The
three eastern windows of Abbot William of Trumpington's time were
rebuilt in the old style; the five bays to the west of these were
refaced with brick and flint, as the original clunch stone had perished,
owing to exposure to the weather. The arcading of the north walk of the
cloister may still be seen. It will be noticed that this arcading did
not follow the division into bays of the aisle walls above. The cloister
walk acted as a kind of continuous buttress to the south aisle wall, and
owing to its removal this part of the wall was gradually pushed outward.
To strengthen it Lord Grimthorpe built buttresses, naturally following
the division of the upper part of the walls, but thereby cutting across
the arcading of the cloister walk in a most ugly fashion. By building
flying buttresses instead, he might have preserved the whole of the
arcading of the cloister walk unbroken, but he considered that this plan
would have been ugly, and that the buttresses he did build were
constructively better; possibly they may be, but most of us will be of
the opinion that, as far as appearance goes, the plan adopted was the
less satisfactory. The porch over the Abbot's door in the corner is
entirely new.
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