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Reginald Taylor and Lord Fletcher Essay Prize WinnerOne of the most architecturally stimulating features of the Old Town Bridge Tower in Prague is the net vault over the ground level, designed by Peter Parler. Often assumed to have been built after the net vault of Prague Cathedral’s choir, this article looks more closely at the masonry, the heraldry and the sculptures of the Tower to suggest that the Bridge Tower vault predates the choir vault. After setting this vault as the first net vault in Bohemia, the article examines how this particular formt fits within the evolution of Parlerian vault designs in Prague. In addition, the article explores the larger implications of a design process where smaller spaces are used to experiment and develop new designs before utilising those designs on a larger scale.

Before the 1978 excavation of the chapter-house site directed by Martin Biddle and the late Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle, nothing was known about the 15th-century building, beyond the brief documentary references in the Register to its remodelling during the second half of the century in the time of abbots John of Wheathamstead and William Wallingford. However, the exceptional quantity of late Gothic masonry fragments uncovered during the excavation has made it possible to attempt to reconstruct features of its design, particularly the vaulting, and has transformed our knowledge of this important building. This article reviews the information derived from the study of the fragments of the vault, assesses its significance in the development of late Gothic vaulting, and speculates on the identity of its designer.

The 14th-century ‘Prentice’s bracket’ in the south transept of Gloucester cathedral has usually been thought to represent the fatal plunge of a young mason, watched by an older colleague. The implicit parallel is with Icarus and Daedalus, which suggests a moral lesson about the risks of Pride for artisans who worked at dangerous heights. However, this reading of the imagery may not be correct. In light of what is actually shown — the younger man is clearly attached to a vault — it seems more likely to represent a rescue through supernatural intervention. Numerous parallels for such rescues exist in medieval sources, particularly in the praise literature dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Complex and spatially adventurous vaults have come to be seen as a critical element in the development of Decorated architecture. By the second quarter of the 14th century it is the West Country that had become the most significant region within England for experiments in vaulting designs. This paper examines the history of late medieval vaulting from the perspective of a series of West Country cloisters, many of them demolished or little studied, in order to assess the role of the cloister in the evolution and development of lierne vaulting in late medieval England. It is shown that the meditative, liturgical and processional uses of cloisters made them an obvious showcase for the most extravagant architectural effects. A number of particular vault designs were employed, two of which — the fan and the lierne — became the preferred options for prestige projects in the early 15th century. Fan and lierne vaults were not in competition for recognition or status and both were fundamental to the creati...

A new survey of Grey Abbey has identified hitherto unsuspected areas of restoration, especially around the sedilia and west front. Measurement of the surviving walls and study of the collection of architectural fragments has enabled outline reconstruction drawings of the church and monastic buildings to be made. Survey of the loose stonework identified substantial elements of the chapter-house, day room and cloister arcades. Comparison with material at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin shows that the chapter-house vault ribs at Grey were identical in profile to some thought to have originated in the aisles of the cathedral, a building strongly influenced stylistically by sources in the West Country of England.

Study of the remains of the church at Dundrennan Abbey shows that it has been the subject of considerable restoration in the 19th century. The previously accepted view that the building incorporates substantial parts of the fabric of a mid 12th century church which was largely remodelled in the late 12th century cannot be substantiated. The western crossing piers, long thought to be part of this earlier structure, can be shown to have been substantially repaired and restored using salvaged elements from the nave piers. The presbytery high vault and crossing arches rose high above the flanking walltops and traces of an abandoned high vaulting scheme for the north transept have been identified and reconstructed in detail. The northern English Cistercian influences on the architecture have been confirmed as emanating from Roche and Kirkstead Abbeys but in particular from the great abbey of Byland.

This study surveys the surviving stone vaults in English parish churches of the Early Gothic and Decorated periods. Of the approximately sixty surviving buildings with vaults the vast majority are to be found in the southern half of the country and particularly in the counties between Kent and Wiltshire. In spite of extensive parish church construction during this period in the Midlands and North there were very few vaults constructed there. Still more surprising was the finding that slightly more Romanesque rib-vaulted choirs survive in English parish churches than Gothic ones. In spite of the identification of rib vaults with the Gothic style by most architectural historians it is clear that only a small minority of English parish church masons saw it that way.Those vaults that were built show a range of articulations and aesthetics. Early examples tend to follow French models, with separate shafts provided for all vault components and diagonally set capitals for diagonal ribs. In the early thir...

This paper reviews an article by Francis Woodman confirming his conclusion that it was originally intended to extend the retrochoir one bay further west and to demolish the Norman apse but questioning whether this intention was carried out before the rebuilding of the presbytery in the fourteenth century. Some errors of fact and misleading indications in Woodman's diagrams are also corrected and his argument that the central vault of the retrochoir was rebuilt in the fifteenth century is refuted.

Study of the architecture of the west front of the church at Byland Abbey shows that during its erection many changes of design were made. An enlargement of the central doorway caused the level of the galilee porch roof to be raised followed by a major revision to the design which involved the introduction of different buttresses. The three lancet windows were widened internally after their construction had begun while, at the same time, the head of the window in the south aisle of the nave seems to have been raised. A stair turret from the south aisle vault space to the nave clerestory was abandoned when it was on the point of completion; this, together with uncapped shaftings between triple lancets, indicates that the original intention was to build three graduated lancet windows in the gable. These were abandoned in favour of the great rose window. The remaining fragments of its tracery together with two masons' drawings of its design have enabled an almost total reconstruction of its form to ...

On the inner face of the rood-screen and on the parclose-screen in the north-aisle chapel of the church dedicated to St John the Baptist at Ashton in Devon there are ten high-quality late medieval paintings: eight of male figures gesturing towards scrolls bearing texts and two depicting scriptural iconography, the Annunciation and the Visitation. In both of these the figures also point to scrolls. The inscriptions which are based on the liturgy of the Sarum rite together form a coherent and sophisticated theological scheme which is peculiarly appropriate to a church dedicated to John the Baptist and to their particular location in a chapel which used to house the family vault of the lords of the manor. The scheme also provides evidence for familiarity in a remote rural area with the liturgy for two feasts not officially instituted until the fifteenth century: the feasts of the Visitation and the Transfiguration. The paintings bear witness to artistic skills and theological understanding of a calib...