DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0419
Bk. YII. Ch. III.
PARISII CHURCHES.
399
into a steeple, and there are no doubt many others o£ the same class
in Scandinavia. It was, however, in England, where rectangular
naves were common, that the compromise found in this country
became fashionable. These Norfolk churches with round towers may
consequently be looked upon as safe indexes of the existence of
Scandinavian influences in the eastern counties, and also as interesting
examples of the mode in which a compromise is frequently hit upon
between the feelings of intrusive races and the habits of the previous
inhabitants.
It is doubtful whether round-naved and round-towered churches
existed in the eastern counties anterior to the Norman Conquest ;
so far as we know, none have been described. The earliest that
are known were erected during the Norman period, and extend
certainly down to the end of the Edwardian period. Some of the
towers have perpendicular details, but these seem insertions, and
consequently do not indicate the date of the essential parts of the
structure.
As a rule, the English parish church is never vaulted, that species
of magnificence being reserved, after the Norman times at least, for
cathedrals and collegiate churches ; but on the other hand, their
wooden roofs are always appropriate, and frequently of great beauty.
So essential does the vault appear to have been to Gothic architecture
both abroad and in this country, that it is at first sight ditficult to
admit that any other form of covering can be as beautiful. But some
of the roofs in English churches go far to refute the idea. Even,
however, if they are not in themselves so monumental and so grand,
they had at least this advantage, that the absence of the vault allowed
the architect to play with the construction of the substructure. He
was enabled to lighten the pillars of the nave to any extent he
thought consistent with dignity, and to glaze his clerestory in a
manner which must haA re given extreme brilliancy to the interior
when the whole was filled with painted glass. Generally with a
wooden roof there were two windows in the clerestory for one
in the aisles : with a vaulted roof the tendency was the other way.
Had they dared, they would have put one above for two below. But
the great merit of a wooden roof was, that it enabled the architect
to dispense with all flying buttresses, exaggerated pinnacles, and
mechanical expedients, which were necessary to support a vault, but
which often sadly hampered and crowded his designs.
So various were the forms these wooden roofs took that they almost
defy classification. The earlier and best type was a reminiscence,
rather than an imitation, of the roof of St. Stephen’s Chapel or
Westminster Hall, but seldom so deeply framed. That at Trunch
Church, Norfolk (AVoodcut No. 850), may be taken as a fair average
specimen of the form adopted for the larger spans, and that at New
PARISII CHURCHES.
399
into a steeple, and there are no doubt many others o£ the same class
in Scandinavia. It was, however, in England, where rectangular
naves were common, that the compromise found in this country
became fashionable. These Norfolk churches with round towers may
consequently be looked upon as safe indexes of the existence of
Scandinavian influences in the eastern counties, and also as interesting
examples of the mode in which a compromise is frequently hit upon
between the feelings of intrusive races and the habits of the previous
inhabitants.
It is doubtful whether round-naved and round-towered churches
existed in the eastern counties anterior to the Norman Conquest ;
so far as we know, none have been described. The earliest that
are known were erected during the Norman period, and extend
certainly down to the end of the Edwardian period. Some of the
towers have perpendicular details, but these seem insertions, and
consequently do not indicate the date of the essential parts of the
structure.
As a rule, the English parish church is never vaulted, that species
of magnificence being reserved, after the Norman times at least, for
cathedrals and collegiate churches ; but on the other hand, their
wooden roofs are always appropriate, and frequently of great beauty.
So essential does the vault appear to have been to Gothic architecture
both abroad and in this country, that it is at first sight ditficult to
admit that any other form of covering can be as beautiful. But some
of the roofs in English churches go far to refute the idea. Even,
however, if they are not in themselves so monumental and so grand,
they had at least this advantage, that the absence of the vault allowed
the architect to play with the construction of the substructure. He
was enabled to lighten the pillars of the nave to any extent he
thought consistent with dignity, and to glaze his clerestory in a
manner which must haA re given extreme brilliancy to the interior
when the whole was filled with painted glass. Generally with a
wooden roof there were two windows in the clerestory for one
in the aisles : with a vaulted roof the tendency was the other way.
Had they dared, they would have put one above for two below. But
the great merit of a wooden roof was, that it enabled the architect
to dispense with all flying buttresses, exaggerated pinnacles, and
mechanical expedients, which were necessary to support a vault, but
which often sadly hampered and crowded his designs.
So various were the forms these wooden roofs took that they almost
defy classification. The earlier and best type was a reminiscence,
rather than an imitation, of the roof of St. Stephen’s Chapel or
Westminster Hall, but seldom so deeply framed. That at Trunch
Church, Norfolk (AVoodcut No. 850), may be taken as a fair average
specimen of the form adopted for the larger spans, and that at New