The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Ely (medieval)
Parish church
A cruciform church of c.1200 with aisled nave, transepts and aisleless chancel. The crossing tower was removed and a W tower built to replace it, referred to in 1502 as the novum campanile and probably dating from around that time. The nave clerestorey is also late medieval, as is the chapel added to the N of the chancel. The W crossing arch provides a spectacular display of chevron ornament, and all four crossing arches have carved capitals, as do the nave arcades. It should be said that each crossing arch is supported on half columns, and between adjacent half columns within the crossing space are slender shafts with capitals. The capitals of the major supports differ from one another, and those of the secondary shafts always continue one or other of the designs alongside them, but the system is not really regular enough to say that some of the arches have two orders towards the centre and others have only one. For example, the shafts on the E side of the N and S arches clearly belong to the E crossing arch, while those on the W side belong just as unambiguously to the N and S arches rather than the W arch. In addition it should be noted that orders in the arch never correspond to what is going on in the piers below, and for that reason the arch decoration is always described separately from the piers.
Finally there are plain arches leading from the nave aisles into the transepts.