0:00:12 > 0:00:17The great cathedrals were the wonders of the medieval world -
0:00:17 > 0:00:21the tallest buildings since the Pyramids.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25The showpieces of medieval Christianity.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33These crystal palaces were built centuries before modern architects
0:00:33 > 0:00:36did the same with glass and steel.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46Yet they were built at a time when most of us lived in wooden hovels,
0:00:46 > 0:00:51and with little more than hammers and chisels, ropes and pulleys.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Who were the people who built them?
0:00:56 > 0:01:00What drove them, and just how were they able
0:01:00 > 0:01:02to build with such bold ambition?
0:01:26 > 0:01:32The great cathedrals embodied the highest aspiration of the medieval age -
0:01:32 > 0:01:35to represent heaven on earth.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39The Medieval Consecration Service made this clear.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Oh, how awe-inspiring is this place?
0:01:45 > 0:01:51It is no less than the house of the Lord. The gate of heaven.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00For the medieval imagination,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04just about everything in existence had symbolic value.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08Just as Creation was a book written by God,
0:02:08 > 0:02:13so what man did should be an image of that divine order.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22For medieval thinkers, cathedrals were rich in spiritual meaning.
0:02:22 > 0:02:27"The height representeth courage, the long length of the nave long-suffering,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30"the breadth is Christian charity.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35"As the stones of the wall would have no stability without mortar,
0:02:35 > 0:02:39"so man cannot be set in the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem without love,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42"which the Holy Spirit brings."
0:02:45 > 0:02:49But the medieval English cathedrals that stand today
0:02:49 > 0:02:52were born not of love, but war.
0:02:59 > 0:03:05The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought with it an architectural revolution.
0:03:11 > 0:03:18From the outset, it was clear that the new cathedrals were not only about the power of God,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21they were also about the power of the invaders.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44By the 1090s, almost every major settlement in the country,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47from Durham in the north to Canterbury in the south,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49had become a vast building site,
0:03:49 > 0:03:54with over 15 cathedrals under construction.
0:04:01 > 0:04:08Here in Norwich, the Normans obliterated the ancient market place, houses and churches.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Instead, they built a castle and a cathedral.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Twin pillars of the invaders' might.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Many of the Norman bishops had been close to the Conqueror.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25Now they were rewarded with prestigious jobs.
0:04:28 > 0:04:34The Bishop of Norwich, Herbert de Losinga, paid a small fortune for his title
0:04:34 > 0:04:38and he wanted his new cathedral to reflect his new status.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48It was here that Bishop Herbert built himself a mighty palace,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51right next to the construction site.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56From here, he could oversee building works on this enormous project.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03The building of a cathedral in the 11th century
0:05:03 > 0:05:05was a colossal undertaking.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09All around me here would've been perhaps a couple of hundred people
0:05:09 > 0:05:13working in what would've looked like a small town.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22The noise and dust must have been extraordinary.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24The smoke and sparks of a blacksmith's forge.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28The buzz and rasp of carpenters' saws.
0:05:28 > 0:05:35Stone dust, thick in the air, as the masons cut and carved and polished,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39and people shouting at each other in French, English, even Latin.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41The din must have been deafening.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Stage one was to lay the foundations.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58We're actually under the east end of Norwich Cathedral.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01This is where construction of the church itself started.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Firstly, they would have to dig foundation trenches, within which
0:06:05 > 0:06:10they would put the local stone, and the local stone in Norfolk is flint.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Because they're using small flints, they would use very large quantities of burnt lime.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19There's a lot of chalk in Norfolk, they can burn the chalk to make lime,
0:06:19 > 0:06:26and mixing it with water and sand to create a mortar, to hold the whole wall together.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31To get it as true as possible, because they're building in flint,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35they'd be built between shutters, wooden panels, if you like,
0:06:35 > 0:06:40which would be put in at a height of about a third of a metre.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43You can see that surviving in the walls,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48because the smoothness of the walls, particularly here,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52can only be attributed to the fact that the panelling, the shuttering,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56was there as part of that construction process.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04Building usually started at the east end, where mass was celebrated.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09When that was finished, the church could be consecrated and put to use.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Followed by the transepts, running north to south.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16The nave and the side aisles would follow.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26From foundations to finish might take less than 60 years,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30or as many as 200 if the money ran out.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33It's a bit of a myth that the medieval cathedrals
0:07:33 > 0:07:37somehow design themselves in a great communal outburst
0:07:37 > 0:07:42of religious energy, without the help of what we would call an architect.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47In fact, he may not have been called an architect, but to create a structure
0:07:47 > 0:07:52of this ambition, you needed a man with skill, vision and expertise.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54A man who knew what he was doing.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Those men were called master masons.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09They learned everything they knew on site, progressing from apprentice to stone-carver.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14They travelled and made sketches of what they saw,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17adapting them for their own designs to put to the bishop.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29Very few medieval masons' plans or notebooks survive.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Those that do show they knew geometry.
