Worcester Cathedral - Part Three

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

The High Altar, Worcester Cathedral.

Author: Mattana

January 2008. 

(Wikimedia Commons)

The East End was re-built over the Norman Crypt by Alexander Mason between 1224 and 1269, coinciding with, and in a very similar Early English style to, Salisbury Cathedral. From 1360, John Clyve finished off the Nave, built its Vault, the 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. 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, 1435–38. The last important addition is Prince Arthur’s Chantry Chapel to the right of the South Choir Aisle, 1502–04.

Worcester Cathedral was extensively restored from 1857 to 1874 by W. A. Perkins and Sir George Gilbert Scott. Most of the fittings and the stained glass date from this time.

Exterior statuary at Worcester Cathedral.

Author: Mattana

January 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Misericords

Thirty-Nine of the Misericords date from 1379 and include a complete set of the Labours of the Months. The subject matter includes biblical stories, mythology and folklore. Three of the misericords are Victorian replacements, such as N-02, Judas in the jaws of Satan.

Bells

The Tower has a ring of twelve bells, plus three semitone bells and a non-swinging bourdon. The current peal of 15 ringing bells were cast in 1928 by John Taylor & Co., of Loughborough, from the metal of the original ring, cast in 1869. The ring is the fifth-heaviest ring of twelve in the world, only the bells in the Cathedrals of Liverpool, Exeter, York and St Paul's, London are heavier. The bells are also considered to be one of the finest-toned rings ever cast. The bells hang in a wooden frame that was constructed in 1869 for the previous ring. Worcester Cathedral is unique in having a purpose-built teaching centre equipped with eight special training bells, linked to computers.

Worcester Cathedral has three choirs: the Worcester Cathedral Choir (the main Choir which has both a boys' and a girls' treble line, which normally work independently); Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir, and the Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir.

Two views of the Gothic Nave.

Author: Mattana

January 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)

All three Choirs were involved in the BBC broadcast of the Midnight and Christmas Morning Services in 2007, with the boys and the girls of the Cathedral Choir, respectively, taking the lead in the two services. Since the 18th-Century, Worcester Cathedral Choir has taken part in the Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival in the world.

The composer, Edward Elgar, spent most of his life in Worcestershire. The first performance of the revised version of his Enigma Variations - the version usually performed - took place at the Cathedral during the 1899 Three Choirs Festival. He is commemorated in a stained glass window, which contains his portrait.

Worcester Cathedral has a long history of organs, dating back to at least 1417. There have been many re-builds and new organs in the intervening period, including work by Thomas Dallam, William Hill and most famously Robert Hope-Jones in 1896. The Hope Jones organ was heavily re-built in 1925 by Harrison & Harrison, and then regular minor works kept it in working order until Wood Wordsworth and Co were called in 1978. It was a large four-manual organ with 61 speaking stops. It had a large Gothic Revival case with heavily decorated front pipes as well as two smaller cases either side of the quire.

Gothic Triforium and Clerestory.

Author: Mattana

January 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)

This organ (apart from the large transept case and pedal pipes) was removed in 2006 in order to make way for a new instrument by Kenneth Tickell, which was completed in the summer of 2008. The Nave has a three-manual Rodgers organ.

Worcester Cathedral. 

View of the Tower from the South-East. 

Author: Philip Halling.

August 2005.

Wikimedia Commons.

Notable organists at Worcester have included Thomas Tomkins (from 1596), Hugh Blair (from 1895), Ivor Atkins (from 1897) and David Willcocks (from 1950). The present organist (from 2012) is Dr Peter Nardone.

Worcester Cathedral is the host of the annual graduation ceremonies for the University of Worcester. These ceremonies are presided over by the Chancellor of the University, and take place over three days in November.


THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON WORCESTER CATHEDRAL.

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