West side of minstrel's gallery
The Nave and Nave Aisles
The best views of the nave are from the west end looking east and from the pulpitum looking west.
The themes of the individual bosses are easier to make out at the west end, because of the vibrant colours used. The paint used to restore these (in the early 1970s) bears little resemblance to the vegetable-derived pigments used on the 14th century bosses.
The ground plan of the nave is essentially as it was in the Romanesque cathedral; in fact the walls up to window-sill level (including the ledges were part of the Norman church. The doorway to the west of the south transept, known as the Brewer Door, on the south side, is late Norman in style.
On the broad nave ledges rest the Exeter Rondels, embroidered cushions which trace a history of the cathedral and the city. Designed by Marjorie Dyer, they were embroidered by the cathedral tapisers between 1983 and 1989.
The Minstrels' Gallery, below triforium level on the north side of the nave, was not in the original plan of the cathedral, but was added in around 1360. Of its 14 angels, 12 are playing medieval musical instruments each with their modern equivalent. Polyphonic music was being introduced at around this time and the gallery was used either for choral effects or for the playing of instruments. The Gallery is still used for special occasions.
Behind the blank arch below the gallery is the Dog-whipper's Room.
Up to the Reformation there would have been no seating in the nave - it was a gathering area where people socialised as well as worshipped (the infirm resting on the ledges around the walls - the origin of the expression ‘going to the wall'). In advance of any grand processions of clergy coming from the eastern end of the cathedral, the dog-whipper (one of the virgers) would come down to chase out any animals that had wandered into the church.
Among the numerous memorials on the walls of the aisles are many to cathedral musicians, including: Mathew Godwin, who died in 1586 aged 17 after graduating from Oxford and being organist at both Exeter and Canterbury Cathedrals: organists Samuel Sebastian Wesley (d1876), Ernest Bullock (d1979) and Thomas Armstrong (d1994). Other memorials include one to Sir Redvers Buller (d1908), a memento of Captain Scott (d1912), a tablet to Frederick Temple, Bishop of Exeter and London and later Archbishop of Canterbury (d1902). The Great West Window, put in place in his memory in 1904, imploded during the air-raid on Exeter in May 1942, and was replaced by a window of similar design in 1951/2. This was dedicated to the memory of both Frederick and his son, William (Archbishop of Canterbury 1942-44).
A brass plate, set in the floor of the north-east nave, commemorates John Macdonald (d1831), son of the Flora Macdonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape to Skye.
The font, of Sicilian marble, dates from the end of the 17th century.
Between the western wall of the nave and the image screen on the outside, is the small chapel of St Radegund. This once contained the tomb of Bishop Grandisson (d1369), bishop during the construction of most of the nave.
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