The Twenty-Six Mediæval Cathedrals Of England (Part Seventeen).

Canterbury Cathedral.

Photo: September 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Hans Musil

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

Worcester Cathedral, unlike Salisbury, has important parts of the building dating from every Century from the 11th-Century to the 16th-Century.

The earliest part of the building at Worcester is the multi-columned Norman Crypt, with Cushion Capitals remaining from the original Monastic Church begun by Saint Wulfstan in 1084. 

Also from the Norman period is the circular Chapter House of 1120, made octagonal on the outside when the walls were re-inforced in the 14th-Century. 

Worcester Cathedral Crypt.

Photo: 23 February 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: TheElfFromAbove

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Nave was built and re-built piecemeal and in different styles by several different architects over a period of 200 years, some Bays being a unique and decorative transition between Norman and Gothic styles. 

The Nave dates from 1170 to 1374. The East End was rebuilt over the Norman Crypt by Alexander Mason between 1224 and 1269, coinciding with, and in a very similar Early-English style to, the greater part of Salisbury Cathedral. 

From 1360, John Clyve finished off the Nave, built its Vault, the Great West Front, the North Porch, and the Eastern range of the Cloister. He also strengthened the Norman Chapter House, added Buttresses and changed its Vault. 

The history of Worcester Cathedral.

Available on YouTube

HERE

His masterpiece is the Central Tower of 1374, originally supporting a timber, lead-covered Spire, now gone. Between 1404 and 1432, an unknown architect added the North and South ranges to the Cloister, which was eventually closed by the Western range by John Chapman, 1435–1438. The last important addition is the Prince Arthur’s Chantry Chapel to the Right of the South Choir Aisle, 1502–1504.[2][4][10]

Bristol Cathedral.

Begun in 1140[b] and completed in 1888, Bristol Cathedral’s fame lies in the unique 14th-Century Lierne Vaults of the Choir and Choir Aisles, which are of three different designs and, according to Nikolaus Pevsner, “ . . . from a point of view of spatial imagination, are superior to anything else in England.”[4]

Canterbury Cathedral.

Founded as a Cathedral in 597 A.D., the earliest extant parts are from 1070, completed in 1505, except the North-West Tower of 1834.

Canterbury is one of the biggest Cathedrals in England, and is the Seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is famous for the Norman Crypt, with sculptured Capitals, the East End of 1175–1184 by William of Sens, the 12th-Century and 13th-Century Stained-Glass, the “supremely beautiful” Perpendicular Nave of 1379–1405 by Henry Yevele,[12] the Fan Vault of the Tower of 1505 by John Wastell, the tomb of the Black Prince, and the site of the murder of Saint Thomas Becket.[4][10]

The Great East Window,

Carlisle Cathedral.

Illustration: VISIT CUMBRIA

Carlisle Cathedral.

Founded in 1092 and completed in the Early-15th-Century, Carlisle Cathedral is one of England’s smallest Cathedrals since the demolition of its Nave by the Scottish Presbyterian Army in 1649. 

Its most significant feature is its Nine-Light, Flowing Decorated, East Window of 1322, still containing Mediæval Glass in its upper sections, forming a “glorious termination to the Choir”[4] and regarded by many as having the finest Tracery in England.[4][10]

PART EIGHTEEN FOLLOWS.