Those used in St. Albans are of two sizes, 17 x 8 x 2 and 11 x 51/2 x 2.
The joints are wide, the mortar between the courses being almost as
thick as the bricks. The window jambs and the piers were built or faced
with brick; even the staircases were of brick. What stone was used is
clunch, from Tottenhoe in Bedfordshire, which, according to Lord
Grimthorpe, is admirably suited for interior work, but absolutely
worthless for exterior, as it decays very soon, and if it gets damp is
shivered into powder by frost.
[Illustration: THE SOUTH-WESTERN PORTAL, BEFORE THE REBUILDING OF THE WEST
FRONT. From a drawing by W.S. Weatherley, in Sir G. Scott's "Lectures on
Mediaeval Architecture." (By permission of Mr. John Murray.)]
The Norman church, finished as we have seen in 1088, stood without
change for rather more than a century. Then changes began. Abbot John de
Cella (1195-1214) pulled down the west front and began to build a new
one in its place. He laid the foundation of the whole front, but then
went on with the north side first. The north porch was nearly finished
in his time; the central porch was carried up as far as the spring of
the arch; the southern porch was carried hardly any way up from the
foundations.
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