Both of #The Aisles# have on the sides large pinnacled buttresses of graceful design; and from all of these on the north, and from some on the south, there rise flying buttresses to support the roof of the presbytery and choir. Two of the bays on the south side have the Early English triforium range unaltered. This gives the original height of Bishop Hugh's triforium walls. Below the parapet here is a characteristic corbel table. These bays form the western portion of Bishop Hugh's work in the presbytery.
[Illustration: THE LANTERN AND SOUTH TRANSEPT. _Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._]
The retention of this little portion of the Early English #Triforium# is very interesting and instructive; for we should otherwise not have known precisely how this part of the work had been carried out. Professor Willis traced out with great care the alterations to which the presbytery had been subjected, and his conclusions are given in Canon Stewart's book. Early triforium windows were only for lighting the triforium passage; they were small, and could not be seen from the floor of the church. It will be noticed that the windows remaining in the portion spoken of are quite small and quite close to the floor. The changes that were made in the three great Norman minsters, Norwich, Peterborough, and Ely, were "made evidently for the purpose of introducing more light into the church." The walls were raised, the windows much enlarged, and the slope of the roof consequently much flattened. No doubt, as regards dimensions, Bishop Hugh's triforium was a continuation of the Norman triforium of the choir. The first appearance of a high triforium outer wall is in Bishop Hotham's work (1316-1337). "In the following centuries this new form was extended by alterations, first to Hugh de Northwold's presbytery and next to the nave. But before the Early English gallery had been thus completely transformed, it happened that some architect, apparently employed by Bishop Barnet [1366-1374], introduced in two of the southern compartments a method of getting rid of the gloom of the low-windowed, Early English triforium, which, although perfectly successful within the church, would, if it had been carried throughout, have been productive of a most injurious effect upon the appearance of the fabric within and without, as may be seen at present in the compartments in question."[14] This method was to remove entirely the triforium roof, and to convert the open arcade of the triforium towards the church into windows by filling the tracery with glass. The designer thus introduced a flood of light upon the choir altar, the shrines in the neighbourhood, and Bishop Barnet's tomb under the pier arch, which is beneath one of these windows. Fortunately the experiment was not repeated. After some time had elapsed, the changes above indicated were carried out; the low Early English triforium outer wall was removed, and the loftier Decorated wall and windows erected. In the extract above given it looks as if the removal of the triforium roof, putting a lead roof to the aisle below, and turning the triforium arches into windows, were confined to these two bays on the south. But the same thing was also done in the two corresponding bays on the north. But there, when the later raising of the triforium walls took place, this raised wall was continued over the two bays in question; and we do not now see there any remains of Early English work.