York Guides

The church is so ruined that its magnificent scale and proportions do not at once appeal to the eye, but the worked stones recovered during its excavation, and particularly the carved capitals of the great piers, are of the highest excellence. Indeed, it would be hard to find anything better of their kind. Though of infinite variety in detail, all have the air of a common origin, and a distinctive loop at the base of the foliage is so persistent that it might fairly be called a Byland detail.

The church is 330 ft long and 140 ft wide across the transepts, and the cloister, on the south side of the church, is 145 ft square.

Compared with this, the cloister of Fountains Abbey is 125 ft square and that of Rievaulx 140 ft.  

The arrangements of the church were as follows. In the eastern arm were five chapels against the cast wall, divided from each other by stone walls sonic 7 ft high. The high altar, its site now marked by modern stonework, was in. the second bay on a platform surrounded by an arcaded stone screen, which extended to the western piers of the crossing, and enclosed the presbytery. A short section of this screen on the north side has been re-erected from fragments found on the spot. Under the crossing the screen was pierced by a doorway on each side, and immediately east of these openings two steps led up to the presbytery. In the upper step is the socket for the wooden lectern. From this the monks' quire extended westwards three bays down the nave, being enclosed by rough stone, walls built between the piers of the north and south arcades. At the west of the quire was a stone screen, the pulpitum, which has completely disappeared. The next two bays west of the screen, known as the retro-quire, had another screen, doubtless of wood, on the west, and against the west face of this screen was an altar, used in connection with the quire of the lay brothers. This occupied the next four or five bays of the nave, being enclosed originally by stone walls like the monks' quire. West of the retro-quire the aisles of the nave, not being required for use as passages, were divided into chapels by cross walls. Each transept had two eastern chapels and a western aisle, the western aisle of the south transept being occupied by a wide stone staircase leading to the monks' dormitory, for use at night.

The lay brothers entered the church for the night service by a door in the south wall of the south aisle.

Practically the whole church was paved with green and yellow glazed tiles in geometrical patterns. The two chapels in the south transept where the floors are nearly perfect, give some idea of what the effect must have been, except that the glaze is much worn away, exposing the red body.

The whole interior of the church was whitewashed and the walls lined out with a masonry pattern in red on the white ground. The carved capitals were also picked out in red, as may be seen from fragments in the site museum. There were, however, figure subjects of later date than the original decoration, and on the north wall of the north aisle of the nave there was once a large painting of our ford's Pity, showing the dead Christ on His mother's knees, probably of late fourteenth century date, but now no longer visible.

It will be noted that the constructional arches throughout the church were pointed, while the windows, except in the west front, "were round-headed. The aisles and chapels were covered with stone ribbed vaults, hul the main spans had wooden roofs only. The external elevations must have been plain and severe, ornamental detail being practically confined to the west front of the nave, where the three lancets are sel in a wall-arcade, and over them is a great wheel window 26 ft across. Parts of its tracery, with roll-cusps and dog-tooth orna¬ment, have been found. Its design included a circle of 16 ft diameter with a ring of radiating shafts outside it.