The fundamental principle behind toichology is observation. We can look for consistency in order to determine which portions of a building were constructed at the same time, or we can look for anomalies in order to find breaks in construction and changes in design concept. Usually, common sense will allow us to determine which portions of a building came before or after others, and this in turn allows us to develop a relative chronology. Further study of details and carving styles allows us to narrow the dating of those portions, and in the end we should be able to arrive at a convincing chronology of construction for any given building. On this page we present initial observations and speculate about the likely implications for chronology.

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Project C - North Building Relationship to Existing Transept The facings added to the exterior on the south side, which form the north wall of the north transept, are not coplanar on either side of the shafting which separates the two entrances. Implications The image shows the misalignment between the two sides of the north walls of the north transept. There is about a one degree difference between the two, the same as the difference between the nave and the choir, BUT, neither is aligned with either the nave or choir. The two different alignments suggest two separate phases of construction. the lack of a relationship between this building and the original church (reflected by the crypt), or the current church, (which appears to mirror the alignments of the original building), indicates that the North Building was likely freestanding and was not contemporary with any part of the church.

Project C - North Building Construction Techniques The three-story portion is constructed of rubble while the single-story portion to the east and the buttresses are of cut ashlar. Implications This suggests that the lower eastern portion was a later addition. The use of diagonal buttresses at the corners is considered a later technique, long after the building was constructed.

Project C - North Building Window Openings Two round-headed openings remain visible at the floor level of the upper story on the interior on the south side, but these are not visible on the exterior of the north building from the interior of the north transept. Implications The fact that only the tops of these windows are visible indicates that they predate the vaulting of the sacristy. Although Baillieul has reconstructed these as arches running to the original floor, the fact of the moldings above the western sacristy door (on the interior) indicates that perhaps these were actually oculi, located above the two entrances into the north building from the south.

Project C - North Building Construction Around Windows In the western of the two round-headed openings, the inner moldings are not the same profile and are not concentric with the outer moldings, perhaps suggesting an infill, or a later framing of an earlier opening. Implications Close examination of the photo shows that the inner and outer moldings different and are not concentric. This suggests that the inner opening was created first, and then the outer set of moldings was added at a different time, perhaps if the wall was thickened at some point. There was an effort to preserve the original openings but no effort to frame them concentrically.

Project C - North Building Building Raised The upper half of the upper level walls are of a slightly different color and the windows are of a different character than those below, and they abut the cut ashlar buttresses of the north transept. Implications Close examination of the photo reveals two things. First, the rubble above the head of the window (just visible above the roof in the foreground) is lighter in color and the window in it is of a different design. Where the rubble meets the buttress on the left it is clear that the buttress was there first, and the rubble constructed against it. This all suggests that the north building was raised at some point after the north wall of the transept and its buttresses were constructed.

Project C - North Building Building Raised The buttresses that the upper part of the north building abut are in a peculiar location, being near the centers of the north transept walls and not at the corners where the loads were. These buttresses terminate abruptly and uncomfortably beneath the roses of the transept. Implications It appears these buttresses had nothing to do with the structure transept, despite being constructed with the north wall of that transept, but that they were conceived to act as buttresses for the corners of the north building.

Project C - North Building Different Corbels The current corbels at the roof line on the east and west differ from the design on the north. Implications We suggest that because the walls were raised, the corbels were also salvaged and reinstalled at the higher level. The absence of such corbels on the north suggests there never were any, which in turn suggests that the north wall originally had a gable. Not only would this be more consistent with the period, but it may explain the simpler corbel on the north side as compared to those of the east and west. Recent discovery of a photograph of the building from the 19th century confirms that even at that time there was a gable on the north side of the North Building.

Project C - North Building Building Vaulted Inside the current upper level of the north building there are arches against the east, north and west walls, and beneath the apex of each of these there is a new window. Implications The original rubble walls were insufficient to sustain the thrusts of a vault. At some point it was decided to vault the north building, and its walls were thickened. On the south, as previously mentioned, the entire wall was thickened and the existing openings were reframed. It seems logical that the buttresses of the north wall of the transept were also included to add additional support for the vaulting that was planned for the north building. So, the lower building was constructed in rubble, the building was then thickened and raised in preparation for vaulting, including the provision of buttressing in the north wall of the transept, and then the vaults were put in place.

Project C - North Building Entrances from Existing Church The right-hand entrance into the building from the current church appears to be a facing over earlier construction, framing the original round-arched window with a pointed arch. Implications Part of the construction of the north transept involved the integration of the pre-existing north building. Rather than preserving the rubble construction of the south wall of the north building, it was refaced with ashlar, with an arch framing the oculus(?) and the doorway below. As noted above, the two sides of the north wall of the north transept are not in alignment, and it seems likely that the refacing of the eastern of the two bays predates the refacing of the western one. This in turn suggests that there may not yet have been any intent for a double transept when this was done, otherwise why would the builders not have refaced the entire north wall along a single line? A single transept would have conformed to the evidence of a third nave bay as well. (see nave discussion).

Project C - North Building Entrances from Existing Church The left-hand entrance into the building from the current church is of a much later design. Implications The portal surrounding the western of the two entrances into the sacristy dates to the remodeling of the sacristy in the 16th century.