Chester Cathedral. Part Three.

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)

At the Eastern End, the symmetrical arrangement of the Aisles was lost when the end of the South Aisle was demolished and rebuilt in an Apsidal shape. The Nave, Choir and South Transept have wide Aisles on either side, and are lit by Clerestory windows and large multi-light windows in each of the three cliff-like ends. To the North of the Cathedral, are Monastic buildings, including the Cloister, Refectory and a rectangular Chapter House. The façade of the building is abutted on the North by later buildings.

Chester Cathedral.

The windows have Curvilinear Drip-Mouldings.

Photo: September 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Elfineer at English Wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Like the Cathedrals of Carlisle, Lichfield and Worcester, Chester Cathedral is built of New Red Sandstone, in this case, Keuper Sandstone, from the Cheshire Basin. The stone lends itself to detailed carving, but is also friable, easily eroded by rain and wind, and is badly affected by pollution. With the other red sandstone buildings, Chester is one of the most heavily restored of England's Cathedrals. The restoration, which included much refacing and many new details, took place mainly in the 19th-Century.

Because the South Transept is similar in dimension to the Nave and Choir, views of the building from the South-East and South-West give the impression of a building balanced around a central axis, with its Tower as the hub. The Tower is of the Late-15th-Century Perpendicular Style, but its four large Battlemented Turrets are the work of the restoration architect George Gilbert Scott.

The Lady Chapel,

Chester Cathedral.

Early-English Gothic

(1265 - 1290).

Photo: 4 July 2010.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author: user:mcginnly.

(Wikimedia Commons)

With its rhythmic arrangement of large, Traceried Windows, Pinnacles, Battlements and Buttresses, the exterior of Chester Cathedral, from the South, presents a fairly homogeneous character, which is an unusual feature, as England's Cathedrals are, in general, noted for their stylistic diversity.

Close examination reveals Window Tracery of several building stages from the 13th-to the Early-16th-Century. The richness of the 13th-Century Tracery is accentuated by the presence of ornate, crocketted, drip-mouldings around the windows; those around the Perpendicular windows are of simpler form.

Chester Cathedral's

Lady Chapel has Lancet Gothic Windows,

with Mid-19th-Century glass by William Wailes(1859),

depicting the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.

Photo: 4 July 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: user:mcginnly.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The façade of the Cathedral is dominated by a large, deeply-recessed, Eight-Light-Window in the Perpendicular Style, above a recessed doorway, set in a screen-like Porch, designed, probably, by Seth and George Derwall, in the Early-1500s. This Porch formed part of the same Late-15th-Century building programme as the South Transept, Central and South-West Towers, and Cloister.

Neither of the West Towers was completed. To the North, is the Lower Stage of a Norman Tower, while, to the South, is the Lower Stage of a Tower designed and begun, probably by Seth and George Derwall, in 1508, but left incomplete following the Dissolution of the Monastery in 1538. The Cathedral's façade is abutted, on the North, by a Victorian building housing the education centre. The door of the West Front is not used as the normal entrance to the Cathedral, which is through the South-West Porch, which is in an ornate Tudor Style.

Chester Cathedral.

The wooden Quadripartite Vault,

of the Choir,

was rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott.

Photo: 18 March 2008.

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia.

Author: Original uploader was Joopercoopers at en.wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Interior of Chester Cathedral gives a warm and mellow appearance, because of the pinkish colour of the sandstone. The proportions appear spacious, because the view from the West End of the Nave, to the East End, is unimpeded by a Pulpitum and the Nave, although not long, is both wide and high, compared with many of England's Cathedrals.

The Piers of the Nave and Choir are widely spaced; those of the Nave carrying only the Clerestory of large windows with no Triforium Gallery. The proportions are made possible partly because the ornate Stellar Vault, like that at York Minster, is of wood, not stone.

 Chester Cathedral's

West Window is Perpendicular Gothic,

with 20th-Century Stained-Glass,
by W. T. Carter Shapland (1961):

The Holy Family, with Saints Werburgh, Oswald, Aidan,
Chad, Wilfrid, and Ethelfleda.

Photo: 7 September 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Stedent.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The present building, dating from around 1283 to 1537, mostly replaced the earlier Monastic Church founded in 1093, which was built in the Norman Style. It is believed that the newer Church was built around the older one. That the few remaining parts of the Norman Church are of small proportions, while the height and width of the Gothic Church are generous, would seem to confirm this belief. Aspects of the design of the Norman Interior are still visible in the North Transept, which retains Wall Arcading and a broadly-moulded Arch leading to the Sacristy, which was formerly a Chapel. The Transept has retained an Early-16th-Century Coffered Ceiling with decorated Bosses, two of which are carved with the Arms of King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS.