The Cathedrals of Britain
The history of Britain and the aspirations of her Christian communities can be traced in the
glorious excesses of the cathedrals. From Norman grandeur to the modern interpretations found in
Liverpool and Coventry, explore the changing styles of the cathedrals in our midst.
Centuries of style
The cathedrals of Britain span the millennium - from the cathedrals dating from the 1100s to the
modern cathedrals found in Liverpool and Coventry. They display a wide array of architectural
styles from Early English Gothic, to the majesty of the Renaissance at St Paul's and the sixties
modernism of Liverpool's Roman Catholic Cathedral. In the Middle Ages and up to the
Reformation in the 1500s, the Church enjoyed enormous power and wealth, and cathedrals are
eloquent symbols of its dominant place in British society.
'Cathedrals in the Middle Ages weren't the quiet, reverential places of worship we know today.'
Cathedrals in the Middle Ages weren't the quiet, reverential places of worship we know today. In
Lincoln, for example, the central nave or aisle was where pilgrims chatted and shared news; there
would have been an elaborately carved stone screen to separate the ordinary people in the nave
from the priests and monks worshipping and singing in the choir.
Cathedrals were elaborate and brightly coloured before much of the interior decoration and
original medieval art was destroyed during the Reformation and the Civil War. During the Civil
War, cathedrals were used as garrisons, prisons and even stables. Now only traces remain of the
vibrant colours that were often whitewashed out of existence.
Cathedral floorplan
Many of the cathedrals in Britain are orientated east to west. The nave is situated in the west end
of the cathedral where people would come to pray. For that reason, it is the long hall of the
cathedral. (The nave is 5 on the diagram below.)
The choir (11) is at the east end of the cathedral. It is here that the high altar (13) is generally
found. The clergy traditionally prayed here and an elaborately carved screen was often built to
separate them from the general public in the nave. This part of the cathedral is often called the
'quire' - the 19th century spelling of 'choir'. St Paul's in London still uses this spelling.
The north and south transepts (7, 9) separate the choir from the nave. This means that the layout of
cathedrals usually forms the shape of a cross. Side altars are found in the transepts as well as the
tombs of important people. The central tower or dome (8) of the cathedral is found at the centre of
this 'cross'. These high towers are supported by piers or pillars. At Salisbury Cathedral, it is
possible to see that the piers have been slightly bent out of shape by the weight of the tower.
The tombs of past bishops and famous saints are often found in side chapels (2, 3). In the later
Middle Ages, the wealthy would pay for private chapels to be built where their families could say
mass in private.
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral is one of twenty cathedrals that were built after the Battle of Hastings in 1066
when William the Conqueror seized control of England and Wales. It is built in the Early English
Gothic style and has a simple layout in the shape of a cross.
This cathedral is built of 70 thousand tons of stone with over three thousand tons of timber for the
roof which was covered with 450 tons of lead. Much of the stone came from nearby quarries. At
this time, cathedral construction was at the cutting edge of building technology, and errors of
judgement led to the collapse of the central towers at both Winchester and Lincoln. With
foundations only four feet deep, Salisbury was lucky to escape this when the imposing spire was
added. However, the columns of the central crossing are now bowed by around ten inches.
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's was the first British cathedral to be built for the Anglican faith at the end of the 1600s. It
is therefore ironic that its famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren, borrowed heavily from the
Catholic Renaissance by adopting such features as the dome and Corinthian columns.
The original St Paul's Cathedral was built on the same site in 604 by Bishop Mellitus. The Vikings
burnt it down in 962 and it was rebuilt in the Gothic style. This was begun in 1087 and completed
two centuries later in 1310. This cathedral was then destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Wren's masterpiece was started in 1675 and took 35 years to complete. Unlike many of the
medieval masons, whose cathedrals took centuries to complete, Wren was able to see it finished. It
cost ￡700,000 - about ￡53 million today. On the inner dome, there are frescoes of scenes from
the life of St Paul. These were painted by Sir James Thornhill and can be seen from the
Whispering Gallery. Wren died at 91 and his tomb is marked by a black marble slab in the St
Paul's crypt.
St Michael's of Coventry
The Gothic cathedral, St Michael's of Coventry, was destroyed on the night of 14th November
1940 when some 500 tons of high explosives and 40,000 fire bombs were dropped on the city. All
that remained of the old cathedral was the spire and the building's shell.
The new cathedral was built next to the old in the 1950s and the early 1960s. The architect Basil
Spencer had won the competition with his radical departure from the Gothic original. He recalled
that when the plans for the new steel and concrete cathedral were revealed in the press, he
received hundreds of letters the next morning. "80 percent were rude and the remaining 20 percent
were very rude." In a 1974 interview, he recalls that the project took up ten years of his life, and
when it was finished, it left a terrible vacuum. Whilst medieval cathedrals took centuries, the new
Coventry Cathedral took just six years to build. The one-and-a-half ton metal spire was flown in
by helicopter and, according to contemporary news footage, took just eight minutes to install.
