He left his marks in various parts of the
Abbey, and for the most part his work was bad: he did almost as much to
injure the Abbey as the nineteenth-century restorers who swept away much
of his work have done. He rebuilt all the upper part of the west front,
and inserted Perpendicular windows at each end of the transept; he
turned the high-pitched roofs of nave and transepts into flat ones, and
lowered the slope of the roofs of the aisles. His object in doing this
was to be able to use the old beams again whose ends were decayed, and
which were shortened by cutting off the unsound parts. The result of
this was that the Norman triforium arches on the north side were thrown
open to the sky; these he filled with Perpendicular tracery, converting
them into windows. The tracery still remains, although the new roof has
the same slope as the original one, and the triforium is now again
inclosed beneath it. He also pulled down the wooden octagon on the
central tower. His chantry on the south side of the high altar was
probably erected soon after his death.
Abbot William of Wallingford (1476-1484) built the high altar screen,
carrying out a plan which John of Wheathampstead had not been able to
accomplish.
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