1 Pevsner, N., ‘A Note on the East End of Winchester Cathedral’, Archaeological Journal, CXVI (1959), 133-35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 R. Willis, Winchester Cathedral, Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain, 1845. Peers, C. R. and Brakspear, H., Victoria County History, Hampshire, v, 51–56 Google Scholar.

3 Peers and Brakspear in the VCH refer to the eastern extension as a vestibule and eastern chapels. I have preferred the more common application of the term retrochoir to denote this part of the building to the east of the high altar even though retrochorus did not mean this in medieval Latin, see its use in the Cistercian statutes; and the liturgical use of a retrochoir was quite different from the function of this part of the building at Winchester. See Cange, Du, Glossarium, and for a fuller discussion, The Ecclesiologist, IX, no. LXXI, April 1849, 273-80Google Scholar (cf. ibid., p. 281).

4 The northern chapel is known as the Guardian Angels chapel from the original painted decoration surviving on the vault. The dedication of the southern chapel, later refurbished as a chantry by Bishop Langton (1493-1501), may be indicated by an Indulgence discovered in an aumbry behind the stalls in 1923, which had been granted by the Bishop of Llandaff in 1254 to those visiting the altar of the ‘blessed Birinus and other saints to whom the altar is dedicated’.

5 VCH Hants, v, 53; T. D. Atkinson, unpublished notes in the Society of Antiquaries, London, MSS 783, Binder v, 17-20. R. Willis stated that all three chapels were of the same length, but the crypt was then inaccessible.

6 The exceptional size of the Norman axial chapel appears to be unique for the late eleventh century in England but for possible continental parallels see Hearn, M. F., ‘The Rectangular Ambulatory in English Medieval Architecture’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxx (1971), 200 Google Scholar, note 49. T. D. Atkinson, op. cit., suggested that it might have served as a reliquary chapel for St Swithun. A comparable use for an eastern chapel at Romsey is suggested by Hearn, loc. cit., p. 192, note 15.

7 VCH Hants, v, 54. See also Pevsner, N., Archaeological journal, CXVI, 134 Google Scholar, note 1, for an alternative explanation to that offered here for this and other features in the retrochoir.

8 The function of the ornamented shaft on the south side is obscure. Apparently an insertion, it is set too near the shaft rings to have supported a statue and too low to have supported a beam, although disturbances in the masonry indicate that there was once a similar feature on the north side.

9 VCH Hants, v, 54, and Pevsner, op. cit., 135.

10 The fifteenth-century remodelling of the Lady chapel destroyed any trace of the eastern continuation of this sill.

11 Though not as a tower as suggested in Britton, Cathedrals of England (1836), in, 60 ff. The first serious discussion of the evidence for this was in the VCH.

12 This seems to have led to the assertion in the VCH, op. cit., 54, that the chapels were to have been carried up further like flanking towers.

13 Above the vaults it can be seen that the walls over the arcades have been heightened about two feet but this was certainly in connexion with the timber roof and not the stone vaults. The timber roofs are not original and there are indications that the south aisle was once roofed with transverse gables.

14 I am indebted to the Librarian, Canon F. Bussby, for allowing me access to the collection of measured drawings in the cathedral library.

15 Pevsner, N., Buildings of England, Hampshire (Harmondsworth, 1967), pp. 670 Google Scholar and 669 for a reconstruction drawing omitting the later chantries.

16 T. D. Atkinson, unpublished notes . . . loc. cit., observed that the holes in the centre of these indicate that some further decoration was attached and that the upper quatrefoils were enriched with painted geometrical patterns which are still faintly traceable behind Langton’s stalls in the south-east chapel.

17 The fifteenth-century remodelling of the Lady chapel resulted in the passage being blocked, but continuity of access was provided across the top of the wooden screen.

18 Bony, J., ‘The Resistance to Chartres in the early thirteenth century’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series, XXI-XXII (1957-59), 43 Google Scholar and Branner, R., Burgundian Gothic Architecture (London, 1960), p. 51 Google Scholar.

