Sir John Ninian Comper (1864 – 1960). Scottish Gothic-Revival Architect.

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

Interior of Saint Mary The Virgin,

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England.

Sir John Ninian Comper designed this Church.

Image: ST MARY THE VIRGIN, WELLINGBOROUGH

The spectacular Interior of Saint Mary's, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England. The Church is little more than a century old and was designed by the highly regarded architect, Sir Ninian Comper. The Church is extremely ornate, but never vulgar, and the golds and blues blend in perfectly well with the local deep golden stone. The Church is in the Anglo-Catholic tradition 
of the Church of England.

Photo: 18 August 1997.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: nick macneill.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Sir John Ninian Comper (1864–1960) was a Scottish-born architect. He was one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects, noted for his Churches and their furnishings. He is well known for his Stained Glass, his use of colour and his subtle integration of Classical and Gothic elements, which he described as "unity by inclusion".

Comper was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the eldest of five children of Ellen Taylor, of Hull, and the Reverend John Comper, Rector of St John's, Aberdeen (and, later, St Margaret of Scotland). He was educated at Glenalmond School, in Perthshire, and attended a year at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. On moving to London, he was Articled to Charles Eamer Kempe, and, later, to George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner. His fellow-Scot, William Bucknall, took him into partnership in London in 1888 and Ninian was married to Grace Bucknall in 1890. Bucknall and Comper remained in partnership until 1905.

Reredos, in Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, England, designed by Comper.

Reredos (Altar Screen), with Tester and Rood Figures,

designed by Sir Ninian Comper, 1922.

Photographer: Richard Barton-Wood.

Date: 1922 (object created); 27 February 2007 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to

Commons using CommonsHelper.

Author: Sir Ninian Comper (creator of the object);

Photographer and Original uploader was Richard Barton-Wood.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Sir John Ninian Comper's ecclesiastical commissions include:

A line of windows in the North Wall of the Nave of Westminster Abbey;

Saint Peter's Parish Church, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, the Baldachino/Ciborium, High Altar and
East Window, in memory of the Dead of the Great War;

Saint Mary's, Wellingborough;

Saint Michael and All Angels, Inverness;

Lady Chapel at Downside Abbey,Somerset;

the Ciborium, and House Chapel extension, for the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, in Oxford (now Saint Stephen's House, Oxford);

Saint Cyprian's, Clarence Gate, London;

Lady Chapel at Saint Matthew's, Westminster;

Lady Chapel and Gilded Paintings in the Chancel of All Saints, Margaret Street, London.

The Sanctuary, All Saints Church, 

Margaret Street, London.

One of Sir John Ninian Comper's commissions.

Photo: 3 November 2001.

Source: From geograph.org.uk; transferred by 

User:Kurpfalzbilder.de using geograph_org2commons.

Author: John Salmon.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Comper is noted for re-introducing the 'English Altar', an Altar surrounded by Riddel Posts. [Images, and documentary mentions of early examples [of Ciboria], often have Curtains, called tetravela, hung between the Columns; these Altar-Curtains were used to cover, and then reveal, the view of the Altar by the Congregation at points during Services — exactly which points varied, and is often unclear. Altar-Curtains survived the decline of the Ciborium in both East and West, and in English are often called "Riddels" (from French, rideau, a word once also used for ordinary domestic curtains).

Charles Eamer Kempe, (1860).

Upon moving to London, John Ninian Comper was Articled to Charles Eamer Kempe.

Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a Victorian Stained Glass designer and manufacturer. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for Altars and Altar Frontals, furniture and furnishings, Lichgates and Memorials, that helped to define a later 19th-Century Anglican style. The list of English Cathedrals containing examples of his work includes: Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Wells, Winchester, York.

This File: 21 July 2006.

User: The Wednesday Island.

Source: Found at [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/kempe.htm].

Author: Unknown.

(Wikipedia)

A few Churches have "Riddle Posts", or "Riddel Posts", around the Altar, which supported the Curtain-Rails, and perhaps a Cloth stretched above. Such an arrangement can be seen in Folio 199v of the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. Late-Mediaeval examples in Northern Europe were often topped by Angels, and the Posts, but not the Curtains, were revived in some new or refitted Anglo-Catholic Churches by Ninian Comper and others around 1900.

