The Church - Exterior
12th-13th Century

This is one of three pages for the Hospital of St Cross.
The others are Church Interior and Almshouse Buildings.

Click on photos to enlarge.
Notes in italics from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight by Nikolaus Pevsner and David Lloyd (1967)
Yale University Press, New Haven and London.

St Cross Hospital was founded in 1136 by Bishop Henry of Blois, but of that time nothing is left except the S sacristy ... The present church was built quite independent of it. ... That it was begun in the C12 and completed in C13 is evident at once ... It is a matter of transition indeed ... in which fully Gothic (Early English) and fully Romanesque (Norman) elements stand side by side or overlap. 

A large, remarkably high, cruciform building .. The church was begun at the E end, and the chancel for that reason looks wholly Norman. Round-arched windows, circular windows in the gable, square angle turrets, and blank arcading. Only the very top has shaft rings.
The chancel aisles also have all round-arched windows, except for the curious row of pointed ones which originally went into the aisle roofs and were not meant to be seen. It will be shown presently how they came about (see interior).
The crossing tower has Perp windows, set inside in long recesses with continuous double-chamfers, and above is an outer row of blank arcading, also with continuous double-chamfering. This must be late C13, though it is recorded that the tower was rebuilt in 1384.
Doorway ... in the angle of (chancel) S aisle and S transept an odd arrangement of two zigzag half-arches meeting at a r. angle. These two entries must have led into the NW angle of the cloister.

North transept (first two pictures) and south transept (last two pictures).
The N transept still has rich zigzag on the ground-floor windows to the E (and N), but pointed windows on the upper level. In the S transept there is no zigzag, but there are no pointed windows yet either.  The south sacristy attached to the south transept is all that remains of Henry de Blois' church of 1136. The room has a small window to the W ... S of the sacristy is a largely later room continuing it.

The nave clerestory is of 1334-5, and so must be the W window. But the rest is the continuation of the story watched so far. The aisles still start Norman, but then turn completely E.E. (Early English), ... Even the buttresses change from the flat Norman to the deeper Gothic type with set-offs.
The five-light W window is Dec. In its head it has a large circle with three inscribed spherical triangles.  The W doorway has a 'trumeau' (central stone mullion) and trefoiled arches. The dogtooth of the arch is of a charming openwork variety.

The N porch is mature E.E. ... The upper N window has trefoil-headed lights and plate tracery.  Beautiful inner doorway with two orders of columns and many arch mouldings.