The _great transept_ has undergone much alteration. The walls, as high as the level of the clerestory, are Norman; and, as appeared when they were stripped of their plaster, are built of “uncoursed rubble work, roughly laid with wide joints of mortar[70].” They may belong to the first Norman church; but after the fall of the great tower in 1175 many repairs and changes were made, to which the Norman work now apparent evidently belongs. Further alterations were made in the thirteenth, and again (perhaps by Bishop WAKEFIELD, died 1395) in the latter part of the fourteenth century. The transept, like the rest of the church, is narrow (32 feet) in proportion to its height (66 feet), and projects only 28 feet beyond the aisle wall. Like the transept at Gloucester, it is without aisles. The circular staircase-turrets which project into the transept at the north-west and south-west angles are peculiar, and are far more decided features than those at Gloucester (see the Handbook for that Cathedral) in the same situations. These are Norman as high as the clerestory, where the change to Perpendicular is marked by a difference of masonry. The masonry of the Norman portion is unusually good, and should be noticed. The scraping of the walls of these towers “disclosed the fact that they are built of stones of two colours, the one a white or rather cream-coloured stone, the other a green stone. These are laid in bands at the lower part, not regularly; but above the doorway the courses are for a short distance alternately white and green in horizontal stripes, after the manner of the cathedrals of Pisa, Siena, and other Italian examples of the eleventh and twelfth centuries[71].” The transition Norman work at the west end of the nave, and the chapter-house, also display this particoloured masonry.
In the _south transept_, the south end has three divisions. The lowest is plain, and shews the Norman wall. In the second are two transition Norman window-arches, now closed. The capitals of the side shafts are of Early English character, and the arches have a broad hollow zigzag moulding. In the uppermost division is a fine three-light lancet window, deeply splayed, and with a passage through the jambs. This has been filled with stained glass, which can hardly be called good, by ROGERS, from designs by PREEDY, as a memorial of QUEEN ADELAIDE. The subject is a tree of Jesse. On the east side of the transept the arch into the choir-aisle is Decorated; and in the adjoining bay a very fine Norman arch, long closed, opens to an eastern chapel. This archway was re-opened in 1862, and through it a very picturesque view is obtained of the chapel beyond. The bays on this side of the transept are divided by a group of transition Norman vaulting-shafts, which terminate at the level of the clerestory, and support later groining.