Ely Cathedral © Contemporary illustrations of master masons show them to have been prosperous middle class professionals. The men they supervised, who did much of the actual carving and laying of stone, were like modern skilled tradesmen, and many younger men still learning the trade worked on the building sites as labourers.
Masons shared their secrets openly and many medieval buildings imitate each other in style and technique. The choir at Lincoln Cathedral, for instance, is similar to that at Ely, and both copy Westminster Abbey. Designs for the building were worked out at full scale on tracing floors covered in soft plaster. Such floors survive at Wells Cathedral and at York Minster. Sometimes drawings on parchment were also made and at Worcester a carving shows a mason giving a drawing to a monk.
All the stones were carved on the ground before they were set in place. Larger blocks were carved at quarries which made them lighter and easier to transport. Individual masons used special symbols [mason's mark] to ensure that they were paid for the blocks they carved.
Building a great cathedral was hard work and often dangerous. At Canterbury Cathedral in 1178 the Master Mason, William of Sens was inspecting the high vaults when he fell from the scaffolding and was paralysed. Most of the actual construction was done during the spring and summer months, allowing the mortar to set and the laid stones to settle over the winter. Breaking during the winter also gave the Masons a chance to carve more stones for the following summer.
Heavy stones were brought to the site by water or cart. The masons of Laon Cathedral in France, grateful to the oxen that pulled their carts, carved oxen peeking out of the top of the towers. Scaffolding was used to reach higher parts of the building, and 'put-log' holes for this are still visible on many cathedrals and castles. Cranes and pulleys also helped lift materials. Arches were supported using wooden frames called 'centring' which held the stones steady before the keystone at the top locked the whole thing into place.
Misericords, Wells Cathedral © Gothic cathedrals were usually supported on deep foundations and had thick walls to make them strong. Sometimes structural problems did appear, especially in the area of the crossing where the tall central tower was supported on relatively small piers, or pillars. At Salisbury Cathedral the 13th century tower was made too large, forcing its hasty reinforcement, whilst at Wells Cathedral, owl-eyed strainer arches had to be inserted to strengthen the crossing. Reinforcement did not always work, however, and at Ely, the Norman crossing tower collapsed in 1322 and destroyed part of the choir. When the tower was rebuilt, light timber was used instead of heavy stone to create the large octagonal lantern we see today. Amazingly, such extreme measures were rarely needed.
Many of the apparently frivolous details on a Gothic cathedral have a structural purpose. Decorative details actually helped to strengthen weak points. The ornate pointed pinnacles at the corners of the building, for instance, add weight which helps to keep the corner strong, in the same way that pressing down on a pile of books will prevent them from toppling over.
Arched flying buttresses make the cathedral look like a wedding cake but also keep the walls from falling outwards. Naturalistic foliage was a popular decorative detail in the Gothic period, and small animals, birds and people frolic amongst the leaves and flowers. Sometimes the foliage grew into something else: the leaves at Wells Cathedral grow into the head of a man with toothache. English Masons specialised in carving heads, which they often positioned so that the head supported something heavy, although the expression on the face rarely seems pleased about this.
Grotesque, semi-human figures like the Lincoln Imp were also very popular and appear not only in the stone carvings but also in wood and around the margins of manuscripts. Such images were requested by the monks and bishops who paid the masons to represent the many temptations of the world, albeit in a charming and humorous way.
Other popular images had their origins in a more pagan past. The best known is the Green Man, a Celtic fertility god wreathed in leaves who was adopted by the church as a symbol of life, death and rebirth.
However, most of the carvings depict more traditional religious images such as saints and miracles as related in the Bible. Some of these figures are easy to see, but others are so small and so high up that it is hard to imagine how anyone except the man who made them could ever have noticed them.
Perhaps that was the point. Medieval people thought that the cathedral was an earthly representation of the heavenly Jerusalem, and every part of it had to be perfect, even the parts that only God could see.
About the author. Carol Davidson Cragoe is Assistant Architectural Editor of the Victoria County History.
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