The dating found here is based on the work of John James, and is meant on this site to serve as a starting point. James' dating is derived from a system that uses his interpretation of the development of capitals over time as the basis for chronology, among other factors. His goal is to refine the dating to within years rather than decades. I have not fully embraced James' methodology, and will be developing this page from its current state to one which is admittedly more conservative. The relative expenditure values found in the Timeline are also based on James' work, and I believe these to be reasonably reliable. They are intended only to give a sense of the amount of work involved in each decade.

I have added the idea of the "project" as a way of separating work in buildings. In my mind, a "project" is a discrete section of work in a building that resulted from the one-time acquisition of funding. "Projects" are generally separated by at least a decade where no work was being done. It is my view that it would have been unwise to start a "project" that could not be finished and protected from the elements, and as such a "project" usually involved a wing or multiple wings of a building, from floor to roof. Rural churches, which could only secure small amounts of funding at irregular intervals, often were the result of many small projects, while the great churches, which benefitted from relatively consistent funding, may have involved only a few large projects.

600

70

156

1060s

1070s

1080s

1090s

1100s

1110s

1120s

1130s

1140s

1150s

1160s

1170s

1180s

1190s

1200s

1210s

1220s

1230s

1240s

1250s

Choir, crossing and chapels to aisle vaults; the footings in many campaigns while setting out and suggest may have intended to vault the east at the level of the triforium capitals as in Sens.

Choir vaults and upper walls to cornice and external capitals

Choir, nave triforium and clerestory, nave 3 as caps more complex, vault to W1 aisle; walls to W3 caps and steps down with large clerestory windows, flyers.

Nave WN aisle and triforium 4-5, rib vaults to W2-4 aisle while transepts were finished slowly.

Nave WS aisle and triforium 3-5.

Nave clerestory 3-5

rebuilding clerestory W 2 and 3 aas there could have been some danger of a collapse at the level of the triforium as both these triforium bays are missing and the clerestory caps have been replaced, probably with the high vaults C15; later western tower over footings that sank as it was being built.