0:08:32 > 0:08:38Not the theory that we understand today, but a geometry based on the complex manipulation of squares,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42circles and triangles to produce shapes and patterns
0:08:42 > 0:08:44in regular proportions.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Some of these patterns can seem pretty sophisticated.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56The ratio of one to the square root of two, for example,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58crops up in lots of cathedrals.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04It's a formula that suggests some pretty sophisticated mathematics.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08In fact, it's very easy to generate using some basic geometry.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Simply draw a square,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15and then draw a diagonal across it,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18and the relationship between the diagonal and the side of the square
0:09:18 > 0:09:22will be in the proportion of one to the square root of two.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26So if you take the ground plan or footprint of a cathedral
0:09:26 > 0:09:28like Norwich, for example,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33the cloister is a square. Draw a diagonal across it...
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and you get the length of the nave.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Create a square from that length...
0:09:43 > 0:09:46and a diagonal across that square...
0:09:49 > 0:09:51gives you the length of the entire church.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Right up to the high altar.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Proportion, ratio, symmetry -
0:10:04 > 0:10:09to the medieval mind these were spiritual qualities.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14They reflected the harmony of creation and medieval masons cared passionately about them.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Some have claimed to spot mysterious messages and codes
0:10:24 > 0:10:27in the dimensions of medieval cathedrals.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31The number 144, for example, which refers to the number
0:10:31 > 0:10:35of those who will be saved in the Book of Revelation.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42All kinds of numbers that occur in the Bible pop up from time to time
0:10:42 > 0:10:47in cathedral architecture. These are mostly the ideas of churchmen.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Much more common are the basic geometrical principles
0:10:51 > 0:10:54followed by the master masons -
0:10:54 > 0:10:58with a square and a circle and a diagonal, you can generate
0:10:58 > 0:11:01an entire cathedral.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15But how much hard science did the architect know?
0:11:15 > 0:11:21The knowledge of mathematics, physics and engineering that we take for granted today.
0:11:21 > 0:11:27These are the things that would make a building like this stand up or fall down.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42The master masons really understood stability, centre of gravity
0:11:42 > 0:11:44and where that centre of gravity
0:11:44 > 0:11:50would be in their piles of stones that eventually make a cathedral.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53They would not have understood the concept of stress,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55that is a modern concept.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00It's the intensity of load, it's how much load per unit of area,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02and in a cathedral like this,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06that intensity of force is really comparatively low.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11It's about 100 tons on every square metre.
0:12:11 > 0:12:18So if you think of these columns as one square metre by one square metre, they could easily carry 100 tons.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Indeed, they could carry 1,000 tons.
0:12:21 > 0:12:27Those columns in the nave are huge and they are the weightiest part of the cathedral.
0:12:27 > 0:12:33Indeed, when I worked out the weight of one bay of Norwich Cathedral,
0:12:33 > 0:12:39the total weight was about 1,800 tons for one bay,
0:12:39 > 0:12:45of which about 1,000 tons was in the columns.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49So you can see how much weight went into the columns and the walls.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54Very little was in the stone vault at the top.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Only about 3% of that weight, I found, in the thin stone vault -
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and this is the secret to success.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Keeping the weight light at the top, heavy at the bottom,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10to bring the centre of gravity down to a lower level.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12And then there's a stability element.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18This arch allows these two columns to work together to form a stable whole,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22like standing on two legs instead of standing on one.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27You can repeat the exercise by putting more weight on the outside than on the inside.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31This makes this extremely steady and strong.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51I think it's possible to devise a set of rules
0:13:51 > 0:13:54by which the stonemasons would have worked.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58For example, the slenderness ratio of a column.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02That is the height of the column divided by its width.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07For most columns, if you keep that below ten, that's fine.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12Again, the arches and the vaults were proportioned with the set of rules.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17The thickness of a vault is roughly 1/20th of its span.
0:14:17 > 0:14:23Here at Norwich, with a span of 10m, the vault is about 200mm thick.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25And that works fine.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28So these are just some of the rules that the stonemasons
0:14:28 > 0:14:32would've passed on through the family line of father to son.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45Worshipping in churches built partly by rule-of-thumb
0:14:45 > 0:14:47wasn't without the odd anxiety.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52The congregation of Beverley Minster in Yorkshire, around 1213,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56grew uneasy at the new building works in their great church.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03"The craftsmen who were in charge of the work were concerned with beauty rather than strength.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08"They led the new work into the old ingeniously, but not firmly.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12"In the manner of those who sew new cloth into old.
