Hereford Cathedral (Cathedral Of Saint Mary The Virgin And Saint Ethelbert The King). (Part Five).

View of the Ruins of the West Tower of Hereford Cathedral.

Aquatint, by I. Wathen, 1788. View showing the ruins after 

the West Tower, originally built by the de Braose Family, collapsed on Easter Monday, 1786. Image courtesy of 

The British Library, London.

Date: 8 May 2011.

Source: British Library [1]

Author: I. Wathen

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

On Easter Monday, 1786, the greatest disaster in the history of the Cathedral took place. The West Tower fell, creating a ruin of the whole of the West Front and at least one part of the Nave.

The Tower, which, unlike the West Tower of Ely, was in the West Bay of the Nave, had a general resemblance to the Central Tower; both were profusely covered with Ball-Flower Ornaments, and both terminated in Leaden Spires. James Wyatt was called in to repair the damage. As he did at Durham, instead of just repairing, he made alterations which were (and are) not universally popular.

In 1841, the restoration work was begun, instigated by Dean Merewether, and was carried out by Lewis Nockalls Cottingham and his son, Nockalls. Bisse’s masonry, which by this time had been found to be useless, was swept away from the Central Tower, the Lantern was strengthened and exposed to view, and much work was done in the Nave and to the Exterior of The Lady Chapel.

Ceiling Bosses, Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 3 January 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana

(Wikimedia Commons)

When Nockalls Cottingham drowned on a voyage to New York in September 1854, George Gilbert Scott was called in, and, from that time, the work of restoring the Choir was performed continuously until 1863, when (on 30 June) the Cathedral was re-opened with Solemn Services.

Renn Hampden, Bishop of Hereford, Preached in the morning and Samuel Wilberforce Preached in the evening. In his diary, Wilberforce characterises his Right Reverend brother’s Sermon as “dull, but thoroughly orthodox’; but, of his own Sermon, he remarks (not without complacency): “I Preached evening; great congregation and much interested.”

The West Front was restored by John Oldrid Scott over the period 1902 and 1908.[5]

The Lady Chapel, Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 9 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Author: Diliff

(Wikimedia Commons)

Between them, these restorations cost some £45,000, (equivalent to £5 million in 2021[6]). Since then, much else has been done. “Wyatt’s Folly”, as James Wyatt’s West Front was often called, has been replaced by a highly ornate façade in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, whose figure is to be seen in the beautiful Stained-Glass which fills the Seven-Light Window (i.e. with seven main vertical “Lights”, or sections of glass) subscribed “by the women of Hereford Diocese”.

A new Library was constructed in the Early-1990s and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996.[7] In 1967, with the new Liturgical fashion, George Gilbert Scott’s Iron Choir Screen was removed in pieces and discarded. It has since been restored and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

PART SIX FOLLOWS.