NAVE: SIX WESTERN BAYS

BOSSES 194-252A

These date from Bishop Grandisson’s time:163 note his arms on boss 199. During the Summer of 1332, wagons were hired to bring timber, evidently larger than the Cathedral’s carts could accommodate, from Chudleigh.164 Similar flat foliage is also found in the western parts of the Nave Aisles, in St Edmund’s Chapel (356A-361A), and at Ottery St Mary. Doubtless this was for roof beams, presumably above these bosses. Timber roofs were normally in place before vaulting was begun.165 Bosses 194-202 formed part of a conservation programme 1977, when they were cleaned by ACH and the losses retouched; 203-223 were hosed down in 1976, before ACH was consulted, and subsequently recoloured under her direction in the light of surviving colour fragments; 224-252A were hosed 1974-1975 without prior recording of pigments, and totally repainted with modern colours. Only 194, 195, 198, 199, 202, 218, 219 and 220 have much medieval paint visible, although many retain copper-green stems intact. On 194-223 medieval colour fragments were not covered during restoration. The writers have examined at close quarters only 194-223. The appearance of the sculpture of 224-252A is considerably altered by the repainting with dense paints on broad brushes, and the gold is laid over a bright yellow size which reflects greenish light out of every shadow, with the effect of greatly flattening the carving. For this reason, we should take care not to misjudge the sculpture. (The optics of gold leaf are explained in the Introduction.)

These bosses are probably all Beer stone. In the Crossing area as far west as 193, the ribs are Caen stone; westwards from there they are Beer stone: Caen stone appears not to have been imported any more.

The 1353 Fabric Roll entry referring to the New Work before the Great Cross is often interpreted to prove that the vaulting was recommenced at this date.166 However, Erskine demonstrates that this is unlikely,167 and that the vault was earlier; see also our Introduction n.27.168 The dedication of the High Altar in the Presbytery in 1328 would have freed the Nave from services and allowed the building to continue. All the same, centering for some unspecified vault was still being purchased in 1352,169 and the Clerestory windows were evidently glazed in 1353 (see entry for Clerestory window capitals L’-Q).

As one might expect, there is a noticeable difference in style between the inevitably slightly earlier half-bosses (which include some of the finest sculptures in this section) and most of the great bosses on the vault, which are also more variable in quality. Among the great bosses, there is a sharp change to a new sculptural style, with some deep undercutting (nearly all the bosses, except those accommodating eight ribs, curve in at the top) and different foliage types. In contrast, a number of bosses are unusually shallow, with a generally flat appearance.

A leaf form appears that is highly characteristic of Grandisson’s building period. Following Tracy, we call it “voluted trefoil”.170 This leaf is ubiquitous on the West Front, and is also found at Christchurch Priory, Hampshire (the magnificent hand that produced the great Jesse Reredos at Christchurch also carved the similar Magi in the South Porch of Exeter’s West Front).

The Pigments are much cheaper. Background is red ochre (iron oxide earth), expensive red lead being confined to highlighting the edges of leaves. Gold seems to be confined to the lower face of the bosses: sides are silver or tin leaf which has tarnished.

The master carver responsible for this work is clearly a very different personality from Richard Digon, who evidently created the leonine beasts (176, 184, 185, 188, 189, 192) and cut the strong swirls of foliage in Bishop Stapledon’s time. Grandisson’s Nave bosses often have a close affinity with the work on his West Front, while Stapledon’s are much closer to those in Wells Lady Chapel and Retrochoir: Thomas of Witney worked in both places, retiring from Exeter as an old man in 1342. It seems likely that the earlier Exeter carver found work at Wells. Richard Digon is not mentioned in the Fabric Rolls after 1313. Only in a few half-bosses does the style of the Crossing persist westwards of 193. (In 1332 final payment was made to William Canoun of Corfe for sixty pairs of Purbeck marble Triforium columns for the Nave, though he was under bond to repair them after they were put in place, and his horse was still eating the Cathedral’s oats at Easter 1334.)171 If the Clerestory windows were all that Thomas of Witney saw completed, then the Nave may have been finished under his successor, William Joy, who is thought to have died of the plague in 1348-1349.172 Further discussion of Nave documents is found under the heading for Triforium label-stops, below.

