Chester Cathedral. Part Two.

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Chester Cathedral.

Cathedral Church of Christ and The Blessed Virgin Mary,

Chester, England.

The Cathedral, seen from the South-East, looking towards the Choir, right, with the Lady Chapel projecting, extreme right, and the South Transept, left. The Lady Chapel is in the Early-English

(or Lancet) Gothic Style, marked by the simple windows. The Choir is in the Late-Geometric Decorated Gothic Style. The South Transept has Flowing Decorated Windows in the Aisle,

and Perpendicular Gothic Windows in the Clerestory. The friable Red Sandstone building

was heavily restored in the 19th-Century.

Photo: May 2012.

Source: Family Album.

Author: Stephen Hamilton.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Monastery was disbanded and the Shrine of Saint Werburgh was desecrated. In 1541, Saint Werburgh's Abbey became a Cathedral of the Church of England, by order of King Henry VIII. At the same time, the Dedication was changed to Christ and The Blessed Virgin. The last Abbot of Saint Werburgh’s Abbey, Thomas Clarke, became the first Dean of the new Cathedral, at the Head of a Secular Chapter.

The Nativity Window,

Chester Cathedral,

in the Chapel of Saint Werburgh,

by Michael O'Connor (1853).

Photo: 24 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Hystfield.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Although little trace of the 10th-Century Church has been discovered, save possibly some Saxon masonry found during a 1997 excavation of the Nave, there is much evidence of the Monastery of 1093. This work, in the Norman Style, may be seen in the North-West Tower, the North Transept, and in remaining parts of the Monastic buildings.

The Abbey Church, beginning with the Lady Chapel at the Eastern End, was extensively rebuilt in Gothic Style during the 13th- and 14th-Centuries. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Cloister, the Central Tower, a new South Transept, the large West Window, and a new Entrance Porch to the South, had just been built in the Perpendicular Style, and the South-West Tower of the façade had been begun. The West Front was given a Tudor Entrance, but the Tower was never completed.

Chester Cathedral.

The Chancel Stained-Glass Window, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1884).

The subject is Jesus, Saviour of the World. It is a "Trinity Window", with the name of God, the Lamb of God and the Holy Spirit, represented in the Upper Tracery. The main Central Light shows God, as High Priest, holding the Infant Jesus. From left to right, the other figures are Saint Joseph,

The Blessed Virgin, Saint Anna and Saint Simeon.

Photo: 24 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Hystfield.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1636, the space beneath the South-West Tower became a Bishop's Consistory Court. It was furnished as such at that time, and is now a unique survival in England, hearing its last case, that of an attempted suicide of a Priest, in the 1930s.

Until 1881, the South Transept, which is unusually large, also took on a separate function as an independent ecclesiastical entity: The Parish Church of Saint Oswald. Although the 17th-Century saw additions to the furnishings and fittings, there was no further building work for several centuries. By the 19th-Century, the building was badly in need of restoration. The present homogeneous appearance, that the Cathedral presents from many exterior angles, is largely the work of Victorian restorers, particularly George Gilbert Scott.

Chester Cathedral.

Side Altar, in the South Transept,

with a Reredos depicting scenes of Mary of Bethany.

[Editor: Also showing a fine Antependium.]

The Altarpiece shows the Resurrection of Christ, at the centre. On the left, Mary of Bethany anoints the feet of Jesus, while, on the right, Mary Magdalene meets the Resurrected Christ, in the garden.

Photo: May 2012.

Source: Family Album.

Author: Stephen Hamilton.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The 20th-Century has seen continued maintenance and restoration. In 1922, the Chester War Memorial was installed in the Cathedral grounds and dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the First World War and, later, the Second World War.

In 1973 - 1975, a detached Belfry, designed by George Pace, was erected in the grounds of the Cathedral. In 2005, a new Song School was added to the Cathedral. During the 2000s, the Cathedral Library was refurbished and relocated. It was officially re-opened in September 2007. The Cathedral and the former Monastic buildings were designated as Grade I Listed Buildings on 28 July 1955.

English: 16th-Century Cloisters,

Chester Cathedral.

Deutsch: Chester, England.

Kathedrale: Kreuzgang ( 16.Jhdt.).

Photo: 13 July 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Wolfgang Sauber.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Chester Cathedral has an East-West axis, common to many Cathedrals, with the Chancel at the Eastern End, and the façade to the West. The plan is cruciform, with a Central Tower (as is usual in English Monastic Churches), but is asymmetrical, having a small Transept on the North Side remaining from an earlier building, and an unusually large South Transept. The asymmetry extends to the West Front, where the North Tower remains from the Norman building, and the South Tower is of the Early-16th-Century.


PART THREE FOLLOWS.