It was Ernulph who built the second monastery to replace the probably
wooden buildings of the first, to the south of the choir of which
parts remain to us. This done, he turned to the Cathedral and began
entirely to rebuild it, recase it with Caen stone or to remodel what
he left. It is therefore twelfth century Norman work we see at
Rochester. All this work, however, some of it not twenty-five years
old, was damaged in 1179 by fire, and once more the monks began to
rebuild their church. They seem to have begun on the north aisle of
the choir, and then to have set to work on the south aisle. Thence
they proceeded to rebuild the eastern end of the church, erecting a
transept beyond the old choir, finishing their new sanctuary in 1227.
The work did not stop there, however; by 1245 the north-west transept
was finished, and by 1280 the south-west and the two eastern bays of
the nave. It is astonishing to find the monastery able to support such
immense and extravagant operations, but we know that in 1201 the monks
had successfully established a new shrine in their church, the shrine
of St William.
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