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Upon moving to London, John Ninian Comper was Articled to Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Upon moving to London, John Ninian Comper was Articled to Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Upon moving to London, John Ninian Comper was Articled to Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Upon moving to London, John Ninian Comper was Articled to Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

In earlier periods, the Curtains were closed at the most solemn part of the Mass, a practice that continues to the present day in the Coptic and Armenian Churches. A comparison to the Biblical Veil of the Temple was intended. The small domed structures, usually with red curtains, that are often shown near the Writing Saint in early Evangelist portraits, especially in the East, represent a Ciborium, as do the structures surrounding many manuscript portraits of Mediaeval Rulers.]

English: Saint John the Baptist Parish Church, Cardiff, Wales.

Stained Glass window (1915) by Ninian Comper: 

Saint Luke painting Madonna and Child (detail).

Deutsch: Cardiff (Wales). Pfarrkirche St. Johannes der Täufer -

Buntglasfenster (1915) von Ninian Comper:

Heiliger Lukas malt Madonna mit Kind (Detail).

Photo: 28 July 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Wolfgang Sauber.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Comper designed a number of remarkable Altar Screens (Reredos), inspired by Mediaeval originals. Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, has one of the finest examples.

Only one major ecclesiastical work of Comper's is in the United States, the Leslie Lindsey Chapel of Boston's Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The work is an all-encompassing product of, and testimony to, Comper's design capability, comprising the entire decorative scheme of the Chapel, designed by the architectural firm of Allen & Collins. Comper designed its Altar, Altar Screen, Pulpit, Lectern, dozens of statues, all its furnishings and appointments, and most notably the Stained Glass windows. The Chapel commemorates Leslie Lindsey and Stewart Mason, her husband of ten days, who were married at Emmanuel Church, and perished when the Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915.

Detail of Reredos at Saint James Church,

High Melton, England, by Ninian Comper.

Photo: 27 July 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Dearnesman.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Sir John Ninian Comper's Rood Screen, 

Saint John the Baptist Church,

Lound, Nottinghamshire, England.

Photo: 24 September 2009.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Evelyn Simak.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint John the Baptist's Church 1507412 - 1507426 , in Lound, is widely known as the 'Golden Church', its fame originating from the generosity of Father Booth Lyes, a past Rector, who employed Sir Ninian Comper's genius to restore it. The Round Tower 1507419 - the oldest part of the Church and believed to be Early-Norman - was probably rebuilt at some later time. The Church was extensively restored in 1912/1913. The High Altar 1507434 was raised on new flooring, and richly decorated Posts, surmounted by gilded bronze Angels, support curtains of Spanish silk. 

Below the Altar, Ninian Comper's magnificent Rood Screen is adjoined at the South End by the Altar of Our Lady, above which Saint Mary Salome, Saint Mary the Virgin, and Saint Elizabeth, are depicted on boards with richly gilded gesso backgrounds 1507432. By Comper is also the only modern wall painting in Suffolk depicting a Saint Christopher 1507439 - the Saint is surrounded by a water mill, with a Suffolk Punch horse and its rider, waiting patiently in front of it, and a portrait of Sir Ninian driving his Rolls Royce along the river bank. The airplane, at top right, 

was added during the 1964 restoration of the painting. 

The Organ Case 1507447, at the West End of the Church, was installed in 1913. The Organ 

was built by Harrison & Harrison Ltd, of Durham. The original Norman Font Bowl 

now serves as a base for the Pulpit. The present Octagonal Font 1507445 - given in 1389

by Robert Bertelot - is of the traditional East Anglian type and the inscription 

at its base, commemorating the donor, is still legible. Saint John the Baptist's Church 

has a 'Welcome' banner above the South Doorway and is open every day.




Saint Mary The Virgin Church,
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England.
One of Sir John Ninian Comper's masterpieces of creation.

Image: ST MARY THE VIRGIN, WELLINGBOROUGH

From 1912, Ninian and Grace lived in London at The Priory, Beulah Hill, a house designed by Decimus Burton (1800–1881), where he entertained friends such as John Betjeman. He had a studio nearby at Knights Hill, close to the world's first Gothic Cemetery at West Norwood. After the studio was destroyed in World War II, it was relocated to a building in his garden, which had previously been used by his son, Nicholas Comper (1897–1939), to design aircraft. Comper was knighted by King George VI in 1950.

On 22 December 1960, he died in The Hostel of God (now Trinity Hospice) in Clapham, London. His body was brought back to Norwood for cremation at West Norwood Cemetery. His ashes were then interred beneath the windows he designed in Westminster Abbey.