The relevant West Front figures are all in the B register, except for two early statues unaccountably in the 15th-century C register. As was noted by Mr Robin Emerson in a ground-breaking lecture,173 the elaborate drapery of the king on 195 (and as far as can be seen, of the repainted Christ, 225) with its softly flowing folds and curving hemline, is close to comparably dressed figures not only on the West Front, but also on the great reredos at Christchurch, Dorset, and amongst the de la Beche effigies at Aldworth, Berkshire. A date in the 1340s or 1350s would seem perfectly likely.

No photographic record was taken of 224-252A before repainting. No conservation record was kept, and no conservator was invited to work on the scaffold. The paints used are anachronistic. Except for a few photographs which chanced to be taken before repainting was complete, there is no record of original colour. Small breakages were repainted directly over the rough stone.

194		Vine-like foliage, gilded and silvered, picked out in scarlet; red earth background, dark green stems.
195		Grey-haired, bearded king seated in a tree between two angels who hold branches of voluted trefoil. Unretouched faces of delicate detail in perfect condition. King’s robe red (probably patinated vermilion) scattered with gold fleurs de lis (surviving in the folds of the drapery); black shoes, brownish hose, laced with scarlet; crown, and angels’ hair, gilded. Angels’ robes white lined with red, wings many shades of ochre, brown, grey and green, each feather different. Foliage at the sides (in places undercut 6 inches) all tarnished white metal leaf, possibly with a yellow glaze; green stems. In 1977 a loose broken leaf was found to bear the date 1871 scratched through the medieval colour: this was glued back in place. Prideaux and Shafto, unable to see the grey hair or red shoelaces, wrongly identified this as a bare-footed Christ.174 A grey-haired God the Father has also been tentatively suggested,175 but it is highly unusual for the Father to be shod. We have also wondered if this might be Louis IX of France. He died of the plague in 1270 and was canonised in 1297, only 30 years before the building of this area of the Cathedral (1327-1329)—a period marked by the devastation of Exeter by the plague, echoed in a drop in the quality of workmanship and materials on the vault (see 202 below).
196A		Man’s face in foliage. Minute traces of grey on hair. Small paint fragments on face.
196		Foliage; green stem. Stone repair in hole.
197		Oak; green stem and acorn cups.
198		Voluted trefoil: cf. 367A and the recess in the east wall of Grandisson’s Chapel; colour as 194 but unretouched.
199		Arms of Bishop Grandisson: Paly of six argent and azure, a bend gules charged with a mitre between two eaglets displayed or: see Bishop and Prideaux 157. The blue is azurite.+ Long narrow foliage of gold and silver (cf. window-capitals ‘ L east’). This carver’s hand is also found in Grandisson’s collegiate church of Ottery St Mary, for example in the foliage surrounding the portrait of the bishop himself.
200		Voluted trefoil, the carving apparently unfinished; green stems.
201		Voluted trefoil, the carving apparently unfinished; green stems. Stone repair in hole, further damaged during sounds wiring 1986, and again repaired.
201A		Female face. Extensive pigment on this boss had entirely discoloured, apparently owing to sulphation of the lead pigments: it was therefore overpainted with soluble colours. It has been suggested that this belongs to Stapledon’s period, but the upper part of the window-arch into which it is set is Beer stone.
