§ 34.
The lengthening of the eastern limbs of
monastic churches, of which an early example was
the enlargement of Canterbury cathedral, completed
in 1130, provided additional chapels and a clear
course for the procession at the back of the high
altar. At Canterbury, the new eastern limb was as
long as the nave and crossing together: the quire was
moved into its western part, and additional transepts,
each containing two chapels, were thrown out on
either side of the new presbytery, while three chapels
opened out of the processional path which encircled
the apse. In this plan the night-entry was a doorway
in the eastern transept. In the second rebuilding,
some fifty years later, the plan was lengthened further
to include a chapel for the shrine of St Thomas between
the high altar and the ambulatory. Although
in several cases, with the lengthening of the eastern
limb, the quire was transferred to a position east of
the transepts, this alteration was by no means general.
In the thirteenth century rebuilding at Westminster,
the high altar, presbytery and quire remained in their
old places, and the additional space in the new apse
was devoted to the chapel and shrine of St Edward.
The plans of Canterbury and Westminster were both
elaborate versions of the Norwich and Gloucester plan.
But, while this type of plan prevailed in the great
churches of France, the plan which was preferred in
England from the beginning of the thirteenth century
onward was a long rectangular eastern limb. At
Winchester and St Albans, the longest of our great
churches, the quire did not extend east of the transepts,
and the presbytery and high altar occupied
their relative positions as in the older plan. Behind
the screen or reredos of the high altar a bay was
screened off as a feretory or shrine for the local saint.
At this point the high roof of the church ceased, and
the roof of the eastward extension was on a level with
that of the aisles, which were thus returned to afford
a processional path at the back of the feretory. On
the east side of the processional path were chapels
enclosed by screens, while a long aisleless Lady chapel
was built out from the centre of the east wall. At
Chester the eastern chapel, which contained St Werburgh's
shrine, is directly at the back of the high altar,
and no space was left for a processional path: this
was remedied to some extent in the fifteenth century
by prolonging the north aisle eastwards and so affording
a lateral entrance to the chapel. In the east and
north of England, as at Ely and Selby, it was customary
to continue the high roof to the extreme east end of
the church, and to prolong the aisles to the same
length on either side, so that externally the ambulatory
and eastern chapels are not definitely expressed. In
such cases a row of altars, divided by screens or perpeyn
walls, stood side by side against the east wall. These
alternative plans were not peculiar to the religious
orders, and the second plan was freely used in the
larger Yorkshire churches, by secular canons at York
and Ripon, by Benedictines at Selby, Whitby and
St Mary's, York, by Cistercians at Jervaulx and
Rievaulx, and by Augustinian canons at Guisbrough
and Kirkham.