Charles Eamer Kempe (1837 - 1907). Victorian Stained-Glass Designer. "If I Was Not Permitted To Minister In The Sanctuary, I Would Use My Talents To Adorn It".

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

Stained-Glass, in the West Window of the South Transept of Bristol Cathedral, featuring, from left:

King Alfred the Great; the writer, Richard Hakluyt; the Priest and Theologian, Richard Hooker;

and the playwright and poet, William Shakespeare.

Date: Circa 1905.

Source: Bristol Cathedral.

Author: Charles Eamer Kempe.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Charles Eamer Kempe, (1860).

Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a Victorian Stained-Glass designer

and manufacturer. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for Altars and Altar Frontals, Furniture and Furnishings, Lichgates and Memorials, that helped to define a later

19th-Century Anglican Style. The list of English Cathedrals containing examples of his work includes: Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Wells, Winchester, York.

This File: 21 July 2006.

User: The Wednesday Island.

Source: Found at [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.

fairweather/docs/kempe.htm].

Author: Unknown.

(Wikipedia)

Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a Victorian Stained-Glass designer and manufacturer. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for Altars and Altar Frontals, furniture and furnishings, Lichgates (Lychgates) and Memorials, that helped to define a Later-19th-Century Anglican Style. The list of English Cathedrals containing examples of his work includes: Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Wells, Winchester, York.

Charles Kempe was born at Ovingdean Hall, near Brighton, West Sussex, in 1837. He was the youngest son of Nathaniel Kemp, a cousin of the Thomas Read Kemp, a politician and property developer responsible for the Kemptown area of Brighton [Note: Kemp added the final "e" to his surname in later life], and the maternal grandson of Sir John Eamer, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1801.

Interior of Church of Saint Paul, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England, designed by William Swinden Barber in 1881. Showing a particularly fine window on the South Wall, by Charles Eamer Kempe. The East and West Windows were there in 1881 at the Consecration ceremony, but the date of this one is unknown - possibly 1902, after the Second Boer War, since it shows war-like Mediaeval heroes, King Arthur, Saint George, and Saint Oswald (Oswald of Northumbria).

Photo: 8 April 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Linda Spashett Storye book.

(Wikimedia Commons)

After attending Twyford School, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was influenced by the Anglo-Catholic Tractarian revival and considered a vocation to the Priesthood. When it became clear that his severe stammer would be an impediment to preaching, Kempe decided that "if I was not permitted to Minister in the Sanctuary, I would use my talents to adorn it", and subsequently went to study architecture with the firm of a leading ecclesiastical architect, George Frederick Bodley, where he learned the aesthetic principles of Mediaeval Church Art, particularly Stained-Glass.

During the 1860s, Kempe collaborated with Bodley on the internal painting of two Churches, All Saints, Jesus Lane, in Cambridge, and Saint John’s, The Brook, in Liverpool. Later, in 1892, Bodley and Kempe would work together once more on All Saints, Danehill, East Sussex.

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

In 1866, he opened a studio of his own in London, supplying and creating Stained-Glass and Furnishings and Vestments. The firm prospered and by 1899 he had over fifty employees. As a trademark, the firm used a Golden Garb, or Wheat-Sheaf, taken from Kempe's own Coat-of-Arms. The Mid-Victorian period were important years in the history of the design of English Churches and Kempe’s influence is found in numerous examples, many in his home County of Sussex, which has 116 examples of his work.

The works at Saint Mark’s, Staplefield, near Horsham, West Sussex, dating from 1869, are regarded as especially important, representing the earliest of three known examples of Kempe’s Wall Painting. They contain key elements of Kempe’s figurative work. The Angels, holding the scroll, are magnificently apparelled and the borders of their cloaks are embellished with pearls, each individually highlighted, although they don’t contain a design of peacock feathers, a well-used embellishment in later works.

Interior of Church of Saint Paul, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England,

designed by William Swinden Barber in 1881. A particularly fine window

on the South Wall,

by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Photo: 8 April 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Linda Spashett Storye book.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander, whose home, Wightwick Manor, near Wolverhampton, contains many pieces of Kempe's Stained-Glass, wrote in 1973: "Kempe's work has a unique charm; its colours shine out from jewels, that cluster on the Mitres or the Crowns that his figures wear, and from their peacocks' feathers, while Angels, playing their instruments, are drawn with tender delicacy and scattered above the main windows informally, but making a pattern of precision. Above all, the prevailing yellow-wash is literally translucent, for it lets through the rays of the full-, or the setting-, sun . . ."