202		Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John holding books. Mary’s and John’s robes red; Cross, books and Mary’s cloak green; hair of Christ and John gilded; Christ’s loincloth and Mary’s cloak-lining white; Christ’s wounds have red blood and black nails. On the flesh, only the eye of John and the blood on Christ’s side are retouched. The faces of Christ and Mary are well preserved, the latter’s eyes red-rimmed. The gilding of Christ’s hair was presumably invisible to Cave who, noting the full beard, refers to him as having the appearance of an old man.176 Though the plague clearly affected the quality of carving and materials used, it may have contributed to the high emotional impact of this image.
203		Face in foliage. Complexion apparently pale, spot of pink on lips; remains of gold on hair.
204		Lady with gold crown and white wimple. Traces of pink on lips; some white in eyes. Voluted trefoil around the sides, echoed in the form of the crown.
205		King or Pope. Traces of gold in hair, beard, crown and foliage. Remains of flesh colour over original mend in nose; cap within crown probably vermilion, topped by a bobble evidently once silver. Cave made a possible identification of this as a representation of Pope John XXII.177 Voluted trefoil around the sides, echoed in the form of the crown.
206A		Long foliage. Green surviving on stems protected by being adjacent to North Porch.
206		Foliage: deeply lobed leaves; cf. 221.
207		Foliage and green berries.
208		Vine. Green on the grapes; broad scarlet edge to leaves.
209		Foliage. Long leaves with green berries and stems; much red between foliage overlaps.
210		Foliage. Whirl of long leaves; green stem against red in centre.
211		Centaur. Minute traces of pigment. No colour on horse-body, but black on fore-hooves and probably on mane at waist; tail gilded; spear dark green like stems, jerkin paler green (or discoloured blue?). Stone repair in chandelier hole.
211A		Female figure wearing horned headdress with veil and wimple.
212		Vine. Marked red earth background; grapes and stems once green, now very dark.
213		Foliage (Maple?).
214		Foliage; almost devoid of colour fragments.
215		Stylised foliage. Stone repair in hole. This design was used again for one of the wooden bosses in Grandisson’s extension to the Bishop’s Palace, now in Exeter’s Royal Albert Museum. There is a view of the Nave Vault bay which has this boss in the centre.
216A		Foliage: many small leaves.
216		Sow suckling seven piglets amongst oak-leaves; first piglet sucks a leaf, seventh sucks acorn which the mother bites. Colour very fragmentary; sow had pink on teats and in ear; minute spots of pink and black in crevices between piglets; acorn cups and stems were green, and the foliage gilded and silvered, with scarlet edges.
217		Oak and acorns. Substantial colour fragments; extensive tarnished silver leaf on foliage at sides, gold at the bottom; much scarlet between foliage, and on broad edges to leaves; acorn cups and stems green.
218		The Pelican in Her Piety. Large areas of original colour. Birds in many shades of grey; black pinions and white quills; yellow ochre claws; mother’s breast intact, with vermilion blood. Nest reddish-brown with dark interior and twigs. Gold, silver and scarlet in voluted trefoil foliage; carelessly applied red earth background.
219		Samson Kills the Lion. About half the pigment on ruddy face, black hair, reddish-brown lion with grey mane and tail, and black claws, survives. Good detail on Samson’s eyes, lion’s teeth and nose. Green hose and cloak lining complete; fragments of crimson on black-hemmed cloak, and on sleeves.
220		Foliage. Extensive surviving gilding with silver at the sides; wide scarlet edges to leaves; green stems.
221		Foliage. Few colour fragments. Cf. 206.
221A		Face in a vine. Colour on skin, grey hair; green stems bearing voluted trefoil. This must be the first of this foliage type to be set in position at Exeter.
222		Oak. Much green on stems and acorn cups; acorns may have been left unpainted.
223		Foliage; red ochre and scarlet in background; traces of gold on leaves, with vermilion edges; much green on stems.

For bosses 224-252A there is no conservation record.