0:15:12 > 0:15:19"At last, it came about, that from fear, a great part of the clergy and people refused to enter the church."
0:15:21 > 0:15:24And there were occasional disasters.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28The central tower at Winchester Cathedral fell in 1107.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35One of the west towers at Gloucester collapsed in the later 12th century.
0:15:35 > 0:15:41At Norwich, the spire blew down in 1362.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Many problems came from poor foundations
0:15:44 > 0:15:48which caused the stones to slowly shift and crack.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Most people now think that the cathedrals were actually heavily over-engineered.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58You could take quite a lot of stonework away from these buildings without them falling down.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16In an upstairs room at York Minster you can get a tantalising feel
0:16:16 > 0:16:20of the early stages of a master mason's work.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25This is a very, very special place.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30These are the living quarters and the workshop of one of the top master masons in the country.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33The man who designed York Minster.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Here, he might have come up with some of his best design ideas, perhaps
0:16:37 > 0:16:41sitting on his private toilet, which still exists over there.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46It is not just a place for thinking, sleeping and eating.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Here is his drawing board.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51His drawing board is the floor, and scribed on it
0:16:51 > 0:16:54are the individual lines, individual pieces of stone.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02All around us are similar patterns which over the years might have become quite a headache to work with.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06So every now and again, he had to put down a new layer of plaster.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10And to make it really firm, perhaps dozens of people,
0:17:10 > 0:17:17perhaps some of them children, would have come up here and walked around in socked feet and we can still see
0:17:17 > 0:17:21the heels of medieval masons on this floor it to this day.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27Making sure it's as firm as possible for the next series of designs to be worked in.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38There's a feel of the Mary Celeste about these marks.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41As if the master mason had just gone off for lunch.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48And the windows built from this design are still there,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52just a few feet away, at the east end of the Minster.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00The next task for the master mason was to choose the stone.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04Up to 80,000 tons of it.
0:18:04 > 0:18:11Dragged to the site by ox and cart, or floated down-river on barges from the quarries.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14This quarry supplied stone for Lincoln Cathedral.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19It was a matter of bars, wedges, horses, carts.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Quite a labour-intensive process.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26- They're naturally bedded, you can just see one going through there. - I see, that flat line.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32And there will be another one down here and down here, so you've got three different beds.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35They knew that, medieval masons knew the best stone, the best stone
0:18:35 > 0:18:37was the silver bed which was the top one.
0:18:37 > 0:18:44The silver bed was top-quality carving for your carvings, your caps, angels, grotesques.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48The next one was the lower silver which was still nice to work but
0:18:48 > 0:18:51a little bit softer, and then the red bed.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54They all had their individual usage.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57These are going to end up as beautiful carvings.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00You've got to have some pretty strict quality control, I imagine?
0:19:00 > 0:19:04You have. Even from the very early stages of quarrying the block,
0:19:04 > 0:19:10if you see quite a few natural cracks in that, it is put to a waste pile.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12The quarrymen were quite good at their job
0:19:12 > 0:19:17because they wouldn't go to the trouble of getting it out if it wasn't any good anyway.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20The final say was the master mason.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25It was hard labour and especially all that work you went into to get them blocks out,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29then realise it had a crack in it, it must have been so frustrating.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32So I do take my hat off to them.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39The master mason then hired a team of stonemasons
0:19:39 > 0:19:41to work the roughly cut blocks.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45They followed templates made from his designs.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50The templates applied to the outside of a block of stone.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52They guide the masons,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55show the masons what shape the stone should be.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58If they follow the instructions on the templates
0:19:58 > 0:20:00and they follow the shape of it,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04they will end up with a block that's cut to the correct size.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11You may need several templates for one stone, depending on its complexity.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16If it's a very complex piece of tracery, for instance, or a springing stone, you would
0:20:16 > 0:20:20need a section mould which would go on the side to give you the profile.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22A bed mould that would go to the top
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and apply to the bottom, probably two different moulds for that.
0:20:26 > 0:20:32You would have to have a face mould, which would show the shape of the stone when viewed from the front
0:20:32 > 0:20:35and any lines of moulding that are on there.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41It's almost like dressmaking. It's the same principle.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07So, this is the final destination of a piece of stone?
0:21:07 > 0:21:11Yes, this one has come from the quarry, it's been worked.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13We've cut a space for it to go in here.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18We'll just put a little bed of mortar on here.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21This is just a mixture of sand and lime.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28Medieval builders used a lime mortar which sets less rigidly than modern cement.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32So the stones could shift and settle over centuries.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Here I've got Lewis pins.