On Kempe’s death, in 1907, the firm passed to his relative, Walter Earnest Tower (1873–1955), who re-named the firm C. E Kempe and Co., who, thenceforth, used a Black Tower above the Golden Garb. A lack of orders, caused by the Great Depression, ended the firm's life in 1934.

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Altar Frontal (Antependium) designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Kempe was a rather shy person, who never married. He continued to live in Sussex most of his life and, in 1875, he bought and renovated an Elizabethan House at Lindfield, near Haywards Heath, in West Sussex. Kempe would entertain his clients and professional colleagues from his home, enjoying the role of a Country Squire.

Kempe died in 1907 and is buried in the Churchyard at Saint Wulfran's Church, Ovingdean. Unfortunately, most of Kempe's records were disposed of after the firm shut in 1934.

The East Window of Saint Mary the Virgin Church,

Baldock, Hertfordshire, England, showing Christ and the Four Evangelists.

The window was designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Photo: 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author. Jack1956.

(Wikipedia)

The following Text is taken from THE KEMPE SOCIETY

In 1869, dissatisfied with the quality of the work produced for him, Kempe started his own workshop at Millbrook Place, London, with the professional co-operation of Fred Leach. The idea for a design would first be drawn by Kempe, and then the full size cartoon would be produced in his studios by his chief draughtsman and a team of artists, who added the detailed decoration. The cartoon was then taken to his Millbrook works for glass cutting, painting and leading. The glass was always carefully selected, supplied by either Messrs Miller Beal and Hilder Ltd., or James Hetley and Co., at 35 Soho Square, London, who reserved a room for Kempe’s glass.

In 1888, the studios and offices moved to 28 Nottingham Place, in Central London., and by the end of the Century he employed over fifty people.

Such success and demand was bound to lead to repetition, and some of Kempe’s later work involved adapting earlier designs. But, unlike other large Victorian studios, he never allowed the quality or individuality of his work to deteriorate. The senses are always thrilled by the spirituality of his Stained-Glass.

Kempe's Family Coat-of-Arms,

"Gules three garbs within a bordure engrailed".

Pre-1895 Logo.

Usually found in the top Tracery of a window.

Illustration: KEMPE STAINED GLASS

His studios, in spite of their heavy commitment to Stained-Glass, also produced designs for Church Furniture, Reredos, Screens, Altars, and Panelling. Kempe continued to design splendid Vestments and Altar Frontals (Antependiums) that were embroidered exquisitely by the Anglican Order of Clewer Sisters.

The decade from 1895-1905 was the busiest the Kempe Glass-Works were to experience and it was to culminate in a commission to produce a window of Saint George, for Buckingham Palace. This window, the victim of wartime bombing, can now be seen in the Ely Stained-Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, England.

After 1895, the Shield Logo was replaced by a Single Wheatsheaf,

usually in the bottom left-hand corner of a Stained-Glass Window.

Illustration: KEMPE STAINED GLASS

Kempe kept up his business interests with great energy, busily visiting sites ("such motor journeys !" he writes in 1905); making sketches for designs and watching the effects in the Glass-Works. But for some years before Kempe’s death, John Lisle had become the ghost designer for the firm and Kempe, who still enjoyed initiating a project and making suggestions, came to rely more and more on his junior’s collaboration, eventually handing responsibility for designs to him.

From 1895, the studios used the Wheatsheaf, taken from Kempe’s Family Coat-of-Arms, to sign their work. This simplified the complete Arms of "Gules three garbs within a bordure engrailed", which had been used sparingly.

On Kempe's death in 1907, the Single Wheatsheaf Logo was replaced with the Single Golden Wheatsheaf with a Black Tower superimposed on the head. The last Stained-Glass Window of the firm's production had the Black Tower laid on its side to denote the last of its line.

Illustration: KEMPE STAINED GLASS

Saint George,

in the South Aisle,

Church of Saint Mary and Saint Helen,

Neston, Cheshire, England.

1905.

Illustration: KEMPE STAINED GLASS

Chester Cathedral. Part Six.

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

Chester Cathedral.

Cathedral Church of Christ and The Blessed Virgin Mary,

Chester, England.

