The plan of Lincoln Cathedral, with two pairs of transepts, follows the plan for the rebuilding of Canterbury between 1175 and 1184. The east end of Lincoln, which was built during the time of St Hugh, and only the footprint of which remains in the Angel Choir of the cathedral was very similar to the choir at Canterbury. A footprint of the original apse of Remigius can be seen in St Hugh’s Choir. From excavations, there were a hexagonal chapel at the east end of the choir for the relics of Bishop Remigius, and eastern transepts, based on the architecture at Canterbury. These were destroyed in 1255 to make room for the new Angel Choir. In general, details of the architecture at Lincoln can be seen as elaborations of the details at Canterbury: plain piers are surrounded by shafts, crockets are allowed to run down the piers; multiple-layered triforia, multiple clerestory windows per bay, sexpartite vaulting, the paired apses in the transepts, and an abundance of Purbeck marble. Purbeck marble was from the beginning one of the most distinguishing features of the cathedral. It is referred to in the Metrical Life of St Hugh as lapidum preciosa nigrorum materies, and was seen to evoke the most spiritual qualities of light and material. Purbeck marble is not actually a marble, but a fossiliferous limestone polished to simulate marble, from the Isle of Purbeck. The Metrical Life of St Hugh, “How St Hugh built the cathedral church of Lincoln, 1192–1200”, was the second biography of Bishop Hugh of Avalon, written by Henry of Avranches, a friend of Robert Grosseteste, between 1220 and 1235, when Grosseteste became Bishop of Lincoln.
The vaulting throughout the aisles at Lincoln is based on the vaulting of one bay at Canterbury. The freestanding responds and multiple clerestory windows at Lincoln can be found in the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury. The building of Canterbury Cathedral, especially the reconstruction of the choir beginning in 1174, inspired a proliferation of cathedral building in England. Minsters around England were inspired by the activities of Thomas Becket, in fighting for the liberties of the church against the king, to build new buildings and reliquaries for patron saints. Communities also became increasingly nationalistic in response to the expansion of French power, especially after the Norman Conquest and the invasion of England in 1216. After 1214, French influences were almost nonexistent in English architecture.
Chapter house, c. 1220–1245. Lincoln Cathedral.
Lincoln is seen as the first significant departure from the French Gothic style, and the first instance of pure English Gothic architecture. There is a geometrical elaboration beyond any precedent at Lincoln. While many, in particular Nikolaus Pevsner, have created a romantic view of the architecture in the succeeding years as being a product of the visionary genius of Geoffrey de Noyers, it is uncertain what exactly his role was in the design of the architecture. His involvement is certain, as reported in the Magna Vita, the first biography of St Hugh, written by Adam of Eynsham in 1210. There he is called nobilis fabrice constructor, which means he would have been either the architect or the Clerk of Works. Constructor or construxit could mean the person for whom the work is built, such as the bishop or other members of the clergy, or a canon acting as custos fabricae, keeper of the fabric. In the Metrical Life of St Hugh, Geoffrey was instructed by St Hugh on his deathbed to finish the work quickly for the council of the king and bishops. The nave and chapter house, and even the present choir vault, may have been built by the “third master”, Alexander the Mason, who held property in Lincoln at the time. The rebuilding of the cathedral began with the transepts and St Hugh’s Choir.
The architecture of the east transept of Lincoln Cathedral (north-east transept, illustration 1, 2; south-east transept: illustration 3, 4), from between 1190 and 1240, represented a significant departure from precedent, and had a decisive influence on the development of the Decorated style. To the north, there is an open, two-storey room between the openwork arcading and the exterior wall, the purpose of which is not known. It is possible that a ceiling was intended between the gallery and clerestory levels. Each vertical plane, the exterior wall with just two tiers of tall lancet windows, and the elaborate openwork screen façade set inside it, can be taken as the north façade of the transept, the interior façade providing a clear view of the exterior façade behind it. The two façades seem to fit into the general programme of the architecture at Lincoln Cathedral at the end of the 12th century, attributed to Geoffrey de Noyers, working for Bishop Hugh of Avalon, of a series of experiments in vistas and visual experiences, and experimental spatial configurations, as in the asymmetrical vault and the syncopated double arcading of St Hugh’s Choir, but there is no indication that the coexistence of the two north façades in the transept had any functional purpose in terms of the organisation of the space.
Across from the arcaded screens of St Hugh’s Choir in the north aisle is the double arcade. The double arcade also appears in the four semicircular chapels attached to the east side of the eastern transept, two in the north bay and two in the south bay. The eastern transept was built before the collapse of the crossing tower in 1237 or 1239, but the semicircular chapels, though part of the original design, were probably not built until after the collapse. The vaulting of the eastern transept is the earliest surviving at Lincoln, and departs from the French model in that it is a sexpartite vault over a single bay rather than over two bays. This required an additional springer for the intermediate transverse rib. The springers rising from below the clerestory recalls Canterbury Cathedral. The triforium of the east transept is similar to that of St Hugh’s Choir, with two arches in each bay divided into two sub-arches, and trefoils and quatrefoils in the tympana, except in the northernmost bay, which is the earliest. The clerestory of the east transept only contains single lancet windows in each bay. The transept is not very well lit, as the clerestory windows are obscured by the curved web of the sexpartite vaulting condensed into one bay. The design of the vault of St Hugh’s Choir may have resulted in part from a desire to correct this problem. The pointed arches of the arcade in the lower walls of the transepts are similar to those in St Hugh’s Choir, as is the exterior buttressing.
The vaulting of the chapels of the transept is quadripartite. A chamber on the western side of the northern arm, called the Dean’s Chapel, contains a column with an octagonal pier, surrounded by four circular Purbeck shafts alternating with hexagonal, concave, fluted stone shafts, with crockets running up the side of the pier in between them. The column is repeated in the same location on both sides of the north and south bays. These are referred to as “Trondheim Piers”, as it is believed that Lincoln masons worked at Trondheim Cathedral.
One of the piers is without the crockets. Nikolaus Pevsner considers this to be the original, an invention of Geoffrey de Noyers, while the rest of the columns are ruined by the excessive crockets. The original pier is exactly like piers found at Canterbury, which was completed in 1184, six years prior to the start of Geoffrey de Noyer’s work at Lincoln. Other columns in the eastern transepts display clustered marble piers and stone shafts, stiff-leaf foliage capitals, and the circular Gothic abacus at the top of the column, replacing the square Norman abacus. The columns have a cruciform core with hollowed-out, chamfered angles forming diagonal shafts, which is repeated in St Hugh’s Choir, except with only four detached shafts.
Bishop’s Eye, west transept. Lincoln Cathedral.
North-east transept. Lincoln Cathedral.
South-east transept. Lincoln Cathedral.
The main, western transept (south-west), which contains the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye, was more or less completed by the time of the collapse of the tower. Only the innermost bays had been completed by 1200, and the subsequent bays were built between 1200 and 1235. Bishop Hugh of Wells, bishop from 1209 to 1235, is believed to have contributed to the construction of the transepts and later the nave (illustration) by donating all of the timber from his land upon his death. The western transept is believed to have been started by Geoffrey de Noyers,