The modern roof of the Chapter-house building, which has for years been in a very unsafe condition, is now being removed, and will be replaced by a new roof covered with lead. The walls, &c., of the upper part of the building will be restored as far down as the floor of the Chapter-house. This will include the completion of the triangular window in the gable, and the windows in the north side of the uppermost storey or “Treasury.” The window in the north wall of the Chapter-house has enough of its tracery remaining to enable the design to be completed with certainty, and will be restored. The pinnacles flanking the eastern gable, which are of very curious design, will be completed.
The cost of these works on the Chapter-house building is being defrayed by one of the Canons Residentiary, to whose liberality the new roof and groined ceiling of the north transept, and the renewal of the roofs of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel, and of the adjacent ante-chapel are also due.
Now that the substantial repair of the nave with its aisles is so nearly completed, the nave should without further delay be paved and provided with fittings for the parochial services.
The pavement of the north transept should follow, with the restoration of St. Thomas’s Chapel, stone tracery being substituted for its present wooden window-frames, and an open screen for the existing partition between it and the transept.
The south transept should be dealt with in a similar manner to the northern one. The unseemly condition of its roof is rendered more apparent by contrast with the restored roofs and ceilings of other parts of the church.
There would still remain the porch, with sundry external repairs to the north and south aisles. There is also the eastern group of unroofed chapels, for which some provision should be made, to prevent further dilapidation to their walls and injury to the delicately wrought tombs still remaining within them.
It is unnecessary at present to give estimates for the works enumerated above, or for the amelioration of the western front.
The extent to which these very desirable objects will be effected, must depend on the liberality with which the present appeal is responded to.
The outlay and liabilities up to the present time are--for the Drainage, £500; the Tower, with the Presbytery and its Aisles, £15,700; the South Transept Chapel and Stair Turret, £600; the Nave and its Aisles, £6,500.