The Cathedral, seen from the South-East, looking towards the Choir, right, with the Lady Chapel projecting, extreme right, and the South Transept, left. The Lady Chapel is in the Early-English

(or Lancet) Gothic Style, marked by the simple windows. The Choir is in the Late-Geometric Decorated Gothic Style. The South Transept has Flowing Decorated Windows in the Aisle,

and Perpendicular Gothic Windows in the Clerestory. The friable Red Sandstone building

was heavily restored in the 19th-Century.

Photo: May 2012.

Source: Family Album.

Author: Stephen Hamilton.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1910, William Hill and Son, of London, extensively rebuilt and re-voiced the Organ, replacing the Cavaillé-Coll reeds with new pipes of their own. The Choir Division of the Organ was enlarged and moved behind the Choir Stalls on the South Side. The instrument was again overhauled by Rushworth and Dreaper, of Liverpool, in 1969, when a new mechanism and some new pipework, made to a design by the organist, Roger Fisher, was installed. Since 1991, the Organ has been in the care of David Wells, of Liverpool.

English: Chester Cathedral's Nave

and North Aisle.

Deutsch: Chester, England.

Kathedrale: Mittelschiff (14./15.Jhdt.)

mit nördlichem Seitenschiff.

Photo: 13 July 2011.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author: Wolfgang Sauber.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Chester suffered badly at the hands of the Parliamentary troops during the English Civil War. As a consequence, its Stained-Glass dates mainly from the 19th- and 20th-Centuries, and has representative examples of the significant trends in Stained-Glass design from the 1850s, onwards. Of the earlier, Victorian firms, William Wailes is the best represented, in the South Aisle (1862), as well as Hardman and Co., and Michael Connor.

Glass, from the High-Victorian period, is well represented by two leading London firms, Clayton and Bell and Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The Aesthetic Style is represented by Charles Eamer Kempe. Early-20th-Century windows include several commemorating those who died in World War I.

There are also several notable modern windows, the most recent being the Refectory Window of 2001 by Ros Grimshaw, which depicts The Creation. The Eight-Light Perpendicular Window, of the West End, contains Mid-20th-Century glass, representing The Holy Family and Saints, by W. T. Carter Shapland.

Three modern windows in the South Aisle, designed and made by Alan Younger, were installed to replace windows damaged in the Second World War. They were donated by the 6th Duke of Westminster to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the Cathedral, and contain the dates 1092 and 1992 to reflect the theme of "continuity and change".

English: Chester Cathedral's Nave.

Deutsch: Chester, England.

Kathedrale: Mittelschiff (14./15.Jhdt).

Photo: 13 July 2011.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author: Wolfgang Sauber.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The West End of the Nave is dominated by an Eight-Light Window in the Perpendicular Gothic Style, which almost fills the upper part of the West Wall. It contains Stained-Glass designed by W. T. Carter Shapland, dating from 1961, and depicts The Holy Family in the middle Two Lights, flanked by the Northern Saints, Werburgh, Oswald, Aidan, Chad and Wilfrid, and Queen Ethelfleda.

The stone Nave Pulpit was designed by the restorer, R. C. Hussey, and the Lectern, dated 1876, is by Skidmore. The mosaic floor of the Tower Bay was designed by Dean Howson and executed by Burke and Co. The same firm installed the mosaics which decorate the wall of the North Aisle, depicting the Patriarchs and Prophets, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah. They were designed by J. R. Clayton, of Clayton and Bell, and date from 1883 to 1886.

Monuments in the Nave include those to Roger Barnston, dated 1838, by John Blayney, to Bishop Stratford, dated 1708, to Bishop Hall, who died in 1668, to Edmund Entwistle, dated 1712, to John and Thomas Wainwright, who died, respectively, in 1686 and 1720, to Robert Bickerstaff, who died in 1841, by Blayney, to Dean Smith, who died in 1787, by Thomas Banks, and to Sir William Mainwaring, dated 1671.

The most famous feature of the Choir is the set of Choir Stalls, dating from about 1380, and described, above. The Lectern, in the form of a wooden eagle, symbol of Saint John the Evangelist, dates from the first half of the 17th-Century. The Candlesticks also date from the 17th-Century and are by Censore of Bologna, Italy, who died in 1662.

English: Chester Cathedral's Rood Screen.

Deutsch: Chester, England.

Kathedrale: Lettner.

Photo: 13 July 2011.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author: Wolfgang Sauber.

