e it such stinted proportions, and for this purpose to
displace some of the fine old monuments, and to hide others, to obscure
the pillars, and, above all, to erect the miserable organ gallery which
we now behold, may surely be pronounced most tasteless performances"[24]
When he wrote, the proposal was to replace Walsingham's stalls in the
octagon, and to make Bishop Hotham's three Decorated bays into a
sacrarium, and so presumably re-erect the high altar on the very spot
where it stood in Norman times.

Bishop Mawson contributed L1000 towards the removal of the choir to the
east end. He had also been at the expense of paving the choir with black
and white marble, and of inserting stained glass at the east end. The
work done at this time was under the superintendence of the architect
Essex. An organ-gallery was placed at the entrance of the choir: judging
by the plan given by Bentham, this occupied the whole of the eastern bay
of Hotham's work. Screens of some sort are marked as crossing both
aisles, as a continuation of the western face of this organ-gallery: or
perhaps these were only metal gates. The design of the whole seems to
have been very poor: "the miserable organ gallery" is what Hewett calls
it. The original stone screen that formed the entrance to the choir
before the tower fell, situated in the bay of the nave next to the
octagon, was still standing. It had served as the organ-loft until the
alteration. Browne Willis, who wrote before Bishop Mawson came to Ely,
records that the choir had been paved with black and white marble at the
charge of Bishop Gunning, and that he had proposed to move the choir to
the east end nearly a hundred years before it was actually done, "which
if he had done ... it would have added vastly to the Beauty of the
Church."[25]

Still later in the century, in 1796, Wyatt "the destructive" was
directed to make a report on the state of the fabric, and to supply
estimates for a restoration. Among other things he recommended the
selling of the lead on the roof, the removal of the rood-loft, and the
reducing of the number of bells from five to one.

The nineteenth century began with works of destruction. In 1801[26] the
spire on the tower was taken down. Soon afterwards, in accordance with
Wyatt's recommendation, the ancient rood-loft in the nave was removed.
As it had ceased to be the entrance to the choir, it was probably deemed
useless. The roof of the galilee was also removed, and