0:21:36 > 0:21:43Which are very similar to ones that would have been used in medieval times. I put those in the hole.
0:21:43 > 0:21:49As I pull on them they'll open up, like so, and they'll grab hold of the stone for us.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57Yes. We can get it into the edge and the stone below
0:21:57 > 0:22:01looks like it's from some previous restoration. But the one above
0:22:01 > 0:22:06has been there for probably about 600 years.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11Somebody presumably has had to come up here and do a very detailed measurement of that
0:22:11 > 0:22:15and create a template and somebody down the mason's yard
0:22:15 > 0:22:20has used that template to come up with this lovely, clean, smooth bit of moulding, here.
0:22:24 > 0:22:30In cathedral building, ancient craft met modern assembly line.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34Each stone individually designed and carved, then repeated,
0:22:34 > 0:22:36to create symmetry and pattern.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44At Durham, the master mason prescribed
0:22:44 > 0:22:48the precise size and quantity of blocks he would need to build the church.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57The great zig-zag and diamond patterns on the columns were created
0:22:57 > 0:22:59from five standardised designs.
0:22:59 > 0:23:07850 blocks of one size, 600 of another, 230 of a third, and so on.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09By arranging these in different ways
0:23:09 > 0:23:12all the patterns on the columns can be generated.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16It's as if the church was a vast jigsaw.
0:23:25 > 0:23:31The building of the cathedral tested the skills and ingenuity of the cathedral builders to the limit.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37Yet the ideas and methods that they used had barely changed since Roman times.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42In fact, the style they built in,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45in the early period, is called Romanesque.
0:23:45 > 0:23:51It's based on the kind of arch that Romans used, the round arch.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54The shape was always based on a circle.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Often a full semi-circle,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01sometimes a section of one, or with the curve slightly distorted.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05It was simple, but limited.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10Arches in the style known as Romanesque can be sturdy, even chunky.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15A whole building made of these arches has a muscular, powerful effect.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19But in the middle of the 12th century came an idea that would change all this.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22A revolution in design and construction
0:24:22 > 0:24:26which would raise cathedral building to new levels of sophistication.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32It was a style that would become known as Gothic.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43It was born in France, at Saint-Denis, near Paris.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48Here, the visionary Abbot Suger rebuilt part of the abbey church,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51burial place of the French kings.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00He was using a new kind of arch.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Not a round arch, but a pointed one.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13But his aims went beyond this.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16For Abbot Suger had a vision.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19He wasn't simply after something bigger and grander.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22He had a theological rationale for his new design.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25It was a theology of light.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36For medieval thinkers, light had a profoundly religious meaning.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39The embodiment of spirit, one writer called it.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45"The work should brighten our minds
0:25:45 > 0:25:49"so they travel through the light to the true light of Christ.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54"In seeing this light, the dull mind is resurrected from darkness."
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Abbot Suger and his unnamed master mason
0:26:01 > 0:26:05had glimpsed the possibilities of the pointed arch.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11It's both stronger and more flexible than a round one.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16Both the shape and width of a pointed arch can be varied in more ways.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21And the weight of a building naturally moves downwards
0:26:21 > 0:26:24and outwards in a shallow curve
0:26:24 > 0:26:27closer to that of a pointed than a round arch.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30This simple difference was to change
0:26:30 > 0:26:35the entire way cathedrals were conceived, designed, and built.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46The second Sunday in June 1144
0:26:46 > 0:26:52may have had a greater effect on architecture than any other day in history.
0:26:56 > 0:27:02At the dedication service, bishops from all over Europe gathered at Saint-Denis
0:27:02 > 0:27:06to witness a building designed to evoke the experience of heaven
0:27:06 > 0:27:09more completely than anything before it.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13The bishops were awestruck.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15They had seen the future.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22There was one dissenting voice - the monk Bernard of Clairvaux
0:27:22 > 0:27:26saw in such splendour nothing but worldly distraction.
0:27:26 > 0:27:32"Oh, vanity of vanities, but more folly than vanity,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35"every part of the church shines but the poor man is hungry.
0:27:35 > 0:27:41"The walls are clothed in in gold while the children of the Church remained naked."
0:27:41 > 0:27:47But such asceticism was out of step with what the mighty bishops wanted.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52England was the first country outside France to take up the new style.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57Lords and bishops had estates in France and French was the language of court.
