employed on the research are condemned to compulsory inactivity. We would also earnestly recommend Mr. Wood, the owner of Tre'r Ceiri, to decide on some efficient public museum, under the charge of a competent curator, where the relics found or to be found may be carefully preserved and exhibited, for the sake of their great importance as a contribution to the knowledge of the arts of the British at the dawn of the history of our island. 17 THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. DEINIOL, BANGOR. BY HAROLD HUGHES, ESQ., A.R.I.B.A. (Continued from 6th Ser., vol. ii, p. 276.) THOMAS SKEFFINGTON, Skevynton, or Pace, was appointed Bishop by Papal provision in 1508, and consecrated in June, 1509. To him is generally given the credit of building the nave and western tower. An inscription over the western doorway, indeed, states that the tower and church are his work. The reconstruction, commenced by Bishop Dean at the east end of the church, may have been gradually carried on westward during the few years intervening between his translation to Salisbury and the appointment of Bishop Skeffington.2 There is nothing definite to indicate where the one work ended and the other began. Probably, Skeffington's work commenced with the rebuilding of the nave arcades. These were inserted between the fourteenth-century aisle walls. Whereas the central line of the fourteenth-century nave, if continued, would have struck the east window considerably to the south, that of the fifteenth-century nave strikes the window to the north of its centre. The arcades consist of six bays, and have been built without reference to the aisle walls. The latter are divided into seven bays. The arches are four-centred, and are of two orders of hollow chamfers, contained 1 Browne Willis, p. 96. 2 Bishop Dean was translated to Salisbury in 1500, and succeeded by Thomas Pigot, who died in 1504. John Penny, the next bishop, was translated to Carlisle in 1508. 6TH SER., VOL. IV. 2 under a label-moulding. The chamfers of the outer order are terminated with long broach stops above the capitals. The piers are octagonal, but each diagonal face is broken back in the centre to receive portions of two faces of a straight-sided figure, the arrises of which are lineable with the diagonal sides of the octagon (see Fig. 1). The bases, which follow the NAVE PIER INCHES.12 9 6 3 O 2 FEET. Fig. 1. Architectural Details of Bangor Cathedral. irregular octagonal outline of the piers, rest on chamfered plinths, square on plan. Fig. 2 illustrates the section through a base and plinth. The heights of the bases differ in the two arcades, though the capitals are at the same level. The height from the floor to the top of the bases of the northern arcade is 9 ins. less than that of the southern. The length of the pier, from base to cap, is a corresponding 9 ins. higher on the northern than the southern side of the nave 9 ft. 6 ins. as compared with 8 ft. 9 ins. Further east we have seen that the northern floor level was lower than the southern. Possibly the same idea was Architectural Details of Bangor Cathedral. carried out with regard to the levels of the floors of the nave-aisles. This might account for the difference in height of the bases. The height from the floor to the apex of the soffit of the arch is 15 ft. 10 ins. |