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.

1350

250

950

2950

880

540

250

100

45

1060s

1070s

1080s

1090s

1100s

1110s

1120s

1130s

1140s

1150s

1160s

1170s

1180s

1190s

1200s

1210s

1220s

1230s

1240s

1250s

The size and consistency shows that all bases for the walls and piers were laid down at the one time, from east to penultimate pier 13 in the west; this included the lateral chapels; afterwards average rate of construction across the site seems to have been in the order of 5 or so courses per year.

Choir and north chapel dado capitals; rebuilding has eliminated the evidence for how far this stage of the work was continued to the west; and very wide windows around the ambulatory.

This is a test

Ambulatory pier capitals for groin vaults

A temporary roof may have been erected at this level to cover the eastern choir; the wooden stalls were built under this and on his death Bishop Henry was interred in the choir in 1144.

Nave dado probably in more than one campaign

The four choir piers from today's crossing to the east; from the style of the capitals continued into the nave to piers 6; once the aisle vaults were completed this huge undertaking would be sufficient to support all future stages in the gallery and clerestory.

From the style of the capitals the same crew working in the choir continued into the nave to pier 6, leaving only the piers under the towers to be finished later; ten piers (plus one in the centre transept).

The continuation of corbels to support the aisle ribs from the ambulatory to the doubleau of the 6th pier west of the crossing shows the extent of the work when it was decided to use rib vaults; that the smaller corbels of this phase sit over the capitals of both Phases 1 and 2 of the southern choir aisle capitals shows how far the works had proceeded before this decision was made; the corbels in the choir are smaller than those in the nave and have an additional larger course between it and the rib.

The corbels in the nave to the doubleau of the 6th pier; these sit over the capitals of Phase 2; in the west side of the 6th aisle pier the style of the formeret capital and the corbels show this to have been part of the later works in the west; whatever had been constructed on the south wall was replaced after the collapse.

Walling over arcade arches and choir gallery walkway

Choir gallery capitals

Choir clerestory capitals

Install the first flyers 1-7 and roof in place immediately afterwards.

Choir wall above flyers 1-7 for domical vault form.

Roof cornice with details like those in Canterbury by William of Sens.

Nave arcade capitals 6-8.

Mid-nave gallery

West portals begun with western nave bay,

Western nave aisle capitals

Nave aisle vaults 11-14

Nave-mid clerestory flyers

Probably after the fire of 1184; as portal joints mismatched probably carved in shed before it was needed

Eastern nave vaults and flyers 8-12

West aisle bays to gallery

West clerestory,

Tower rooms in the one campaign