(Wikimedia Commons)

With these exceptions, most of the decoration and the fittings of the Choir date from the 19th-Century and are in keeping with the Gothic Revival promoted by the Oxford Movement and by Augustus Welby Pugin. The restored Vault of the Choir is typical of the period, having been designed by Scott and decorated and gilded by Clayton and Bell.

The Choir is entered through a Screen designed by George Gilbert Scott, with Gates made by Skidmore. The Rood was designed by Scott, and was made by F. Stuflesser. The Bishop’s Throne, or “Cathedra”, was designed by Scott to complement the Choir Stalls. It was constructed by Farmer and Brindley, in 1876. The Reredos and the floor mosaic date from 1876, and were designed by J. R. Clayton. The East Window has Tracery of an elegant Decorated Gothic design, which is filled with Stained-Glass of 1884, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.

The 13th-Century Lady Chapel contains the stone Shrine of Saint Werburgh, which dates from the 14th-Century, and which used to contain her Relics. The Shrine, of similar red sandstone as the Cathedral, has a base pierced with deep Niches. The upper part takes the form of a miniature Chapel containing Statuettes. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was dismantled. Some of the parts were found during the 1873 Restoration of the Cathedral and the Shrine was re-assembled in 1888 by Blomfield.

A carving of Saint Werburgh, by Joseph Pyrz, was added in 1993. Also in the Chapel, are a Sedilia and a Piscina. The Stained-Glass, of 1859, is by William Wailes. The Chapel contains a Monument to Archdeacon Francis Wrangham, made by Hardman and Co., and dating from 1846.

Early-16th-Century Double Piscina

in the South Wall of the O'Donellan Side Chapel,

Kilconnell Friary,

County Galway, Ireland.

Photo: 16 September 2009.

Source:Own work.

Author: Andreas F. Borchert.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The North Choir Aisle has a stone Screen, by R. C. Hussey, and an iron Gate, dated 1558, that came from Guadalajara. At the East End of the Aisle, is the Chapel of Saint Werburgh, which has a Vault of Two Bays, and an East Window, depicting the Nativity, by Michael O'Connor, dated 1857. Other Stained-Glass Windows in the North Aisle are by William Wailes, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and by Clayton and Bell.

The Chapel contains a Piscina, dating from the 14th-Century, and Monuments to Bishop Graham, dated 1867, and to William Bispham, who died in 1685. Other Monuments in the North Aisle include a Tablet to Bishop Jacobson, dated 1887, by Boehm, to a design by Blomfield.

The small Norman Transept has Clerestory Windows, containing Stained-Glass by William Wailes, installed in 1853. The Sacristy, of 1200, has an East Window, depicting Saint Anselm, and designed by A. K. Nicholson. In the North Transept, is a free-standing Tomb-Chest Monument to Bishop Pearson, who died in 1686, designed by Arthur Blomfield and carved by Nicholas Earp, with a recumbent effigy by Matthew Noble.

Other Monuments in the Transept include one to Samuel Peploe, dating from about 1784, by Joseph Nollekens. The Wall Monuments include Cenotaphs to Members of the Cheshire (Earl of Chester's) Yeomanry, killed in the Boer War, and in the First and Second World Wars. At the corner of the Transept with the North Aisle, is a 17th-Century Tree of Jesse, carved in whale ivory. A Niche contains a rare example of a "cobweb picture", painted on the web of a caterpillar. Originating in the Austrian Tyrol, it depicts Mary and the Christ-Child, and is based on a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1565).

Photo: 30 September 2012.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_and_

the_Woman_Taken_in_Adultery_Bruegel.jpg.

Author: Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526 – 1569.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Grisaille (French: gris) ('grey') is a term for a painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles, in fact, include a slightly wider colour range. Paintings executed in brown are sometimes referred to by the more specific term brunaille, and paintings executed in green are sometimes called verdaille.

The Chapter House has Stained-Glass in its East Window, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and Grisaille Windows in the North and South Walls, dated 1882–1883, by Blomfield. It contains an oak Cope Cupboard, from the Late-13th-Century. The front of the Chapter House was rebuilt to a design by Hussey.

The South Aisle was shortened in 1870 by Scott, and given an Apsidal East End, becoming the Chapel of Saint Erasmus. The Stained-Glass in the Apse Window is dated 1872 and is by Clayton and Bell. Below this, is a mosaic designed by J. R. Clayton and made by Salviati, and a fresco painting by Clayton and Bell, dated 1874.

