For this reason, then, the
monks of Rochester were happily never able to rebuild their nave,
which remains a Norman work of the twelfth century.
In the fourteenth century the central tower was at last completed, but
it ceased to exist in 1749. Indeed, the resources of Rochester seem to
have been small after the third quarter of the thirteenth century.
They had no Lady Chapel and when one was provided it was contrived
out of the south-west transept. Later the north aisle of the choir,
always dark on account of Gundulph's tower, was heightened and vaulted
and lighted with windows. Later still, similar Perpendicular windows
were placed in the old nave, the Norman clerestory was destroyed and a
new one built, together with a new wooden roof and the great western
window was inserted. In 1830 Cottingham, and in 1871 Scott, worked
their wills upon the place under the plea of restoration. Little has
escaped their attention, neither the beautiful Decorated tomb of
Bishop Walter de Merton (1278) nor that of Bishop John de Sheppey
(1360). The best thing left to us in the Cathedral and that which
gives it its character is the great western doorway with its sombre
Norman carving of the earlier part of the twelfth century.
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