Today’s photo, taken from an old postcard purchased long ago, shows Ely cathedral’s west entrance and west porch with the single west tower behind and beyond, over the crossing, the octagonal lantern tower, this completed in 1322 and was then the most progressive architecture of its day.
Monastic cathedrals (those served by Benedictine monks) had a cloistral range of buildings, usually immediately south of the church, at Glousester immediately north. Secular canon’s residences were usually less tied to a rigid plan. A bishop’s palace was usually incorporated into the cloistral complex but most bishops had secondary palaces, e.g. Lambeth Palace for the Archbishop of Canterbury and those at Howden and (crossing-point on River Ouse south of York, I cannot find a map) for the bishops of Durham.
The litergy (ceremonials and forms of worship throughout the day and throughout the year) mostly required the crossing (the area between the transepts and between the nave and chancel, the area of the chancel next to the crossing often refered to as the ‘choir’, this where the choir stalls often were) which often left the centre and west end of the nave available to function as a parish church.
The Norman overlords of the 12th and 13th centuries often favoured towers constructed at the centre, or crossing, of the monastic churches, these sometimes a weak area in the construction (see above). Norman west towers (a pioneering design feature) can be seen at Durham and Canterbury cathedrals. Norman undercrofts (purpose-built cellars with possible uses such as crypt or chapel) survive at Durham, Worcester and Canterbury cathedrals.
The increasingly ornate stonework of the late Norman period in architecture is often refered to as the ‘Romanesque’ era. St. Hugh’s choir, the eastern extension of the chancel at Lincoln Cathedral constructed between 1192 and 1210, is a fine example.