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral stands on a site that has been a place of Christian worship for over a
thousand years. In the 1000s, the old Minster was destroyed to make way for the new cathedral.
This is one of the largest medieval churches in the world thanks to a nave of over 160 metres long
and provides a fitting home for the Bishops of Winchester, some of whom weren't just the
wealthiest men in England but in Europe as well. The Bishops' power and affluence is indicated by
the many grand memorial chapels in the cathedral which house their tombs. Among these
luminaries are Stephen Gardiner who officiated at the wedding between Mary Tudor and Phillip of
Spain in 1554 and Henry Beaufort, half brother to Henry IV and banker to Henry V.
For centuries, Winchester was a place of pilgrimage. It was the last resting place of Saint Swithun
who lived in the 9th century. After his death, his bones were said to heal the sick and pilgrims
flocked to the cathedral in their thousands. Stalls were set up to sell relics and clay models of the
parts of the body that required healing. These were then placed in the shrine in the hope of a
miracle cure.
'Winchester Cathedral's power and influence came to an end with the Reformation in the 1500s...'
Winchester Cathedral boasts some of the finest medieval wood carving in Britain, if not Europe.
In the 13th century England's greatest carpenter, William Lyngewode, spent four years decorating
the cathedral's stalls. Another outstanding example of its medieval art is the Great Screen. It was
erected in the 1400s but the original statues with their vivid colours didn't survive England's
religious upheavals. Now, only the whitewashed backdrop of the original screen remains while the
current statues are Victorian.
Events have taken their toll on the cathedral. The West Window was smashed by the Roundheads
during the English Civil War in the 1600s. The locals pieced it together but in a rather haphazard
way, and it has the appearance of a rather abstract art work. The cathedral is also home to the
beautifully decorated Winchester Bible, the best example of a 12th century bible in the country.
Winchester Cathedral's power and influence came to an end with the Reformation in the 1500s and
the Dissolution of the Monasteries during Henry VIII's reign. The scale of the Church's power can
be imagined when it is considered that it controlled one third of the country's wealth before Henry
VIII stripped it of much of its lands and privileges.
Wells Cathedral
Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral was built entirely in the Gothic style in the late 1100s and serves
the smallest city in England. One of the major glories of this cathedral is the West Front. It was
begun in 1215 and, on its completion, boasted the largest collection of figurative statues in the
western world at that time. It depicts the history of the world as told in the Bible, and shows Christ
flanked by angels above statues of the disciples and kings as well as martyrs and confessors. The
West Front is flanked by two towers.
Chapter House ceiling, Wells Cathedral The West Front is now bare stone but in its medieval
heyday, this would have been brilliantly painted with strong bold colours. Sound was also part of
the religious spectacle. Within the cathedral is a special gallery where the choristers sang hymns to
the people gathered outside. The sound was channelled to the outside thanks to a series of
carefully hidden holes in the West Front. The singing would have occured on religious occasions
such as Palm Sunday.
The original central tower of Wells Cathedral was damaged by an earthquake in the 13th century.
The rebuilding took some 60 years to complete but, after just 20 years, cracks began to appear. In
order to save the tower from collapse, the master mason, William Joy, built the 'scissor arches' that
can still be seen in the main part of the cathedral and the hidden buttresses in the upper part of the
church building.
700 years later, it is safe to say that these measures have been successful in preserving the tower
for posterity. The cathedral boasts some of the finest medieval stained glass to be found in
England which, miraculously, survived the Reformation and the Civil War. The 'Jesse' or 'Golden
Window' dates back to 1340 and, thanks to its height, avoided the stones of the mob. The window
traces the ancestry of Christ through Mary to Jesse, the father of King David, in the shape of a
genealogical tree.
St Magnus Cathedral
St Magnus, the most northerly cathedral of Britain, towers over the town of Kirkwall in the
Orkney Islands. Work on the cathedral began in 1137; many of the masons came from Durham
whose cathedral was also under construction. It was founded by Earl Rognvald in the memory of
his relative St Magnus, who had been murdered by his cousin Hakon, co-ruler of the Orkneys.
Hakon is depicted in a stained glass window in the north transept which dates from the 19th
century. In 1980, local children contributed a whole series of paintings to show the events in his
life and the brutal murder.
Although St Magnus Cathedral is small compared to other cathedrals in Britain, it has a number of
distinctive features. One of these is the use of 'polychrome' work: the technique of using different
coloured stones to form patterns in the stonework. At St Magnus local red stone and a yellow
sandstone, probably from the nearby island of Eday, is arranged in a chequered pattern effect
around the window arches. The red stone was dug from a nearby quarry just a few miles from
Kirkwall on a piece of land known as the Head of Holland.
St Magnus is also renowned for being the only cathedral in Britain with a dungeon - Marwick's
Hole. The origins of the name have been associated with a romantic story. In the 1600s, Jane
Forsyth was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned at the stake. She was rescued from
the dungeon the night before this was due to be carried out by her lover and they went off to live
in Manchester, then a distant place.
