, ‘Jervaulx Abbey’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 21 (1911), 303–44, at 324; S. Harrison and D. Robinson, ‘Cistercian Cloisters in England and Wales’, JBAA, 159 (2006), 131–207, at 170–72 and 189–92.
88 Harrison, ‘The Architecture of Byland Abbey’, 104–07. The aisle and west responds of the nave at Byland show multiple capitals set under a single circular rim and several sections of abacus from such piers were found in excavation. One half-pier capital in the garden at Myton Hall is also of this type.
89 E. Sharpe, Architectural Parallels (London 1848).
90 Those at Fountains were smashed out at the Dissolution to recover the iron and leadwork supporting the arcading, so none remain intact. Loose stones from the arcades and in situ springers show the design.
91 It may be the case that rather than five-arch clerestory screen arcades there were three-arched ones in the wider choir and nave bays and three-arch ones with narrower flanking arches to the central opening in the narrower transept bays. All three possible versions have been shown in the reconstructions.
92 G. Coppack, Fountains Abbey (Stroud 2009), 90–91.
93 Hedon Church uses some similar details but has no marble.
94 W. H. St John Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 15 (1900), 269–402.
95 J. A. Reeve, A Monograph on the Abbey of St Mary at Fountains (London 1892).
96 The high vaults and aisle vaults at Beverley nonetheless spread the walls of the presbytery and most notably the transepts and nave considerably. The transept chapels on the south side have a notable outward lean and the clerestory wall passages bend outwards in the middle of the transept and nave arcades.
97 Similar mask corbels survive loose at Jervaulx and must come from a similar eaves cornice.
98 S. Harrison, ‘Stonework from the Excavations’ and ‘Architectural stonework from earlier clearance’, in D. Heslop, ‘Excavation within the church at the Augustinian priory of Gisborough, Cleveland 1985–6’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 67 (1995), 80–86 and 106–17.
99 J. S. Alexander, ‘The Construction of the Gothic Choir of Carlisle Cathedral, and the Evidence of the Masons’ Marks’, in Carlisle and Cumbria, Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology, ed. M. McCarthy and D. Weston, BAA Trans., xxvii (London 2004), 106–26.
100 G. Coppack and S. Harrison, ‘New Thoughts on an Old Chronology: Meaux Abbey, East Riding of Yorkshire (England) in a new light’, Citeaux Commentarii Cistercienses, 67/iii–iv (2016), 361–70.
101 Copies of Ken Beaulah’s notes about his excavations are kept at the English Heritage Archaeology Store at Helmsley.
102 G. Coppack and S. Harrison, ‘Revesby Abbey’, forthcoming.
103 J. Caley, ‘Copy of a Survey of the Priory of Bridlington, in Yorkshire, taken about the 32d year of Henry VIII’, Archaeologia, 12 (1821), 270–75; G. Coppack, S. Harrison and J. Phillips, ‘Reconstructing Bridlington Priory: Richard Pollard’s Suppression Survey and the Evidence of Antiquarian and Current Research’, forthcoming.
104 G. Coppack, S. Harrison and C. Hayfield, ‘Kirkham Priory: The Architecture and Archaeology of an Augustinian House’, JBAA, 148 (1995), 55–136.
105 S. Harrison, Kirkham Priory, English Heritage Guidebook (London 1999), 24–25.
106 Obvious Lincoln-derived features at York Minster include the five-part vaults with major and minor external buttresses in the transept aisles. Yet the double aisles to the York transepts must derive from Byland/Beverley and the abandoned high vault originally designed to cover the south transept owed much to that built over the presbytery at Fountains. Although it is no longer obvious, the north choir aisle at Rievaulx also had five-part vaults and most likely alternating major and minor aisle wall buttresses: P. Fergusson, G. Coppack, S. Harrison and M. Carter, Rievaulx Abbey (London 2016), plans. The evidence for the five-part vaults has never been published but exists in the form of a vault boss in the English Heritage Helmsley Archaeology Store.
107 Norton, ‘New Light’, 14–15; R. Stalley, ‘Lapides Reclamabunt: Art and Engineering at Lincoln Cathedral in the Thirteenth Century’, Antiquaries Journal, 86 (2006), 131–37, at 131, n. 1, neatly corrected the misconception that the building works commenced in 1192. For the early dendrochronological dating of the Lincoln Cathedral roofs, see Laxton, Litton and Howard, Timber: Dendrochronology of Roof Timbers at Lincoln Cathedral, 40–46.
108 Hoey, ‘New Light’, 216; Brieger, English Art, 48–51.
109 S. Harrison, ‘The Original Plan of the east End of St Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln Cathedral Reconsidered in the Light of New Evidence’, JBAA, 169 (2016), 1–36; S. Harrison and C. Norton, York Minster: an Illustrated Architectural History 627–c.1500, (York 2015), 20 and 29.
110 Peter Fergusson and Stuart Harrison, Roche Abbey (London 2013), 7 and plan.
111 J. Burton, The Foundation Histories of the Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx, Borthwick Texts and Studies, 35 (York 2006), 56.
112 Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, ed. C. Waddell (Brecht 2002), 209 (1190/53).
113 A. W. Oxford, The Ruins of Fountains Abbey (London 1910), 229–30, gives a complete English translation of the Latin text of the Fountains chronicle.
114 G. Coppack and S. Harrison, ‘New Thoughts’, 361–70.
115 Bilson, ‘Beverley Minster’, 200–01, discusses the plan proportions in some detail, as does Wilson, Gothic Cathedral, 172–73.