0:27:57 > 0:28:04When fire devastated the east end of Canterbury Cathedral, the most important church in the country,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06the monks here saw their chance.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14The man in the 1170s chosen to be the new master mason
0:28:14 > 0:28:20was, significantly, a man who had worked for years in France.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22His name was William of Sens.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27His task - to create one of England's first Gothic cathedrals.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35The Gothic style started a push to build higher.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40It would place new demands on the unsung heroes of cathedral building,
0:28:40 > 0:28:42the carpenters.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47They built scaffolding and the timber frames
0:28:47 > 0:28:51around which entire sections of the cathedral were built,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54including the arches themselves.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57We start off with a wooden centring.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01Which we put in here.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06Then we just start off down the bottom of the arch,
0:29:06 > 0:29:08building the stones up either side.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12They're built on little pads,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16which space it out nicely to give it a nice joint.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20And then, once you've got to the top, you put in the keystones
0:29:20 > 0:29:24and they'll wedge it all into place so that it won't move.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29After that, we pour lead into Y-shaped grooves that run down
0:29:29 > 0:29:33in between each of the stones, that makes it even more solid.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38Then we finish off by putting mortar into the joints, pointing it up.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41So putting up this wall is the final stage of the process?
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Yes. Once the wall is up around it,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47we can take the centering out and the arch will support itself.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54And putting up arches like this is the basic building block of creating a cathedral?
0:29:54 > 0:29:58Very much so, you can create very large spaces inside the building
0:29:58 > 0:30:00with much bigger arches than this.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03It's the same technique that the medieval masons would have used.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22Massive quantities of wood were required to build the cathedrals.
0:30:22 > 0:30:28Almost 1,500 trees had to be cut down to build Salisbury Cathedral.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30Often, the wood wasn't available locally
0:30:30 > 0:30:33and had to be sourced from abroad.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Pine from the Baltic, oak from Ireland,
0:30:36 > 0:30:42entire forests are locked up in the walls of the cathedrals.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52And to get the great wooden beams and pieces of stone
0:30:52 > 0:30:54up from ground level,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59masons and carpenters used ropes, winches, pulleys, ladders
0:30:59 > 0:31:01and the Big Bertha of them all.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09This is the windlass that the masons would have used
0:31:09 > 0:31:12to lift enormous blocks of stone
0:31:12 > 0:31:15to the upper levels of their construction site.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19By holding one of these pegs and turning this great wooden wheel,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22a mason could lift more than ten times his own weight.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26As the wheel turned, the timber beam turned
0:31:26 > 0:31:28and down here,
0:31:28 > 0:31:35you can see the gouge marks made by the ropes as they lifted the stones.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41It was a precarious and dangerous business.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46This strange little carving
0:31:46 > 0:31:49shows a mason falling from the upper levels of the building.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54We don't know exactly what happened to him,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58but we do know what happened to William of Sens at Canterbury.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02Some years into the project,
0:32:02 > 0:32:07he was working 50ft above the floor, up among the roof timbers.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11- MAN NARRATING:- "Suddenly, the beams broke under his feet.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16"He fell to the ground, stones and timbers accompanying his fall.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20"Sorely bruised by the blows of the beams and the stones,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25"he was rendered helpless alike to himself and for the work."
0:32:26 > 0:32:31William was paralysed and had to return to France.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34But Gothic was here to stay.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42No-one had seen anything like this before.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44The lavish use of polished stone,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47the vast expanses of jewel-like glass.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52This new East End was four metres higher than its predecessor
0:32:52 > 0:32:54and a third longer.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56But what was really revolutionary about it
0:32:56 > 0:32:59was the use it made of the pointed arch.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04This gave the interior a kind of tense harmony
0:33:04 > 0:33:09that was novel, modern, almost shocking.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Canterbury and the cathedrals that followed it
0:33:17 > 0:33:21seemed to float heavenwards, infused with colour and light.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Within a generation of Gothic appearing in Britain,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39it had developed into an innovative native style.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43Where the French built high and austere,
0:33:43 > 0:33:48in England, Gothic would turn into something rich and ornate.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52Often dramatic, sometimes fantastical.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04At the cathedral in Wells,
0:34:04 > 0:34:08the Gothic style came to be used in a wholly new way.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Every year on Palm Sunday,
0:34:11 > 0:34:17the cathedral building itself became a stage set for religious ritual.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22Dressed in their most magnificently embroidered clothes,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24the clergy formed a great procession
0:34:24 > 0:34:28which would head towards the grand west front.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30Clouds of incense surrounded them.
0:34:30 > 0:34:35They were about to take part in a piece of sacred theatre,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39re-enacting Christ's entry into Jerusalem.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43"Lift up your heads, o ye gates, so the king of glory can come in,"
0:34:43 > 0:34:46they chanted in Latin.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50It was the architecture that answered back.
0:34:59 > 0:35:05For behind the west front, with its 176 life-sized painted statues,
0:35:05 > 0:35:10the builders had created a space for a hidden choir.