224		Foliage: five-lobed leaves radiating from curled central stem. Unfilled hole.
225		Seated Christ in seamless garment (surely once red or white), blessing, a book in his left hand.
226A		Foliage: simple leaves in three symmetrical groups.
226		Green Man with voluted trefoil, his whole face absorbed and extended into leaf forms. Unfilled hole.
227		Hawthorn with berries.
228		Shield, repainted 1975 azure, in foliage composed of neat leaves in fours. This repainting takes no account of Oliver’s record of Montacute arms possibly on this boss or 229.178 Cave also records three lozenges and a border engrailed on one of these.179 One of Grandisson’s sisters married a Montacute.180 The Montacute arms are very prominent at Ottery St Mary.
229		Shield, repainted 1975 vert, in foliage with stem. Neither the azure nor the vert belongs to families associated with Exeter.
230		Foliage: five leaves, their points meeting centrally.
231		Green man (? lion) with stylised foliage, partly voluted trefoil.
231A		Foliage in delicate swirls.
232		Vine growing from curled central stem with many bracts. Unfilled hole.
233		Voluted trefoil with fruit. Unfilled hole.
234		According to Cave, this is Grandisson, vested in dalmatic and chasuble; like corbel T’ in the South Transept, and the tomb effigies of Bishops Bronscombe, Stapledon, and Oldham, the bishop’s crook has a cloth hanging from the neck, round the shaft. He is seated on a branch of foliage. Mr Peter Dare informs us that the orphrey, repainted in 1975, was carefully copied from surviving medieval paint. It resembles the orphrey on corbel T’. There is also a boss depicting Grandisson in the Crossing at Ottery St Mary.181 It has been suggested that this is St Dunstan.182
235		The Martyrdom of Archbishop Becket, who kneels in the foreground, his mitre at his knees. Grimm the cross-bearer stands to the right, the four knights attacking from the left and behind.183 Two holes above Becket filled. Before the 1975 repainting nearly half the medieval colour survived. Photographs taken before the 1975 repainting show a great deal of heraldry, notably bears on the shield of Fitzurs;184 the faces also retain about half of their medieval paint under the 1975 layers. The boss of Thomas Becket was lucky to be high enough to escape the effects of Henry VIII’s proclamation in 1538: from hense forth the sayde Thomas Becket shall not be estemed, named, reputed, nor called a sayncte, but bysshop Becket, and that his ymages and pictures, through the hole realme, shall be putte downe and auoyded out of all churches, chapelles, and other places.185
236A		Elongated foliage on upright stem.
236		Curled central stem radiating leaves.
237		Three sprays of stylised voluted trefoil with stems, small leaves at side.
238		Arms of Weston: Argent a fess sable within a bordure gules charged with fourteen besants, as identified by Cave (see entry for 242). In spite of the fact that not only Cave’s photographs, examined by the authors in the National Monuments Record, but also Shafto’s own plate clearly show the coloured bordure and fourteen besants,186 Bishop and Prideaux, ignoring the bordure, identify the arms as those of Thomas Bitton, Bishop 1292-1307: Ermine a fess gules.187 The 1975 overpainting evidently confuses these two coats of arms. The strap of the shield is held by a lion mask, and surrounded by leaves.
239		Arms of Northwode (Norwood): Ermine a cross engrailed gules. Evidence of extensive medieval colour is found in Prideaux and Shafto,188 and Cave photographs in the NMR. One of Bishop Grandisson’s sisters married a Northwode.189 Lion mask etc., as 238.
240		Six sprays of voluted trefoil radiating from central unfilled hole.
241		Elongated foliage radiating from central unfilled hole.
241A		Oak (cf. corbel M).
242		Kneeling cleric with scroll ORA PRO ME SANCTE TOME, as is supported by Cave’s photograph and description;190 the refined Lombardic lettering of this inscription was still legible in 1975. Cave sensibly identifies this figure as Canon William de Weston, Grandisson’s right-hand man (boss 238, nearby, shows Weston’s arms) but it has also been suggested that this is Becket’s friend Bishop Bartholomew, who absolved the knight Tracy after the murder.191 Filled hole in background. Prideaux mistook the scroll for a harp.192
243		Single large rose flower. Unfilled central hole.
244		Four deeply-lobed leaves in quadripartite arrangement, separated by loops of stem. Unfilled central hole.
245		Foliage: four symmetrical, elongated leaves between large leaves arranged as in 244. Unfilled central hole.
246A		Bearded head of man, trailing leaves almost covering his hair. His softly flowing beard merges into the adjacent mouldings. The dignity of the head recorded in Cave’s valuable plate (here reproduced) is sadly destroyed in the grotesque 1974 repainting: see 251A for a similar disaster.
246		Star with leaves at sides. Unfilled central hole.
247		Radiating long leaves or petals.
248		Shield in voluted trefoil foliage. Oliver records this as James Berkeley,193 bishop for three months in 1327 (gules a chevron between ten crosses patee or). Cave’s photograph in the NMR and that of Prideaux and Shafto show the outline of old colour corresponding to this chevron.194 The 1974 repainting is as above. There is some argument regarding what arms Bishop Berkeley bore: Oliver records that argent had sometimes been substituted for or.195
249		Arms reputedly of Walter Stapledon, bishop 1308-1326, repainted in 1975 as Argent two bendlets nebuly sable; voluted trefoil at sides. This agrees with photographs in Prideaux and Shafto,196 and with Cave’s photograph in the NMR, which show evidence of much surviving medieval colour. In British Library, MS Harley 5827, f. 61r. John Hooker also blazons the arms as “ij bends wavye sable”, giving no field: in another sketch he shows the bends on a field argent within a bordure sable charged with eight keys.197 (There are other references to Stapledon’s having borne the above arms within a bordure sable charged with eight pairs keys or: British Museum, MS Add. 12443, f. 68v shows these keys crossed, among other inaccuracies.) There is another possibility: that the arms were those of William Bruere, bishop 1224-1244. Since MS Harley 5827, f. 60r blazons Bruere as “gold ij bendes wavye gules”, we have wondered whether the gules might have been vermilion discoloured from red to black, and indistinguishable from sable in the old photographs, with their flaked paint. This is unlikely, as Exeter Cathedral MS 3548E, p. 29, shows for Bruere gules two bends wavy or, with which Oliver agrees.198
250		Curled central stem radiating small leaves.
251		Very stylised oak leaves. Unfilled central hole.
251A		Head between leaves. The dignity of the head recorded in Cave’s valuable plate (here reproduced) is sadly destroyed in the grotesque 1974 repainting: see 246A for a similar disaster.
252		Curled stem radiating five five-lobed leaves.
252A		Undulating elongated foliage.

