1. St Mary, West Walton, Norfolk
The soaring detached bell tower, built around 1250, seems like an overcompensating afterthought to the low-slung, dumpy church thought to be built about 10 years earlier. According to local legend, the devil tried to steal the tower off the church but didn't get far. But it's a fine example of the early English style – not yet reaching for gothic heights, although the pointed arches and lancet windows mark aclear departure from Norman style. The arcaded interior of the church is a happier story. Bathed in soft light and decked with carvings and paintings, it is asoothing space. Look out for the beautifully carved south window – the only original one left.
2. Lincoln Cathedral
You can see the Norman turning into the early English before your eyes on the west front of the cathedral. Its builders incorporated the ruins of the 11th-century church into a new facade after it was damaged in 1192, clashing simple round arches with baffling runs of blind arcading. Nor, in contrast toFrench cathedrals of the time, does this front have much to do with the interior, where the experimental vaulting is taken to decorative extremes. Butthe sinewy system of ribs and slender marble-shafted columns was much imitated in later buildings. Before its spire blew down in 1549, it was reputedly the tallest building in the world.
01522 561600
3. Salisbury Cathedral
In many ways, Salisbury isthe ideal English cathedral – stately and harmonious where somany others are more chaotically assembled. Salisburywas built from scratch from 1220 onwards. Although it looks more like a collection of buildings, with its articulated porch and double transepts, the entire composition is united byadisciplined architectural order – acoherent system ofhorizontals and verticals. The perfectly flat lawns around it only add to the illusion ofcompleteness. It'sapicture of lightness, too. Thelady chapel at the eastern end, forexample, rests on elegantly slender marbleshafts – a marked contrast to the thick pillars andarcheselsewhere.
4. St James's church, Louth, Lincolnshire
This Lincolnshire market town clearly had some status issues in the early 16th century. Thechancel and nave of St James's were built around 1435, while its spectacular, four-stage rocket of a spire was the tallest structure in Britain when it was completed in 1515, standing at 90m. It is still impressively sharp and dynamic, set off by flying buttresses, crockets and turrets – it was surely the inspiration for Thunderbird 3. The interior is also grand, but austere by comparison. In 1536, the vicar also had ideas above his station, leading the Lincolnshire Risingagainst Henry VIII, forwhich hewas executed.
5. King's College chapel, Cambridge
Less complex than the great cathedrals, King's is a simple box, made of repetitive elements. Butit is also one of the most refined and powerful buildings of its age (built over a century from 1446). It is dripping with ornament, yet there's alightness to it. The fan-vaulted ceiling feels nothing like a solid stone roof, while the walls supporting it seem mostly to be made ofstained glass (external buttresses carry the weight of the roof discreetly). Its glory has been celebrated by Wordsworth, Turner, Canaletto and a million Christmas card manufacturers. The best way to appreciate istovisit during evensong.
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6. Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire
One of the earliest examples of ashow of private wealth, this was built in 1440 by Ralph Cromwell, treasurer to Henry VI. As the traceried windows suggest, it was less a defensive structure than a six-storey mansion built on a castle theme – truly an Englishman's home. Still, as atestament to the versatility and novelty ofbrick, it's amarvel. Ifthe French-influenced exterior didn't impress visitors, the huge public rooms would, with their vast stone fireplaces, brick-vaulted corridors and huge tapestries. There is basically just one room per floor, though.
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7. Caernarfon Castle, Wales
Edward I's intended stronghold in Wales. The 20-foot thick concentric rings of walls, multiple towers and gatehouses, heavily protected by portcullises and drawbridges, all testify asto how he expected his style ofgovernance to go down with the locals. Begun in 1283, it was the climax to one of the most ambitious building projects ofmedieval times: an "iron ring" of castles along the Welsh coast, most of which incorporated or dictated the layout of their host towns. Despite Caernarfon's brute strength, there is some artistry in the different-coloured bands of stone and the angled towers. Edward was doubtless inspired by the walled city of Constantinople, which he passed through on his return from the crusades.
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8. Hales Hall Farm Barn, Hales,Norfolk
The largest surviving brick-built medieval barn in the country, whose grandeur suggests it was built for more than just storing straw – as does the fireplace. It was built around 1470 by Sir James Hobert, attorney general to Henry VII, whose impressive estate (the hall also survives) was defended by a triple moat – a reminder how lawless medieval Norfolk must have been. The exterior brickwork is of distinguished blue diapering and Dutch-influenced crow-step gables, but the cavernous, miraculously preserved timber roof structure is the main draw, with 10 bays ofqueenpost trusses supporting it – engineered to last.
Viewing by appointment only, 01508 548 507
9. Wells Cathedral, Somerset
All the hallmarks of the early English style are here, but with a distinct West Country eccentricity. Begun in about 1175, the cathedral stretches along the ground rather than straining for the heavens, and the statue-racked west facade iswider than it is tall. It's a similar story inside, with the emphasis on rows of arches dividing the space horizontally, rather than vertical shafts soaring from the floor. But there are mouldings and carvings wherever you look, and the medieval glass is some ofthe best-preserved in England. Another bizarre touch is the heavy, upside-down strainer arches, inserted when the piers of the crossing were found to be sinking under the weight of the tower. More romantically, the worn steps of the chapter house show the building's true age beautifully.
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Key architect of the age: Henry Yevele (c1320-1400)
Yevele, pronounced "Ee-ve-lee", is one of the first British architects we know by name. We also know much about his career, if not his personality. Yevele gave us some of the most memorable of all English buildings, including Westminster Hall, begun in 1394, the intricate tombs of Edward III and Richard II, both in Westminster Abbey; and soaring above these is the gothic nave – at nearly 31m, the tallest in Britain – supported by flying buttresses, and all done ina decidedly French manner.
Yevele's equally famous nave for Canterbury cathedral, begun in 1380, could hardly be more different, or more English: a bravura display of perpendicular gothic, the last phase of the medieval style as British architecture wandered eccentrically into the classical landscape of the Renaissance. Yevele was born in Derbyshire, coming to London in 1353 where he was taken up by Edward of Woodstock, the "Black Prince". He transformed Edward's Kennington manor into a palace, long since vanished; Geoffrey Chaucer was clerk of works. Amaster of a variety of styles, Yevele comes across as a brilliant pragmatist with a fine eye, and great social connections.
