to the
sixth bay. Of the original work erected by Bishop Lyhart, 1446-72, the
sub-structure of the present screen is the only portion remaining.
Traces of two altars, one on either side of the doorway, can still be
seen; these were originally dedicated to St. William of Norwich and St.
Mary. These altars were enclosed in chapels formed by screens coming
forward to the extent of half the bay, and stopped against the main nave
piers on either side--the double vaulting shafts on the face of which
are stopped by corbels, carved as heads, at about the height that the
chapels would have reached. They were vaulted over, and above came the
rood loft and organ. The rood loft was damaged by the Puritans, and
probably removed after the Restoration. Dean Crofts, in 1660, set up a
new organ.

In Britton's "Norwich," 1816, the upper stage of the choir screen is
shown divided into square panels, occurring vertically over the lower
stage; the screens to the chapels before referred to having been
destroyed. In 1833 Salvin remodelled the choir, and turned his attention
to the choir screen: the organ was placed in its present position, and
cased with the frame of that instrument which Dean Crofts had set up in
1660; and the overhanging vault to the screen was added.

#The Nave Vault# (height 72 feet), which was added by Bishop Lyhart,
1446-72, took the place of the original Norman wooden roof destroyed by
fire in 1463. This earlier Norman roof was most probably like that now
existing at Peterborough, and was no doubt profusely decorated with
colour. The vault is of Perpendicular design, and known as _lierne_;
such vaults may be distinguished by the fact that between the main ribs,
springing from the vaulting shafts, are placed cross ribs forming a
pattern, as it were, and bracing the main ribs, but not in any great
measure structural. This vault at Norwich may be taken as typical of the
last legitimate development of the stone roof; it was the precursor of
the later fan vaulting, such as we find in Henry VII.'s chapel at
Westminster, where legitimate construction was replaced by ostentatious
ingenuity and the accumulation of needless ornament and detail.

The carved bosses here at Norwich, occurring at the intersection of the
ribs, are worth careful study. Those who care to go into the matter in
the fullest detail should consult Dean Goulburn's book published in
1876, which not only gives an admirable history of the fabric and the
See