NAVE CORBELS N’-Q’, L-Q
(L’ and M’ are listed following boss 193).

Corbels N’-P’ and L-P were recoloured by the late Mrs Kenneth Carter (Brenda Carter) in 1972,199 and the pair Q’, Q by Mr William Darch (his own verbal information). The foliage presents some of the most linear carving in the Cathedral: though lacking depth, the designs are pleasing, being defined by prominent winding stems. No opportunity was given for a conservator to examine for traces of medieval pigment (specialised photography can now sometimes record colour traces invisible to the naked eye). The present colour scheme is entirely modern, though usually sympathetic to the underlying stone forms.

L		Vine with grapes.
M		Oak with acorns.
N’		Five-lobed foliage supported by head.
N		Five-lobed foliage and flowers supported by youthful crowned head.
O’		Trailing foliage supported by head of bearded king.
O		Foliage and flowers, with two very different kinds of leaf growing on the same stem.
P’		Oak with acorns, supported by head of king.
P		Jesse Tree: foliage and flowers grow from Jesse, above whose reclining figure stand the Virgin and Child, on a branch. The Virgin wears a simple robe and cloak, the folds and lining of which have been given an overcomplicated interpretation in the modern colouring. At the top, the Coronation of the Virgin with vigorously censing angels kneeling on the sides of the throne. Christ’s sinister hand covers an unidentified oblong object, which is not held as an orb would be. This is the only extant Jesse Tree in the Cathedral: it is necessarily abbreviated, omitting the usual kings and prophets, but covers in its elements the whole time-span of human salvation: the Old Testament (Jesse from Matt. 1), the New Testament (the Virgin and Child) and the next world (the Coronation of the Virgin/Church/Soul).
Q’		Trailing foliage with flowers, rising from gnarled stump.
Q		Trailing foliage.

VAULTING-SHAFT CAPITALS

In the western part of the Nave the Vaulting-shaft capitals are considerably deeper than those in any other part of the Cathedral. Animals, though frequent on other capitals, bosses and corbels, now support the shafts of the high vault for the first time. Although listed in this section, many of the foliage forms (predominantly three- and five-lobed) strongly recall those in the Stapledon Crossing (see heading for bosses 172-193), which indicates early progress on the Nave walls. Some capitals in Thomas of Witney’s clerestory at Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, are reminiscent of this type.