19 Annales Monastici, (R.S.), 11, 78. For a discussion of the earliest of these confraternities in England, instituted by Gilbert Foliot for St Paul’s, see Graham, Rose, ‘An Appeal about 1175 for the Building Fund for S. Paul’s Cathedral Church’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series, x, 73–76 Google Scholar. Winchester is the only diocese in which this appeal is known to have been broadcast. Bishop Richard of Ilchester added to the appeal that all those subscribing to the fund should partake of the prayers and benefits of the cathedral church of Winchester.

20 R. Graham, op. cit.; see also Cheney, C. R., ‘Church Building in the Middle Ages’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XXIV (1951), 20–36 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Cheney, C. R., Medieval Texts and Studies (Oxford, 1973)Google Scholar.

21 Reading alis for aliis.

22 Cheney, C. R., ‘King John’s reaction to the Interdict’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, XXXI, 141 Google Scholar.

23 A full discussion of the building and its documentation is in Colvin, H. M., The History of the King’s Works, II (HMSO, 1963), 854-64Google Scholar. For the late dating of the retrochoir see Pevsner, N., Archaeological Journal, CXVI, 135 Google Scholar; VCH Hants, V, 53; Brakspear, H., Associated Architectural Society Reports and Papers, xxxv (1919-20), 36 Google Scholar.

24 The tribunes of Arras, St Remi at Rheims and, probably, Durham nave, were roofed with transverse gables and there is clear evidence that this was the original form of the roof over the choir aisles of Abbey Dore.

25 In Hearn, M. F., ‘The Rectangular Ambulatory in English Medieval Architecture’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxx (1971), 187 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, the discussion is confined to formal derivations. For the function and significance of outer crypts see Sanderson, W., ‘Monastic Reform in Lorraine and the Architecture of the Outer Crypt 950-1100’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 61, Part 6 (1971), 3–36 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Wallrath, R., ‘Zur Bedeutung der mittelalterlichen Krypta’, Beitrage zur Kunst des Mittelalters, Vortrage zum Schloss Bruhl (Berlin, 1948)Google Scholar.

26 Browne Willis shows a similar half bay behind the high altar at Peterborough and describes it as the Sancta Sanctorum.

27 St Hope, John, ‘On the great Almery for relics of late in the Abbey Church of Selby, with notes on some other receptacles for relics’, Archaeologia, LX (1907), 411-22CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The modern cupboards make it impossible to investigate the platform adequately. It must have been extended in the fourteenth century when the Norman apse was demolished but its original extent and relationship to the Holy Hole cannot at present be established.

28 As in other buildings in the later Middle Ages, starting with the Neville Screen at Durham. See ‘Religious Sentiment and Church Design’, in Brooke, C., Medieval Church and Society (London, 1971)Google Scholar.

29 The chamber may have become a cupboard in the fourteenth century as the opening retains the fittings for a door.

30 VCH Surrey, 11, 107.

31 The dedication of the eastern chapel at Salisbury to the Trinity, and that at Winchester to the Virgin, provide confirmation of the derivation of the architectural forms for these are the two traditional dedications for the main altars of outer crypts. See Sanderson, op. cit.

32 Osmund was finally canonized in 1457. Maiden, W. H., The Canonisation of S. Osmund (Wiltshire Record Society, 1901)Google Scholar.

33 Wordsworth, C., Ceremonies and Processions of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury (Cambridge, 1901), p. 207 Google Scholar.

34 The shrine was first set up in the north presbytery aisle. It was later placed over the Rood altar and only removed to the east of St Alban’s shrine under Abbot Thomas de la Mare (1349-96). VCH Herts, 11, 489.

35 Suggested by Radford, C. A. Ralegh, ‘The Bishop’s Throne at Norwich’, Archaeological Journal, CXVI (1959), 130 Google Scholar. Horlbeck, F. R., ‘The Vault Paintings of Salisbury Cathedral’, Archaeological Journal, CXVII (1960), 116-30CrossRefGoogle Scholar refutes the argument put forward by the Rev. Canon Jones, W. H. in Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Magazine, XVII (1878), 136 Google Scholar, that the iconography of the vault paintings can be used to indicate the original position of the high altar. Canon Jones thought that the altar had been moved from the eastern crossing to its present position when the strainer arches were inserted, whereas G. G. Scott, Report on the position of the High Altar (1876), argued that the present position is the original one. Wordsworth seems to have changed his mind, for in Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, xix (1898), 1 ff., he follows Scott but in Ceremonies and Processions (1901) he seems to favour Canon Jones’s suggested site.