0:35:14 > 0:35:20The statues seemed to sing out the response across the cathedral close.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39For a few brief moments, architecture, sculpture
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and a kind of sacred theatre had fused
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and this church in the English West Country
0:35:45 > 0:35:48had become Jerusalem itself.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04Medieval cathedrals revelled in these kinds of dramatic effects.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Colour was everywhere.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Walls were whitewashed and painted with patterns and sacred scenes.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22Carvings brought to life with paint.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Columns polished to look like precious stones.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38And perhaps the key innovation of Gothic,
0:36:38 > 0:36:43huge windows to allow the light of God to pour in.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Filtered through richly stained glass,
0:36:46 > 0:36:48stage lighting for the theatre of Gothic.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58The spectacular east window of York Minster was designed
0:36:58 > 0:37:02by John Thornton of Coventry in the 15th century.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06It tells the story of the Creation and the end of the world.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Today, it's under repair.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16The conservators using much the same technique as the medieval glaziers.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23The starting point is a cartoon.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29The artist not only needs to draw in the detail on a plan or a cartoon,
0:37:29 > 0:37:35but also needs to tell the glass cutter where to cut the glass.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39In the medieval times, when this panel was being made,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43the dark lines would have indicated where to cut.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46So you need to cut glass first.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49The glass could be brought in from the Continent.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52We think France or the Low Countries,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56because they were making the best quality of glass at that time.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00The impurities in the materials that make up the glass
0:38:00 > 0:38:04give it a beautiful tint of greenish or yellowish,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06so the border pieces are tinted glass
0:38:06 > 0:38:10but if you look inside, you can see different colour glasses, red, blue.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14That would be brought in as blue glass.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18At the molten stage, oxides would be added,
0:38:18 > 0:38:23in this case cobalt would be added to the melting pot
0:38:23 > 0:38:25to make that glass blue.
0:38:27 > 0:38:32The rough shapes would have been laid out and then finely grozed
0:38:32 > 0:38:35by just nibbling away at the edges with a bar.
0:38:35 > 0:38:41Once the glass was laid on the sheet, the painter could begin the work.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03Then the glass was joined together using strips of lead.
0:39:05 > 0:39:11When it was put in place, it was perhaps the largest stained-glass window in Europe.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28Gothic and stained glass made a perfect marriage.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35Cathedral builders vyed to make ever-larger windows, to make wall spaces ever smaller.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Some buildings became mere skeletons of stone.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46But these structures, with their great roofs and ceilings,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49pushed outwards as well as downwards.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52They needed strong support.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55The masons came up with a new kind of structure.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59The flying buttress takes the weight of the building out and down,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03leaving its walls free for all kinds of possibilities.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Windows could get bigger, the structure itself could get higher.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11And arches of all kinds could be more delicately decorated.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26The flying buttress siphoned off the weight from the walls of the nave,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30leapfrogging the side aisles as it did so.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Where practical necessity met aesthetic adventure
0:40:41 > 0:40:44came a strange, fantastic beauty.
0:40:44 > 0:40:50For more than 300 years, from the late 12th century to the early 16th,
0:40:50 > 0:40:55cathedral architecture in England enjoyed a golden age.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02MAN NARRATING: "Windows make the upper parts of the cathedral bright,
0:41:02 > 0:41:07"with their vivid and various colours imitating the rainbow.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11"Hard without, but like a honeycomb within.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16"It seems to be a thing not of art but of nature,
0:41:16 > 0:41:21"holding people's minds in suspense as they wonder.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25"Soaring and lofty, clear and resplendent."
0:41:36 > 0:41:38The last part of a cathedral to be built
0:41:38 > 0:41:42was the stone ceiling under the roof level known as a vault.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48Here, at Gloucester, you can see how as masons grew bolder,
0:41:48 > 0:41:51their vaults became ever more ambitious.
0:41:51 > 0:41:57The great breakthrough came with the invention of the rib vault.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59These small, diagonal arches
0:41:59 > 0:42:03made it possible to build vaults there were bigger and higher.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06Though at first they were built to strengthen the vault
0:42:06 > 0:42:09and hide ugly joins, in the 13th century,
0:42:09 > 0:42:15masons began to exploit the purely decorative effects of these ribs.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19They add these diagonal ribs, which are called tiercerons,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22that are more decorative, simply about making patterns.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Soon you are in what we call the decoratived style.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28You're heading through the 14th century,
0:42:28 > 0:42:32and people start to get really carried away, they add little
0:42:32 > 0:42:35short ribs which are just there
0:42:35 > 0:42:40to make three-dimensional patterns on a curved, stone roof.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Above the Lady Chapel at Gloucester Cathedral,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56you can really get a sense of how such elaborate vaults were constructed.
