Worcester Cathedral (Part Two)

Text and illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Worcester Cathedral's West Window.

Author: Greenshed

Photo: January 2007.

Other notable burials include:

Richard Edes (died1604), a chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I.
William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton (1616-1651), Scottish Royalist Commander during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
John Gauden (1605–1662), Bishop of Worcester
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Prime Minister

An image of the Cathedral's West Facade appeared on the reverse of the Series E British £20 note, commemorating Sir Edward Elgar, issued between 1999 and 2007. The notes are gradually being withdrawn from circulation to be replaced by a new series.

Architecture

Worcester Cathedral embodies many features that are highly typical of an English Mediaeval Cathedral. Like the Cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln, it has two transepts crossing the nave, rather than the single transept, usual on the Continent. 

This feature of English Cathedrals was to facilitate the private saying of the Holy Office by many clergy or monks. Worcester is also typical of English Cathedrals in having a chapter house and cloister. To the North Side of the Cathedral is an entrance porch, a feature designed to eliminate the draught which, prior to the installation of modern swing doors, would blow through Cathedral whenever the Western Doors were open.

The Screen and Nave of Worcester Cathedral.

looking West towards the West Window. 

Author: TheElfFromAbove

Worcester Cathedral has important parts of the building, dating from every Century from the 11th- to the 16th-Century. Its tower, in the Perpendicular style, is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "exquisite" and is best seen across the River Severn.

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 St. Wulfstan in 1084. 

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 St. Wulfstan in 1084. 

Photo: February 2011.

Author: TheElfFromAbove

Also from the Norman period, is the circular chapter house of 1120, made octagonal on the outside when the walls were reinforced in the 14th-Century. The nave was built and rebuilt, piecemeal, and in different styles, by several different architects over a period of 200 years, from 1170 to 1374; some bays being a unique and decorative transition between Norman and Gothic. The oldest parts show alternate layers of green sandstone from Highley in Shropshire and yellow Cotswold limestone.

PART THREE FOLLOWS

Worcester Cathedral (Part One)

Text and illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Worcester Cathedral.
Author: Newton2.
Photo: 2004.
From: Wikimedia Commons.


Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican Cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester.

Built between 1084 and 1504, Worcester Cathedral represents every style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic. It is famous for its Norman crypt and unique chapter house, its unusual Transitional Gothic bays, its fine woodwork and its "exquisite" central tower, which is of particularly fine proportion.

The Cathedral's West facade appeared, with a portrait of Sir Edward Elgar, on the reverse of the £20 note issued by the Bank of England between 1999 and 2007.

The Cattley Window, Worcester Cathedral. At the West End of the North Aisle. Dedicated by Richard Cattley, Honorary Canon of the Cathedral Church, in memory of his wife, Harriet Emma, who died 1854, and his son, Richard Thomas D'Arcy, who died 1894.
Author: Bob Embleton.
Photo: July 2007.
From: Wikimedia Commons.


The Cathedral was founded in 680 A.D., with Bishop Bosel as its head. The first Cathedral was built in this period, but nothing now remains of it. The existing crypt of the Cathedral dates from the 10th-Century and the time of St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester. The current Cathedral dates from the 12th-Century and the 13th-Century.

Monks and nuns had been present at the Cathedral since the 7th-Century (see Bede). The Monastery became Benedictine in the second half of the 10th-Century. There is an important connection to Fleury, as Oswald, Bishop of Worcester 961 A.D. - 992 A.D., being prior at the same time, was professed at Fleury and introduced the Monastic Rule of Fleury to Worcester. The Benedictine monks were driven out in 1540 and replaced by Secular Canons.

The former monastic library of Worcester contained a considerable number of manuscripts which are, with other libraries, now scattered over Cambridge, London (British Library), Oxford Bodleian, and the Cathedral library at Worcester.

Worcester Cathedral's Gothic Vaulting.
Photo: January 2008.
Author: Mattana.
From: Wikimedia Commons.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the building was re-established as a Cathedral of Secular Clergy. The Cathedral was subject to major restoration work by Sir George Gilbert Scott and A. E. Perkins in the 1860s.

The Cathedral contains the tomb of King John in its chancel. Before his death in Newark in 1216, John had requested to be buried at Worcester. He is buried between the shrines of St Wulstan and St Oswald (now destroyed).

The Cathedral has a memorial, Prince Arthur's Chantry, to the young prince, Arthur Tudor, who is buried here. Arthur's younger brother and next in line for the throne was Henry VIII. Worcester Cathedral was doubtless spared destruction by Henry VIII, during the English Reformation, because of his brother's chantry in the Cathedral.

PART TWO FOLLOWS