L’		Three-lobed foliage with two bracts on stem. Foliage; uniquely, a hand associated with later tall capitals to the west produced a capital of the earlier low form.
L		Five-lobed foliage.
M’		Trailing foliage: resembles N’.
M		Oak with acorns that have pointed tips.
N’		Trailing foliage (cf. bosses 231A, 236A).
N		Three-lobed foliage with two bracts on stem.
O’		Three heads in oak.
O		Lion mask between two pairs of heads.
P’		Head between snarling wolf (?) and lion standing on rose flowers
P		Two pairs of popinjays pecking flowers in foliage (cf. O ); the same (common) motif appears on a fragment of Norman pier found during repairs c. 1974 to the north porch spiral staircase, and on Clerestory Passage capital H East.
Q’		Green Man, hawthorn with haws; adjacent West Window capitals: two heads (the eastern one a Green Man); cf. O, P, Q.
Q		Dragon (whose tail ends in foliage) fighting Manticore wearing hood and “waistcoat”; adjacent West Window capitals: two beardless heads in foliage (the eastern one wearing a cap); cf. O, P.

CLERESTORY WINDOW CAPITALS

Each of these entries represents a pair of capitals, i.e. there are four to each window. The West Window capitals are catalogued under the closely adjacent western vaulting shafts Q, Q’. See headings for bosses 194-252 and for the vaulting shaft capitals, above, and for the Triforium label-stops, below. It may have been these Clerestory windows and those of the aisles below which were temporarily closed with wattle and daub in 1351,200 and possibly reopened for glazing at Midsummer 1353 when nets were purchased to keep pigeons out of the Choir.201

L’   East.		Foliage.
L    East.		Foliage (cf. boss 199).
L’   West.		Adjacent to North Porch blind tracery. Each capital has a different kind of foliage.
L    West.		Each capital has a different kind of foliage.
M’   East.		Adjacent to North Porch blind tracery. Pair with same foliage.
M    East.		Foliage.
M’   West.		Vault side: two rose flowers; window side: Foliage (cf. boss 231A).
M    West.		Pair with same foliage: broad leaves with five main lobes.
N’   East.		Vault side: single oak leaf; window side: foliage (cf. boss 231A)
N    East.		Vault side: woman’s head in oak (cf. boss 203); window side: oak.
N’   West.		Vault side: foliage (cf. boss 231A); window side: simple foliage (cf. boss 226A, adjacent).
N    West.		Each capital has a different kind of flower and a different kind of foliage.
O’   East.		Foliage (vault side has flower).
O    East.		Vault side: foliage; window side: oak and acorn.
O’   West.		Vault side: foliage; window side: different type (cf. boss 231A)
O    West.		Pair with large oak-like leaves.
P’   East.		Vault side: foliage (cf. boss 251A); window side: Oak (cf. boss 241A)
P    East.		Each capital has a different kind of foliage.
P’   West.		Long foliage (window side with fruit); cf. bosses 236A, 252A
P    West.		Plain mouldings.
Q’   East.		Plain mouldings.
Q    East.		Plain mouldings.

TRIFORIUM LABEL-STOPS

Work at Triforium level appears to have covered a considerable period. Loss of the Fabric Roll for 1332-33 makes it difficult to reconstruct events with precision. Bishop and Prideaux notwithstanding,202 in the only documentation for the Nave Triforium the relationship between payments for, and delivery of items is unclear. There was a long-standing dispute between William Canon of Corfe and the Cathedral authorities, over defects in the “marble”, which may have delayed completion of the order. In the Fabric Roll for 1331-32 is a memorandum that William Canon of Corfe and his father had provided for the galleries sixty pairs of little columns with bases and capitals in the Purbeck “marble” which was their speciality.203 The last recorded payment to William, which mentions repairs to columns, was in 1334.204

However, in 1341-42 we have references to the carving of what could be the label-stop heads at the springing of the arches supported by the little Purbeck columns.205 Only about thirty-five heads were carved—not enough for the whole Nave, which carries ten such heads in each bay—but the Rolls for 1342-47 are missing. It would not be difficult to carve such items as these in situ.

