Chester Cathedral. Church Of Christ And The Blessed Virgin Mary. (Part Two).

The Lady Chapel,

Chester Cathedral.

Photo: 10 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diliff

Attribution: "Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

License: CC BY-SA 3.0".

(Wikimedia Commons)

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

In 1538, during The Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Monastery was disbanded and the Shrine of Saint Werburgh was desecrated.[17]

In 1541, St 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.[18]

The Nave,

Chester Cathedral.

The building of the Nave, begun in 1323, was halted 

by the plague and was completed 150 years later.

Photo: 22 May 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Michael Beckwith

(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,[19] there is much evidence of the Monastery of 1093.

This work in the Norman Style may be seen in the Nort-West Tower, the North Transept, and in remaining parts of the Monastic buildings.[17]

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 begun to be built.[1] The West Front was given a Tudor Entrance, but the Tower was never completed.[4]

Chester Cathedral’s Choir Stalls (about 1380)

and Rood Screen (Late-19th-Century).

Photo: 10 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diliff

(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.[17][20]

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.[21]

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.[22]

The wooden Quadripartite Vault of the Choir

was rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott.

Photo: 17 March 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Joopercoopers

(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.[23]

During 1973–1975, a detached Belfry, the Addleshaw Tower, designed by George Pace, was erected in the Grounds of the Cathedral.[4]

In 2005, a new Song School was added to the Cathedral.[24] During the 2000s, the Cathedral Library was refurbished and relocated. It was officially reopened in September 2007.[25]

Chester Cathedral’s Organ.

Standing in the South Transept of Chester Cathedral, looking North into The Crossing and beyond the Organ into the North Transept, where is visible the Chest-Tomb and effigy of John Pearson, Bishop of Chester. On the Right is the Rood Screen leading into the Choir.

Photo: 10 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diliff

Attribution: "Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0".

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Cathedral and the former Monastic buildings were designated as Grade I Listed buildings on 28 July 1955.[4][26]

In October 2021, the Abbey’s Gateway was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.[27]

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.

Chester Cathedral’s Rood Screen.

Photo: 10 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diliff

Attribution: Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

(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.[29]

PART THREE FOLLOWS.