0:42:56 > 0:42:5850ft above the ground,
0:42:58 > 0:43:03the master mason shows me the reverse side of the vault.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11OK, so we are on top of the Lady Chapel here.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14And we're going to climb
0:43:14 > 0:43:18over this vault, so we will have a good view
0:43:18 > 0:43:20on the structure.
0:43:20 > 0:43:26You have a volume of space to cover with a particular ceiling,
0:43:26 > 0:43:31which in that case is a Gothic vault.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36So first you fit that space with a scaffolding frame, made of wood.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39You position the wood arches,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41the wood centring,
0:43:41 > 0:43:47which are just underneath the stone ribs.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52It will support all the individual stones constituting the stone ribs.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57As you can see here, you have got the main arch, the main ribs,
0:43:57 > 0:44:00and they're all good solid stone.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04But you see that funny-looking stone inbetween?
0:44:04 > 0:44:07That's tufa. It's something which is very, very light
0:44:07 > 0:44:09and spongy, and very light.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14It's a material, which is probably less than
0:44:14 > 0:44:17half the weight of normal stone.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19You can extract it, quarry it in the field.
0:44:19 > 0:44:26When it is fresh, it is extraordinarily soft.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Then exposed to the air, it will harden very quickly.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34You can see all the two marks, the double-edged axe marks,
0:44:34 > 0:44:37which was the primary tool of the medieval mason
0:44:37 > 0:44:40to produce quickly a unit of stone.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44So it was done in there, and he started at that corner and came down.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47They are the typical radiating marks
0:44:47 > 0:44:51of the double-edged axe, going down that way.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54So these large, square stone,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58they are at the junction of all the ribs, and the carving of the bust
0:44:58 > 0:45:05is to hide this junction, and to make a use of this junction,
0:45:05 > 0:45:12and it also it was a useful device to hide possible inaccuracies
0:45:12 > 0:45:14where it was not quite meeting,
0:45:14 > 0:45:19which was occuring from time to time.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29In the cloisters at Gloucester,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33mastery in stone and aesthetic ambition reach a climax.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39The fan vault must rank as one of the marvels of the English Gothic style.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43These trumpet-like cones covered in carved patterns
0:45:43 > 0:45:46were unlike anything seen before.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52The fan vault dispenses with ribs altogether.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57It is just a skin of carved stone a few inches thick,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59like an eggshell.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Yet the effect has all the delicacy of lace.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18It was a kind of Eureka moment for the medieval masons.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Instead of ribs, they simply build a smooth, curved surface,
0:46:24 > 0:46:29spreading out evenly in all directions like an inverted dome.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36The surface was covered with repeated patterns
0:46:36 > 0:46:41reflecting those that ran over the walls and windows below.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46Again, no maths or physics were needed, just what worked.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48The idea is inspired,
0:46:48 > 0:46:53but the engineering not much more complex than constructing an igloo.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59The fan vault was one of the last, great innovations
0:46:59 > 0:47:01in three centuries of Gothic.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Growing technical sophistication
0:47:08 > 0:47:11fed a demand for more elaborate architecture.
0:47:11 > 0:47:17Patrons wanted more of everything; more variety, richer patterns,
0:47:17 > 0:47:23more fantastic designs, and more breathtaking architectural effects.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30All over England,
0:47:30 > 0:47:35the great cathedrals were rebuilt in the rich, new style.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40From the soaring nave of Canterbury,
0:47:40 > 0:47:44to the elegant choir at Salisbury,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48and the luminous stained glass of York.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56Sumptuous Lady chapels were added,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00borne of a passionate new attachment to the Virgin Mary.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10But there was a price to be paid for such ambition.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13At Lincoln, in the the 1190s,
0:48:13 > 0:48:19the cathedral was rebuilt in an elaborately ornamented Gothic style.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24So carried away was the master mason, he neglected to build columns
0:48:24 > 0:48:28strong enough to hold up the tower he was about to build.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30The result:
0:48:30 > 0:48:35before the tower was even finished, it came crashing to the ground.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46Yet medieval masons were good at turning disaster into triumph.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50The central tower of Wells Cathedral
0:48:50 > 0:48:53also showed signs of imminent collapse in the 14th century.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57The masons came up with an astonishing solution.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08Gigantic scissor arches that braced the arches supporting the tower.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13This bizarre, but graceful edition stabilised the entire structure.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25But the most innovative response to calamity
0:49:25 > 0:49:28happened 200 miles to the east.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31On 12th February, in 1322,
0:49:31 > 0:49:35the monks of Ely Cathedral had just sung Matins.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49MAN NARRATING: Suddenly and swiftly
0:49:49 > 0:49:51the bell tower crashed down upon the choir
0:49:51 > 0:49:56with such a thunderous noise, one might think an earthquake had occurred.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06The fall devastated the central part of the cathedral
0:50:06 > 0:50:11and plunged the senior monk Alan of Walsingham into despair.