This inconclusiveness is important. Although six bays of the Nave were indeed vaulted in Grandisson’s episcopate, each with ten Purbeck columns, it is extremely difficult to assess how far west the Nave arcades had progressed when the westernmost boss of Stapledon’s time (193) was put in place. In 1342 there is an entry for painting the “bishop in the gable”—a reference to the statue of St Peter.206 (The naked figure installed in 1985 does not follow medieval precedent: the figure would have been vested as a bishop in accordance with the contemporary iconographic tradition.) Definitely attributable to Stapledon’s carvers are 293A and 327A, on the aisle sides of the arcade in the second bay from the east: the high vault of this second bay bears Grandisson’s arms (199). Moreover, the supporters below corbels L’ and M’ are surely by the same hand as bosses 193 and 183 although to this style belong the heads on some corbels of Grandisson’s time (e.g. N’, O’, P’). At a higher level, the triforia in the eastern bay of the Nave, including the heads, are predominantly of Salcombe Regis stone, while the rest are of Beer. This break in materials is consistent with the break in style visible in the capitals of the vaulting-shafts and Clerestory windows. It would seem, therefore, that at the time of the consecration of the High Altar in 1328 only the lower storey of the Nave arcade was proceeding westward, with its adjacent Aisles and North Porch. This would have necessitated the construction of a temporary wall below boss 193 to keep the weather out of the Crossing. This conjecture is supported by the presence of two layers of medieval paint on corbels K, K’. Cf. also the Choir heading (85-115) for the movements of the Canons and their choirstalls.

Bay K’-L’

	i		Head of king; black hair, much colour on face, gold and red on crown, vermilion background.
	ii		Head of young man in green.
	iii		Youthful head; colour fragments.
	iv		Head of young man in green.
	v		Hooded man.

Bay K -L

	i		Queen; fragments of colour; Salcombe stone.
	ii		Small head.
	iii		Youthful beardless head.
	iv		Small head.
	v		Beardless head: apprentice hand.

Bay L’-M’

This bay is occupied by the Minstrels’ Gallery (see below).

Bay L -M

	i		Foliage; colour fragments.
	ii		Beardless face; colour fragments; apprentice hand.
	iii		Small hooded head.
	iv		Foliage; colour fragments.
	v		Foliage; colour fragments.

Bay M’-N’

This bay shows extensive unretouched colour, including vermilion backgrounds, on all five label-stops:

	i		Man, gold beard and hair, green hat.
	ii		Boy’s head, gold hair.
	iii		Gilded foliage.
	iv		Girl’s head.
	v		Boy’s head; colour on face complete; gold hair, dark eyes.

Bay M -N

	i		Foliage; colour fragments.
	ii		Head; colour fragments.
	iii		Foliage; much colour.
	iv		Head; apprentice hand.
	v		Hooded head; much colour; apprentice hand.

Bay N’-O’

	i		Gilded foliage on vermilion background.
	ii		Child’s head; colour fragments.
	iii		Foliage.
	iv		Child’s head.
	v		Queen, gold collar and other colour fragments.

Bay N -O

	i		Foliage; much colour.
	ii		Beardless head.
	iii		Beardless head; ? carver of heads supporting Great Corbels N’, O’, P’, etc.
	iv		Beardless head; ? carver of heads supporting Great Corbels N’, O’, P’, etc.
	v		Hooded head.

Bay O’-P’

	i		Young man; colour fragments.
	ii		Wimpled woman.
	iii		Foliage.
	iv		Young man in green hood.
	v		Oak leaves; much gold, vermilion background.

Bay O -P

	i		Wimpled woman.
	ii		Grey-bearded king (cf. 302); much colour.
	iii		Small wimpled woman; some colour.
	iv		Beardless head; cf. boss 242.
	v		Hooded head; broken nose; colour fragments.

Bay P’-Q’

	i		Woman’s head; colour fragments.
	ii		Boy’s head.
	iii		Hooded youthful face with fillet on brow.
	iv		Boy’s head.
	v		Foliage.

