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ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE 441
architecture ofNormandy at the time ofthe Conquest was not
an isolated phenomenon, and of recent it
years has been in/
creasingly realized that it had a greater variety and drew from
a wider range of sources in central and north-eastern France
than the accidents of survival among major buildings might at
first lead one to suppose. Moreover, the Norman conquerors
were not all Normans and the Conquest quickened rela/
tions between England and all northern France and the Low
Countries. The latter seem to have been the most important
source ofcontinental ideas affecting the architecture ofthe later
Anglo/Saxon period and remained influential after the Con/
quest. The attention ofstudents, and not only English students,
has been concentrated on Normandy itselfand later on the area
round Paris, while the great importance ofnorth/eastern France
and the Low Countries in the history of English architecture
ofthe twelfth and early thirteenth centuries has been neglected.
This is natural enough, as far more important early buildings
have survived in Normandy and the Paris district, but this
accident has caused a great gap in our knowledge.
The most important surviving examples of architecture of
the late eleventh century in England are the crypt and transepts
of Winchester, the crypt and choir aisles of Gloucester, the
crypt at Worcester (PL 77 a), the centre part
ofthe west front at
Lincoln, and the tower, transepts, and part of the nave at St.
Albans. The last ten years ofthe century show the beginnings
ofthe great churches at Ely and Norwich, and, most important
of all in quality and achievement, at Durham and Tewkes/
bury. In addition, we have evidence from excavation and
the study of surviving fragments above ground to fill out the
picture very considerably.
The first characteristic of most of these buildings is their
grandiose scale. This was made possible by the share of the
spoils of the Conquest that eventually came to the Church,
and was occasioned by the appetite
for material splendour
in worship which characterized the reforming period in the
Church associated with the name of Cluny.
The influence of Cluny was already strong in Normandy,