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- 1. Ely Cathedral, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England
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Benedictine monastery originally, now Cathedral. The church begun by Abbot Simeon in 1082 had a 13-bay aisled nave, four-bay aisled transepts, a crossing with a tower, and a four-bay aisled chancel terminating in an apse. At the W end was a second transept with E chapels and a second tower. A western Galilee porch was added in the 13thc. (1198–1215), and the chancel was extended to the E with a six-bay retrochoir, completed in 1252. In 1321 the Lady Chapel was added to the N of the choir, and a year later the crossing tower collapsed. The octagon, built to replace it, was completed by 1342, and in the same campaign the remaining bays of the 11thc. chancel were replaced. The only above-ground survivals of the original chancel are the two easternmost piers of its straight section. Elsewhere in the building, the N section of the W transept collapsed in the late 15thc., and the NW corner of the N transept in 1699. The former was merely consolidated, the latter rebuilt.
- 2. St Wendreda, March, Cambridgeshire, England
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Parish church An extremely satisfying late medieval church set on a large open green to the S of the town. It consists of an aisled nave, the N arcade early 14thc., the S slightly later; a chancel by W. Smith (1843); and a 14thc. W tower with an octagonal stone spire. The 14thc. work is dated by a Papal indulgence of 1343, but the church was considerably modified in the early 16thc. This work includes the clerestorey, rebuilding of the aisles, and S porch bearing the date 1528. The most celebrated aspect of the Perpendicular remodelling is, of course, the double hammerbeam roof with three tiers of angels. Construction is of mixed stone rubble but the 16thc. parts include flint and flushwork. The re-cut 12thc. font must, therefore, come from an earlier building.
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