To summarise Platt’s examination of the evidence of change from the decorated to the Perpendicular style within churches around the mid 14th century; he suggests that they no longer needed to focus on expanding the body of the church in order to accommodate a growing congregation, but rather to build in order to accommodate great monuments, house chantries and effigies (often incorporating a skeletal representation known as a transi from the Latin transpire - meaning to pass away) (Colin Platt 1996, 137-75). This, according to Aberth, was done in order to provide a means for the living to pray for the souls of the departed (Aberth 2001, 182-3). English tombs before the Black Death often had angels alongside an idealised effigy of the diseased, perhaps depicting how the person would look after resurrection; known as gisants. After the Black Death single (common amongst the merchant class and gentry) or two-tiered (a luxury afforded only by the rich) transi tombs became the norm. Aberth sees these tomb types as a preparation for the apocalypse rather than an appeal for prayer (Aberth 2001, 229-31). These new “memorials” were funded by wealthy patrons to ensure their prosperity in the afterlife. This can be interpreted as people accepting their mortality with a switch from preparing for death to protecting the soul after death (Colin Platt 1996, Ch 9). Lindley adds to this argument by saying that the switch from the decorated to perpendicular style is a reflection of simplicity in design, enforced by the scarcity of skilled tradesmen, post 1350 (Lindley 1996, 129). Lindley also observes this transition of styles as a universal change, replacing the regional differences, in previous styles. It can be argued that the workforce had to have greater mobility, in order to carry out and finish the work, halted by the pestilence (Lindley 1996, 129). Aberth describes many of the great Romanesque cathedrals, in France, as bearing depictions of the apocalypse and images of the Last Judgement, with inscriptions from the book of Revelation (Aberth 2001, 183). In England, the Last Judgement of Christ was often painted above the chancel arch of many parish churches during the 14th century, with images of the dead rising to have their souls weighed, then being admitted into paradise or rejected into Hell (Aberth 2001, 184). These images rarely survive today as they were painted over by the Victorians. A few examples exist in Hampshire, listed below, with those pre Black Death depicting various religious scenes as opposed to those following the plague, focussing on death and the weighing of souls. There also appears to be a change in attitudes throughout society to an increased privacy and simplicity that is played out in the architecture. For instance, the demarcation of living and social space, within the home, is reflected by the building of ceiled rooms and the move away from the open hall house which Dyer suggests “reached its ultimate development in about 1500” (Dyer 1998, 298). This can be seen as a desire, in part, to separate themselves from the dirt of the streets, servants and animals. Benedictow argues that both the rural and urban peasant classes were affected more than the upper classes, due to the type of housing available to them. The majority of houses built, especially in central southern and south-eastern England, were of timber-framed construction with wattle and daub infill panels and thatched roofs (Open hall house ). He suggests that these panels offered very little resistance to the rats. This, coupled with unsanitary conditions - amplified by cohabitation with livestock and sleeping directly on an earthen floor with nothing more than hay as bedding - would have provided the rats with a suitable habitat to breed and spread disease (Benedictow 2004, 348). Ottaway writes of Edward III’s visit to York in 1332, that the King “ordered the streets to be cleaned, on account of ‘the abominable smell abounding in the said city more than in any other city in the realm from dung and manure and other filth and dirt wherewith the streets and lanes are filled and obstructed’” (P. Ottaway 1992, 209). Benedictow also suggests that Edward wrote to the mayor of London in 1349 to complain about the filth within the capital. He followed this, in 1361, with a writ to the major and sheriffs of London in the face of the second outbreak of the plague (Benedictow 2004, 3-4).

Dyer goes on to suggest that the resulting roof spaces, formed by ceiling the hall, provided accommodation for servants and, perhaps more interestingly for this thesis - apprentices away from the main family thus improving sanitation and separating humans from one another (Dyer 1998, 298). Attitudes toward death practices also changed. Prior to the 1350s deathbeds were public occasions where family and friends took their turn to watch over the dying and note any change in symptoms. This culminated in a priest administering the last rites and the journey being marked by the ringing of a hand bell (Horrox 1999, 97). Subsequent to the plague, fear of infection lead to loved ones abandoning the sick and leaving them to die alone. The Bishop of Bath and Wells decreed that, in times of emergency, if no priest was available the last rites and confession could be heard by “a layman, and, if a man is not at hand, then to a woman” (Hassall 1962, 297). Horrox then suggests faith, and not tradition, was the important element in avoiding purgatory (Horrox 1994, 271-2). The implications of this are profound within a society that has its class and gender divisions defined so eloquently in its architecture (Matthew H. Johnson 1990, 254). If evidence is sought for a “building in fear?” hypothesis, then the breaking down of class, gender and spatial divisions during the Black Death must be visible in the architecture, even if it only exists in the “nightmares of the living” (Ibid.). If this unnerving of the social framework is visible within the timber-framed structures of the second half of the 14th century, then this thesis aims to uncover them. The following Section will provide such evidence within the arts of the period. These changes in attitudes can also be observed in the art of the period (Lindley 1996, 126). Philip Lindley suggests that there is a profound change, in both style and taste, in Florentine and Sienese painting, following the Black Death, characterised by a distinct paradoxical definition of space in both architectural and artistic organisation and lay out. He further posits, the equilibrium of the earlier paintings was substituted with an uneasy tension between the planar and spatial aspects of composition (Lindley 1996, 126). Lindley examines the implications on several art forms, including manuscript painting which, immediately before the Black Death, had reached its “highest point of its perfection” (Lindley 1996, 126). Aberth adds that, during the 13th century, a school of manuscript illuminators emerged producing “beautifully illuminated editions of the Apocalypse of St. John” (Aberth 2001, 185-6). He suggests this was in response to an Abbot, named Joachim, who predicted that the apocalyptic age began in 1260. He suggests it was brought to England by Richard the Lionheart (1189-99), during the third crusade (1189–1192) (Aberth 2001, 185-6). This is important as it illustrates the thoughts of people, at the time when famine, war and plague visited them and, consequently their acceptance of death. Another interesting change in style can be seen in monumental brasses that changed from being beautifully adorned, with complex calligraphy, to a more rigid and regularised style (Lindley 1996, 129). To summarise Lindley’s narrative on “The English perspective”, regarding this change in artistic styles, he suggests that prior to the Black Death many schools had developed regional styles in art, masonry, sculpting and stained glass work -etc. These were hastily replaced with a more simplistic, spatial and universal approach easily learnt and reproduced. Clearly, this is a direct result of the loss of skilled artisans and tradesmen during the mid fourteenth century (Lindley 1996, 128-31).