The established view that the late medieval reconstruction of the Romanesque abbey church at Bath should be seen as a comprehensive design exclusively attributed to Bishop King (1496-1503) is reassessed through a review of the documentary and architectural evidence. King arrived at Bath to find that work had already started, probably in the early 1480s under Prior Cantlow; the design followed late 14th-century traditions, drawing upon the rebuilding of St Mary Redcliffe Bristol and Somerset parish churches. King’s larger architectural ambitions and his wish for a permanent personal association were reflected in the unusual iconography of the west front and his employment of Robert and William Vertue to create vaulting of a contemporary quality and design. King achieved the west front and east end of the new building before his death. The subsequent lack of resources meant that the partly demolished old and the incomplete new co- existed throughout the 16th-century, not reconsecrated until the 1590s. The building was unfinished until well into the 17th-century, when Harrington’s myth of King’s original unifying dream helped promote completion; it also served to obscure the history of the building before King’s arrival whilst setting his aspiration as founder into the annals of history.
Linda Monckton (Tue,) studied this question.