St Magnus Cathedral The most poignant memorial in the cathedral is dedicated to the memory of
the hundreds of sailors who died when the British ship Royal Oak was sunk by a German U-boat
just a few months after the declaration of war in 1939. Charlotte Omand, from Orkney,
remembered that Kirkwall was shocked by the sinking and that the air stank of oil for days
afterwards. Now, once a week, a single page of the memorial book in the cathedral is turned as a
reminder of the loss of life.
St Magnus is unique among British cathedrals for its use of the Norwegian style of bell ringing
known as 'clocking'. Just one bellringer can operate the bells by hand and using footpedals. This
custom is proof of the strong Viking influence found on these islands and in Kirkwall itself, a
cathedral city of just 7,000 people.
Lincoln Cathedral
Taller than the Egyptian Pyramids, Lincoln Cathedral is an imposing tribute to medieval British
architecture. It has been through a series of building disasters and mishaps in its near 1000 years
of existence. The first mishap came in the 12th century, less than 100 years after the cathedral was
built. A fire swept through the cathedral, and the wooden roof was replaced by a stone vault.
However this was, in turn, destroyed a few decades later when a major earthquake destroyed much
of the building. Bishop Hugh, who was later canonised as a saint, then had the cathedral rebuilt in
the Gothic style. The next disaster was in the 13th century when the central tower collapsed and,
in the 16th century, the wooden spire was blown down in a gale.
St Hugh's life was pivotal to the history of Lincoln Cathedral. In his lifetime, he was known as
pious man who tended to the sick and worked on rebuilding the cathedral. One famous story
recounts how he befriended a swan which became very protective of the Bishop and hissed at
people who came too near. The swan's place in the legend of the cathedral is assured, for it is
depicted twice in the cathedral's stained glass windows. On St Hugh's death, large crowds came to
pay their respects and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage. A modern sculpture was placed
there in 1986 to mark the 800th anniversary of his enthronement as Bishop in 1186.
'Little remains of the vivid colour that would have transformed the cathedral's bare stone into
glorious spectacle.'
As with many of the cathedrals in Britain, much of the medieval art was destroyed during the Civil
War. Little remains of the vivid colour that would have transformed the cathedral's bare stone into
glorious spectacle. Many of the statues had their heads pulled off when an 18th century restorer
accidentally put the heads of the male bishops onto the bodies of the female statues. One statue of
a tumbler from around 1330 did survive because of its inaccessible location: legend has it that a
tumbler could only offer the Virgin Mary his tumbling skills as a gesture of devotion, hence his
place high on the cathedral walls. Another famous statue is the imp which peers down, ready to
pounce should anyone stray from the God-fearing path.
There are warnings all over the cathedral for those who may feel tempted to transgress. The 13th
century doorway shows the faithful ascending to heaven whilst hairy devils drag the damned into
the mouth of hell - a visual warning in an age when the vast majority of the people were illiterate
and few copies of the Bible were in existence.
Liverpool's cathedrals
Liverpool's skyline is dominated by two imposing cathedrals. Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is
the largest cathedral in Britain and the fifth largest in the world. The Roman Catholic Cathedral is
known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King and was built after World War Two in a
futuristic design by Frederick Gibberd.
The construction of the Anglican Cathedral began in 1904 to a design by Giles Gilbert Scott, a
Victorian designer famous for red telephone boxes and the now defunct Battersea Power Station.
Giles Scott came from a family of architects: his grandfather had designed the Albert Memorial in
Hyde Park, London, and his father, George, was a leading exponent of the Gothic Revival in
Britain. Giles Scott was just 21 when his entry won a design competition for Liverpool's Anglican
Cathedral, and he can be seen in the bottom left of the Layman's Window, wearing a blue coat.
Sadly, he died in 1960 and so did not see the cathedral finally consecrated.
Liverpool is home to many faiths but the Catholic and Protestant faiths have traditionally
dominated the city. Around the turn of the century, there was an unstated competition between the
leaders of the two communities who both attempted to have the larger, more impressive cathedral.
Money problems dogged each side's ambitious plans, and the Anglican Cathedral was only
consecrated in 1978.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral was to have been even more impressive thanks to a design by Sir
Edwin Lutyen. Work started in 1933 but the crypt is all that remains of this grand vision before
World War Two and budget deficits halted building work. Lutyen's plan was thrown out and a
competition was hosted in 1960 to find a newer, cheaper design. Sir Frederick Gibberd's
pioneering design won, and work began in 1962. The cathedral was consecrated just five years
later.
The Lantern Tower has crowning pinnacles to help make the cathedral stand out against the
Liverpool skyline. These are over 52 feet high and feature diagonal struts to strengthen them
against the wind. Within the cathedral, the High Altar is at the centre of the circular design. The
interior is bathed in many colours, primarily blue as befits a cathedral with more coloured glass
than any other in Europe.