Byland Abbey

Identifier: ruinedabbeysofyo00lefr_0 (find matches)
Title: The ruined abbeys of Yorkshire
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Lefroy, William, 1836-1900
Subjects: Abbeys
Publisher: London, Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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he design so dearto the early Cis-tercian builders.The great lengthof the nave wasthe first conspicu-ous feature whichcontributed tothis result, thesecond was stillmore noteworthy. Byland, wroteMr. EdmundSharpe, was thefirst and only church of the order in which the piers and archesof the ground story were carried round the wholestructure. In other words, whereas most Cistercianchurches had north and south aisles to the nave,eastern aisles only to the transept, and originally noaisles at all to the presbytery, Byland had, as it were,a continuous aisle, running west as well as east of thetransept, and east as well as north and south of thechoir. This transverse eastern choir aisle may very cloister and the passage there, and at Beaulieu, and also atCiteaux and Clairvaulx, may have been to cut off the soundof noisy trades from the cloister.—J. T. Micklethwaite. Ofthis cellarium, miscalled the domus conversorum, it will benecessary to say more in a subsequent chapter. and early English
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BYLAND ABBEY. WEST END. probably have been intended, like the eastern chapelor transept at Fountains, to supply sites for additionalaltars. At the western end there was, as at Fountains,a narthex or galilee, and the corbels of the lean-to roof may still be seen. As late as 1426 one WilliamTirplady directed by his will that his remains shouldbe buried in the galilee of S. Marys Abbey atByland.* From the existing west end, north wall ofnave and portions of north transept and choir, we arcto conjure up, then, a singularly perfect transitionalabbey church of rather moreelaborate designthan the normalCistercian type.For, besides thepeculiarities al-ready mentioned,there is a trifo-rium at Byland,whereas othergreat churches ofthe same order,such as Kirkstalland Fountains,have no such fea-ture. The archesof this triforiumare pointed, andso, presumably,were those of theclerestory. TheAbbey, in fact, isremarkable as thefirst Cistercianexample of theuse of the pointedarch for decorativeas disti

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