0:50:16 > 0:50:21Alan of Walsingham would have been faced by an enormous pile of rubble.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23The first thing to do was simply to clear that,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26and perhaps as he was doing it an idea might have begun
0:50:26 > 0:50:29to take shape of quite a bold solution
0:50:29 > 0:50:32to the problem of how to replace a fallen Norman tower.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40The church, like all other churches, had four great arms;
0:50:40 > 0:50:43east and west, and north and south,
0:50:43 > 0:50:48and an entire section at each of these four arms was demolished
0:50:48 > 0:50:52making them shorter and this space much bigger.
0:50:55 > 0:51:01And then he joined these four arms with four angled walls,
0:51:01 > 0:51:06creating an enormous octagonal space about 23 metres wide.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Having laid this out,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13the masons had to dig down two or three metres, find new foundations
0:51:13 > 0:51:16and then they started to build upwards.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20And they went up and up, 20 or 30 metres into the sky,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24but they weren't really building walls, but a kind of skin,
0:51:24 > 0:51:26a skin pierced by enormous arches,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30the kind of thing that is only possible with Gothic architecture.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39And when he'd finished, he had an octagon of stone.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42And the question was, what to put on top of it.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56To roof this enormous, octagonal space,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Alan of Walsingham worked with one of the king's master carpenters.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04The the plan was to do it all in wood.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Timbers had to be sourced.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Some of these are 12 metres long,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12and they are still covered with axe marks made by medieval workers.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16Between them, they devised an ingenious wooden framework,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18a colossal structure
0:52:18 > 0:52:23which literally sits on top of the stone sheath of walls they had already created,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and rises up from it, going higher and higher,
0:52:26 > 0:52:29so that it suspends a great wooden vault
0:52:29 > 0:52:33which, from underneath, looks like it's almost weightless.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52Once again, medieval craftsmen had turned a disaster
0:52:52 > 0:52:55into a colossal piece of architectural theatre.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Of all the spine-tingling moments of the medieval cathedrals,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12this has to be the tops.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17All the lines of this enormous octagonal space
0:53:17 > 0:53:19rise up and converge.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23And just when you think they're going to join,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27they stop and go up again into a cage of coloured light.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30And right at the top, at the heart of it all,
0:53:30 > 0:53:34is a beautiful carving of Christ in Majesty.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50The octagon at Ely Cathedral survives from the 1320s,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53a decade of architectural brilliance
0:53:53 > 0:53:57whose masons should be as famous as Turner or Shakespeare.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00But this was not an age of ego.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05The reputation of these men lies buried in the stonework
0:54:05 > 0:54:09and soaring vaults of these amazing buildings.
0:54:25 > 0:54:31The cathedrals today are a journey through time, not a moment in time.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36Each one has been rebuilt or extended several times over the centuries.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40Not a single one is as it was when it was first built.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51To walk through an English cathedral
0:54:51 > 0:54:54is to walk through the history of England and its architecture.
0:54:54 > 0:55:00Here at Ely, for example, the great round arches of the nave,
0:55:00 > 0:55:05with their massive pillars, date back to the conquering Normans.
0:55:06 > 0:55:12Walk along, and you enter the 13th century and the pointed arches of Gothic.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19Further still, and you get to the very end of the medieval era
0:55:19 > 0:55:24with its passion for carving, that looks less like stone than crystallised foam.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37But the time would come when the great cathedrals
0:55:37 > 0:55:40no longer exerted the same fascination.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43The intellectual and religious passion
0:55:43 > 0:55:47that had fired the medieval builders was changing.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51Wealthy patrons put their money into private chapels,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53rather than great churches.
0:55:54 > 0:56:00And in the 1530s, the religious world of England was turned upside down.
0:56:04 > 0:56:11Protestants and Puritans put hammers and chisels to a very different use.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55But the splendour of the great cathedrals, the commitment
0:56:55 > 0:57:00and skill of the people who created them, these remain.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03Reminders of a glorious ambition;
0:57:03 > 0:57:06to realise the vision of the Book of Revelation,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08to build heaven on earth.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23- MAN NARRATING:- "The New Jerusalem, pure gold like unto clear glass,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25"garnished with precious stones
0:57:25 > 0:57:29"needed neither the sun nor the moon to shine in it.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32"For the glory of God did lighten it.'
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Subtitles by Red Bee Media