Elsewhere, the Stained-Glass in the Aisle is by Wailes, and by Hardman & Co., to a design by Pugin. The Aisle contains the tomb of Ranulf Higdon, a Monk at Saint Werburgh's Abbey in the 12th-Century, who wrote a major work of history, entitled Polychronicon; a Monument to Thomas Brassey (a Civil Engineering contractor who died in 1870), designed by Blomfield and made by Wagmuller; a Monument to Bishop Peploe, who died in 1752, and three painted Monuments by a member of the Randle Holme family.

English: Chester Cathedral Lectern.

Deutsch: Chester, England. Kathedrale: Lesepult.

Photo: 13 July 2011.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author: Wolfgang Sauber.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The South Transept, formerly the Parish Church of Saint Oswald, contains a Piscina and a Sedilia in the South Wall. On the East Wall, are four Chapels, each with a Reredos, two of which were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, one by Kempe and the other by his successor, W. E. Tower. The South Window is dated 1887 and was made by Heaton, Butler and Bayne to a design by R. C. Hussey.

Other Stained-Glass in the Transept is by Clayton and Bell, by C. E. Kempe and by Powell. The Monuments include those to: George Ogden, who died in 1781, by Hayward; Anne Matthews, who died in 1793, by Thomas Banks; John Philips Buchanan, who died at Waterloo in 1815; and the 1st Duke of Westminster, designed by C. J. Blomfield.

On the wall of the South-West Crossing Pier, are Monuments which include a Cenotaph to the casualties in HMS Chester, in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, who included the 16-year-old John Cornwell VC. The West Wall of the South Transept has many Memorials, including Cenotaphs to The Cheshire Regiment, The Royal Air Force and The Free Czech Forces.

The Cloisters were restored in the 20th-Century, and the Stained-Glass Windows contain the images of some 130 Saints. The Cloister Garth contains a modern sculpture, entitled "The Water of Life", by Stephen Broadbent. The Refectory Roof is dated 1939 and was designed by F. H. Crossley. The East Window, with reticulated Tracery, was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and is dated 1913.

The Bishop's "Cathedra" (Chair),

Chester Cathedral.

Date: 25 March 2008

(original upload date).

(Original Text : 17th March 2008).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia.

Author: Original uploader was Joopercoopers

at en.wikipedia.

(Original Text : Joopercoopers.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Stained-Glass in the West Window, depicting The Creation, was designed by Ros Grimshaw and installed in 2001 to celebrate the Millennium. On the Refectory's West Wall, there is a Tapestry depicting Elymas being struck with blindness, which was woven at Mortlake, in the 17th-Century, from a cartoon by Raphael. The Heraldic paintings on the North Wall represent the Arms of the Earls of Chester.

A Library has been present since the time of Saint Werburgh's Abbey, and, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it became the Cathedral Library. It continued to grow over the Centuries, but, by the 19th-Century, it had become neglected. Between 1867 and 1885, it was enlarged and, in the 1890s, new book-cases were added. A further reorganisation took place in the 1920s, but, by the 1980s, the contents were contained in five separate sites around the Cathedral. A programme of repair and re-cataloguing of the contents was instituted. During recent years, more work was carried out and the refurbished Library, housed in three rooms, opened in 2007. The Library is available for research and for organised visits by groups.

The Choral tradition at Chester is 900-years-old, dating from the foundation of the Benedictine Monastery. In 1741, Handel heard the first recital of his Messiah at Chester. There are usually eight Choral Services in the Cathedral each week. Chester has a Cathedral Choir of male Lay Clerks, Choral Scholars, and boy and girl Choristers. They rehearse in the Song School, built on the site of the former Monks' Dormitory. In addition to singing at Services, the Choir perform in concerts, tour abroad, and make recordings on CDs. There is no Choir School at Chester, so the Choristers come from local schools. There is also a Mixed Choir of adults, the Nave Choir, which sings Compline on Sunday evenings and in other services. This Choir also takes part in concerts, and undertakes tours. Having been founded during the 1860s, it is the longest-running voluntary Cathedral Choir in Britain.

Burials at Chester Cathedral include: George Clarke of Hyde, former Colonial Governor of New York, America, between 1736 to 1743; Frederick Phillips, a wealthy landowner from New York, America, who was loyal to the British Colonial Government and who was forced to quit his estates.

THIS COMPLETES THE ARTICLE ON CHESTER CATHEDRAL.