Photograph of scaffold towers over the quire stalls and south quire transept.

Quire vaulting conservation

August 10, 2020

Repairs to the quire vaulting over the summer of 2020 by Paye Stone Ltd under the direction of Cathedral Architect John Bailey of Thomas Ford & Partners have seen the east end of the Cathedral filled with two enormous scaffold towers installed by Alltask.

Although the main objective was repairing the cracks in the masonry between the blocks of chalk used in the vault webbing (remember the netting?) these towers also provided access for close-up inspection and photography of the vaulting ribs.

Follow Rochester Cathedral Architect John Bailey up the quire scaffolding towers to find out more about the repairs to the vaulting and some discoveries along the way.

Cathedral architect John Bailey discussing the conservation project.

It was known that the vaulting ribs feature surviving medieval painted patterning after a limited investigation and resulting reconstruction by Peter Martindale throughout the quire transept and presbytery in 1994. This is the wavy red-orange/black you may have noticed from ground-level before).

The towers allowed for once-in-a-lifetime access to the quire vaulting and bosses.

An opportune discovery was surviving paint on two keystone bosses over the quire stalls, featuring original decoration from the east end building campaign around the year 1200. An investigation was carried out by Arte Conservation Ltd and the bosses were 3D-modelled, providing a high-quality record for future reference. Such an intensive inspection and recording could not be carried out from floor-level. A rare early example of blue pigmentation was discovered on the rounded westernmost of the two bosses. The other remaining fragments allow for a conjectural reconstruction of the scheme.

3D model of the eastern quire boss today and a reconstruction of its original decoration based on surviving fragments of decoration.

The most vivid fragments of paint survive on the boss to the east. Here the dog tooth mouldings are painted with a thin white limewash and the edges outlined in black and red ochre lines. Two reds are visible including a red lead colour called minium. Spaces between the radial dog tooth are decorated with five black dots arranged like a flower. The surviving decoration of this boss provides evidence to propose a complete reconstruction, and fill in some of the gaps in understanding of the other boss. Although not yet identified, greens were probably used to highlight the leaf-like sculpture on each boss (known as foliation). Both bosses feature holes through which it would have been possible to hang a chain or rope, possibly for a chandelier.

3D model of the western quire boss today and a reconstruction based on surviving fragments.

Large single black spots decorate the spaces between the dog tooth carvings of the transverse ribs. The plainer diagonal ribs feature bands of yellow ochre and black lines. Fragments of a single-line red masonry pattern survive in areas of the vault webbing under the later limewashes. This masonry pattern seems to have been used extensively throughout the south quire transept and possibly the entire east end. The evidence from these bosses will be of great use in the wider project of reconstructing the Cathedral’s painted decoration.

Jacob Scott
Research Guild

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