36 Quirk, R. N., ‘Winchester Cathedral in the Tenth Century’, Archaeological Journal, CXIV (1957), 28–68, esp. 38-43 and 56-61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Ann. Mon. (R.S.), 11, 54.

38 Coldstream, I. N., ‘English Decorated Shrine Bases’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, CXXIX (1976), 15–34 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Strype, J., Memorials of Cranmer (1840 ed.), 11, 709 Google Scholar, Appendix XVI. Letter dated 21 September 1538 in Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, 13 (2), 401.

40 Ann. Mon. (R.S.), 11, 88.

41 Kitchin, G. W., The Compotus Rolls of the Obedientiaries of S. Smthun’s Priory, Winchester (Hampshire Record Society, 1892), pp. 215 ffGoogle Scholar.

42 J. Strype, op. cit., note 39. Bishop, H. E. and Prideaux, E. K., The Building of Exeter Cathedral (Exeter, 1922), p. 56 Google Scholar.

43 As suggested by Atkinson, unpublished notes, loc. cit., note 5.

44 Milner, J., The History and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester (2nd ed. 1809), 11, 66 Google Scholar. See also Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, XI (1885-87), 99 and 411 and Canon Collier, ‘Report on the Discoveries in Winchester Cathedral’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XLII (1886), ‘In doing this (i.e. clearing the debris from the crypt) certain indications were found which seem to prove that the shrine of S. Swithun stood between the chantries of Beaufort and Waynflete. The damage and its reparation in connection with the fall of the great tower are clearly seen’. Canon Collier must be referring to the fall of the ‘flabellum’ in 1241, but whatever he saw, the damage can hardly have been so great as to leave indications in the crypt.

45 Coldstream, I. N., ‘English Decorated Shrine Bases’, J.B.A.A., CXXIX, 20 Google Scholar. Couteur, J. D. Le and Carter, D. H. M., ‘Notes on the Shrine of S. Swithun formerly in Winchester Cathedral’, Antiquaries Journal, IV (1924), 360-70CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Clapham, loc. cit., 369-70, dated the capitals c.1275, and a date during the episcopate of Nicholas of Ely (1268-80) is quite probable. Prior to this the monastery had been in severe financial difficulties. ‘Otto legatus visitavit ecclesiam Wintoniae et ipsam invenit indebitam decem milibus marcis et amplius’. Ann. Mon. (R.S.), iv, 457 (1267). The impoverishment resulted in part from the upheavals caused by the attempt of Henry III to foist his half-brother Aymer onto the monks as bishop. In 1260 two monks had been transferred to other monasteries ‘until the Priory of S. Swithun should be in a more prosperous state’, G. W. Kitchin, The Compotus Rolls, loc. cit., Introduction.

46 Kinglifus rex; S. Birinus ep.; Kinwald rex; Egbertus rex; Adulphus rex; Elured rex filius suus; Edward rex junior; Atheistanus rex fil. eius; Sta Maria; D. Jesus; Edredus rex; Ethgarus rex; Emma reg.; Alioynus ep.; Ethelred rex; Sta Edward rex fil. eius; Cnutus rex; Hardecanutus rex fil. eius.

47 T. D. Atkinson, op. cit., note 6 above, accounted for the lack of any reference to a Translation by his hypothesis that Swithun had not been moved as De Lucy had simply built the retrochoir around the original site of the shrine in the Norman axial chapel. But such a rebuilding would normally involve a solemn translation, as in the case of St Hugh at Lincoln.

48 I have set out the arguments concerning Rochester and discussed the whole background more fully in a forthcoming article on Northwold’s presbytery at Ely, in Medieval Art and Architecture at Ely Cathedral (British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, 1978).