Bay P -Q

	i		? Girl’s head; colour fragments.
	ii		Hooded head with broken beard.
	iii		Damaged face.
	iv		Bearded head, hatted; colour fragments; cf. boss 303.
	v		Beardless head.

MINSTRELS’ GALLERY

This occupies one bay of the north side of the Nave Triforium, opening out of the chamber above the North Porch. Its construction suggests that it was an afterthought: only a few stones at the bottom are properly keyed into the Nave wall, while the sides of the gallery end in a vertical masonry joint simply butting on to the wall. One hopes that there are some internal fixings. The styles and sizes of the small corbel heads supporting the niches on the returns of the gallery suggest that they are left-overs. The Fabric Roll entry of 1331-32, mentioned above with reference to the Triforium label-stops, referring to sixty little Triforium columns, would seem to indicate that the Gallery was not planned at this date. These sixty columns would have provided triforia for both sides of all six bays of Grandisson’s Nave. (It is just possible that the five extra columns were destined for some other, undocumented part of the Triforium, and so were not displaced by the Minstrels’ Gallery. This is unlikely, as we have ample evidence that the vault eastwards of 193 was complete: the scaffolding was presumably down.)207

Bond observes that the Minstrels’ Gallery would have been used for Palm Sunday Services.208 Between the finials crowning the crocketed canopies are large quatrefoliar sound holes at precisely the right height for a choir to sing through, similar to openings in such parish church roodlofts as survive.209

Angels i and xiv on the returns, together with ii and xiii on the corners, are carved out of the same blocks as their niches; they back on to each other, so there would be no room for a deep niche. The remaining figures are free-standing within their niches. Curiously, some appear to have been cut to make them fit (as do some of the figures on the spandrels of the West Front central porch). The quality of the sculpture appears to be worse than it is, owing to the crudity of the paintwork. Dr Mary Remnant, when visiting the scaffold during ACH’s 1976 conservation programme, observed that the painted sound-holes on numbers v and x are seventeenth-century rather than medieval in shape, which would imply that the gallery was repainted as part of the 1660s restoration of the Cathedral. Only one paint sample has been taken, from angel ii: this does suggest two layers of paint.

Tristram gives a report of his 1932 work on the Gallery.210 ACH gives an account of the most recent restoration, in which it was necessary to remove all his retouching from the figures.211 The niches have several layers of grey and black paint, too confused to separate in the time available; this colouring, however, corresponds to the scraps of grey and black found on the freestone half columns against the aisle walls, all of which would have been painted in imitation of the Purbeck columns of the arcades and triforia: although the paint on the niches is not all medieval, the colour scheme is therefore correct (see Introduction). The identification and medieval nomenclature of some of the instruments is debated.212

From east to west the angel minstrels are as follows.

	i		East return: no instrument. The angel, arms akimbo, wears a yellow robe.
	ii		Cymbals: the angel wears a blue robe and yellow cloak.
	iii		Timbrel with jingles set in two pairs spaced around the edge; the angel wears a pink robe.
	iv		Shawm; the angel wears a yellow robe and a green cloak.
	v		? Gittern, plucked with a plectrum by an angel in a mauve robe.
	vi		Portative organ with double bellows; the angel wears a salmon pink robe and a blue cloak.
	vii		Trumpet; the angel wears a pale pink robe and a green cloak.
	viii		Broken trumpet; the angel, wearing a yellow robe and a salmon-pink cloak, has puffed cheeks so this cannot be a jew’s harp as has been suggested.213
	ix		Harp; painted strings run different ways on each face; the angel wears a red robe.
	x		Fiddle;214 the angel wears a green robe. The neck of the instrument is 19th-century.
	xi		Broken instrument with old repair: known as “recorder” but lacking window; the angel wears a blue robe and a yellow cloak.
	xii		Bagpipes; early repair on hands and chanter. The angel wears a mauve robe.
	xiii		? Citole, plucked with a plectrum; the angel wears a red robe.
	xiv		West return: no instrument; the angel, arms akimbo, wears a yellow robe.

The building sequence continues with 290-319A, 320A-354B and 369.