Chester Cathedral. (Part Three).

The High Altar has a Reredos by J.R. Clayton,

of Clayton and Bell, and a Seasonal Altar Frontal 

(Antependium) in the Art Nouveau Style.

Photo: May 2012.

Source: Family Photo.

Author: Stephen Hamilton

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

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.[4]

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.[30]

Chester Cathedral’s Sedilia and one

of a pair of Candlesticks in the Quire (Choir).

Photo: May 2012.

Source: Family Photo.

Author: Stephen Hamilton

(Wikimedia Commons)

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.

The façade of the Cathedral is dominated by a large, deeply-recessed, Eight-Light Window in the Perpendicular Style,[15] above a recessed doorway set in a screen-like Porch designed, probably by Seth and George Derwall, in the Early-1500s.[1]
[15]

This Porch formed part of the same Late-15th-Century building programme as the South Transept, Central and South-West Towers, and Cloister.[1] Neither of the West Towers was completed.[31] 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,[1] but left incomplete following The Dissolution of the Monastery in 1538.

Chester Cathedral’s Nativity Window. Chapel of Saint Werburgh. It shows Baby Jesus in a Manger. Maker: Michael Connor, 1857. At the East end of the North Choir Aisle is the Chapel of Saint Werburgh, which has a Vault of two Bays.

Photo: 24 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Hystfield

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Cathedral’s façade is abutted on the North by a Victorian building, housing the education centre and largely obscured from view by the building previously used as the King’s School, which is now a branch of Barclays Bank.[32]

The door of The Great 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’s Chancel 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 Window shows God as High Priest, holding the infant Jesus. From Left to Right: Saint Joseph; The Blessed Virgin Mary; Saint Anna; Saint Simeon.

Photo: 24 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Hystfield

(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.[17][28]

PART FOUR FOLLOWS.