Chester Cathedral. (Part Four).

A Side Altar, in the South Transept of Chester Cathedral, with a Reredos depicting scenes of the Resurrection of Christ at the centre. On the Left, Mary of Bethany anoints the feet of Jesus. On the Right, Mary meets the resurrected Christ in the garden.

Photo: May 2012.

Source: Family Photo.

Author: Stephen Hamilton

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

The present building, dating from 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.[24] 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.[4]

The Cloisters, Chester Cathedral.

Photo: 10 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diliff

Attribution: “Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0”.

(Wikimedia Commons)

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.[21]

The North-West Tower is also of Norman construction. It serves as the Baptistry and houses a Black Marble Font, consisting of a Bowl on a large Baluster, dating from 1697.[4]

The lower part of the North Wall of the Nave is also from the Norman building, but can only be viewed from the Cloister, because the interior has been decorated with Mosaic.[24]

Chester Cathedral: Memorial Plaques of The Egerton Family in the South Transept: A Tablet to Family Members killed during The First World War (top) and a Tablet to Vice-Admiral Wion Egerton (below), killed in The Second World War. This War memorial is underneath The Philip Egerton Window.

Photo: 24 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Oaktree

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Early-English Gothic Chapter House, built between 1230 and 1265, is rectangular and opens off a “charming” vestibule leading from the North Transept.[28]

The Chapter House has grouped windows of simple untraceried form. Alec Clifton-Taylor describes the exterior of this building as a “modest, but rather elegant, example of composition in Lancets”[28], while Nikolaus Pevsner says of the interior: “It is a wonderfully noble room”, which is the “æsthetic climax of the Cathedral”.

To the North of the Chapter House is the Slype,** also Early-English in Style, and the Warming Room, which contains two large former fireplaces.[33]

The Lady Chapel, in Chester Cathedral, has Lancet Gothic Windows with Mid-19th-Century Stained-Glass, by William Wailes (1859), depicting The Passion, The Resurrection, and The Ascension, of Jesus Christ.

Photo: 4 July 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: user:mcginnly

(Wikimedia Commons)

[** Editor: The term “Slype” is a variant of “Slip”, in the sense of a narrow passage; in architecture, the name for the covered passage usually found in Monasteries or Cathedrals between the Transept and the Chapter House, as at Saint Andrews, Winchester, Gloucester, Exeter, Durham, Saint Albans, Sherborne, and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

[At Saint Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, it is, with the Chapter House, one of only two remaining rooms].[1] In general, the Benedictine Chapter-House, as it took form in England, was an oblong room about twice as long as wide . . . either North or South of the Transept, from which it was separated by a narrow passage or chamber called a “Slype”.[2]

[[Its place is supplied by the Sacristry in Cistercian houses. It occurs in the Clugniac Convent of Bromholme, and in that of Austin Canons at Newstead. At New College, Oxford, it is the passage between the backs of the houses and the City walls . . . [3] ]]

Chester Cathedral’s South Transept Window (The Egerton Window). Flowing Decorated Gothic, with High-Victorian Stained-Glass, by Heaton Butler and Bayne (1887). This Window is Dedicated to William Tatton Egerton and Wilbraham Tatton Egerton.

Photo: 24 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Hystfield

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Monastic Refectory to the North of the Cloister is about the same date as the Chapter House.[1]

The Lady Chapel, to the Eastern end of the Choir, dates from between 1265 and 1290.[1] It consists of three Bays, and contains the Shrine of Saint Werburgh, dating from the 14th-Century.

The Vault of The Lady Chapel is the only one in the Cathedral that is of stone.[28] It is decorated with carved Roof Bosses representing The Trinity, The Madonna and Child, and the murder of Thomas Becket. The Chapel also has a Sedilia and a Piscina.[4]

PART FIVE FOLLOWS.