Page:Wood carvings in English churches II.djvu/78



The magnificent church of Nantwich, Cheshire, was in building before the Black Death of 1349; the work was then stopped; and when it was resumed, it was carried out in a different style. To this later period belong the south transept and the east window of the chancel with rectilinear tracery; it is probable that the pulpit and stalls also belong to this second work, c. 1400. The design connects itself with that of the Lincoln and Chester stalls in the absence of any line of demarcation between the upper and lower portions; but while that of Chester is reminiscent of early fourteenth century work, that of Nantwich is well advanced toward normal fifteenth century design. It is also much richer than either, the lower stage being a mass of niches and pinnacles, with angel corbels below. The great novelty at Nantwich is the absence of spirelets, the absence of which is nobly compensated for by the increased height and prominence given to the central of the three upper niches (57).



The stalls of York Minster were destroyed by fire in 1819. Both in the treatment of the supporting shafts and in the design of the single upper niches flanked by window tracery they closely resembled the Lincoln stalls, on which they were probably modelled; above the upper niches rose spirelets flanked by pinnacles. There is a marked horizontal line midway, dividing the composition into two stories (58). The presbytery of York Minster was built between 1361 and 1370; the choir between 1380 and 1400; we may therefore take 1390 as the approximate date of the stalls. They are a little later than the Lincoln stalls, and probably contemporaneous with those of Chester. A general view of the stalls appears in Drake's Eboracum, page 522 (18).

At Carlisle the stalls were erected by Bishop Strickland