Lincoln Cathedral
| Lincoln Cathedral | |
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| Basic information | |
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| Location | Lincoln |
| Full name | Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
| Country | England |
| Ecclesiastical information | |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | Lincoln |
| Diocese created | 1072 |
| Bishop | The Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee |
| Dean | The Very Revd Canon Philip Buckler |
| Precentor | The Revd Canon Gavin Kirk |
| Director of Music |
Aric Prentice |
| Organist | Charles Harrison |
| Website | www.lincolncathedral.com |
| Building information | |
| Dates built | 1185-1311 |
| Architectural style | Gothic |
| Length | 143.3m |
| Towers | 3 |
| Tower height(s) | 83m (crossing) |
| Spires | 3 (now lost) |
| Spire height(s) | 160m (crossing tower) |
Lincoln Cathedral (in full The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, or sometimes St. Mary's Cathedral) is a historic cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Diocese of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was the tallest building in the world for over 200 years (1300–1549), but the central spire collapsed in the sixteenth century and was not rebuilt. It is highly regarded by architectural scholars; the eminent Victorian writer John Ruskin declared, "I have always held... that the cathedral of Lincoln is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have."
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History
William the Conqueror ordered the first cathedral to be built in Lincoln, in 1072. Before that, St. Mary's Church in Lincoln was a mother church but not a cathedral, and the seat of the diocese was at Dorchester Abbey in Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Lincoln was more central to a diocese that stretched from the Thames to the Humber. Bishop Remigius built the first Lincoln Cathedral on the present site, finishing it in 1092 and then dying two days before it was to be consecrated on May 9 of that year. About fifty years later, most of that building was destroyed in a fire. Bishop Alexander rebuilt and expanded the cathedral, but it was destroyed by an earthquake about forty years later, in 1185.
After the earthquake, a new bishop was appointed. The new bishop was St Hugh of Lincoln, originally from Avalon, France; he began a massive rebuilding and expansion programme. Rebuilding began at the east end of the cathedral, with an apse and five small radiating chapels. The central nave was then built in the Early English Gothic style. Lincoln Cathedral soon followed other architectural advances of the time - pointed arches, flying buttresses and ribbed vaulting were added to the cathedral. This allowed the creation and support of larger windows.
The cathedral is the 3rd largest in Britain (in floor space) after St Paul's and York Minster, being 484 feet (148 m) by 271 feet (83 m). It is Lincolnshire's largest building and until 1549 the tower was the tallest medieval tower in Europe. Accompanying the cathedral's large bell, Great Tom of Lincoln, is a quarter-hour striking clock. The clock was installed in the early 19th century.
There are thirteen bells in the south-west tower, two in the north west tower, and five in the central tower (including Great Tom).
The matching Dean's Eye and Bishop’s Eye were added to the cathedral during the late Middle Ages. The former, the Dean's Eye in the north transept dates from the 1192 rebuild begun by St Hugh, it was finally completed in 1235. The latter, the Bishop’s eye, in the south transept was re-constructed 100 years later in 1330. A contemporary record, “The Metrical Life of St Hugh”, refers to the meaning of these two windows (one on the dark, north, side and the other on the light, south, side of the building):
“For north represents the devil, and south the Holy Spirit and it is in these directions that the two eyes look. The bishop faces the south in order to invite in and the dean the north in order to shun; the one takes care to be saved, the other takes care not to perish. With these Eyes the cathedral’s face is on watch for the candelabra of Heaven and the darkness of Lethe (oblivion).”
After the additions of the Dean’s eye and other major Gothic additions it is believed some mistakes in the support of the tower occurred, for in either in 1237 or 1239 the main tower collapsed. A new tower was soon started and in 1255 the Cathedral petitioned Henry III to allow them to take down part of the town wall to enlarge and expand the Cathedral, including the rebuilding of the central tower and spire. They replaced the small rounded chapels (built at the time of St Hugh) with a larger east end to the cathedral. This was to handle the increasing number of pilgrims to the Cathedral, who came to worship at the shrine of Hugh of Lincoln.
In 1290 Eleanor of Castile died. As his Queen Consort of England, King Edward I decided to honour her with an elegant funeral procession. After embalming, which in the thirteenth century involved evisceration, Eleanor's viscera were buried in Lincoln cathedral, and Edward placed a duplicate of the Westminster tomb there. The Lincoln tomb's original stone chest survives; its effigy was destroyed in the 17th century and replaced with a 19th-century copy. On the outside of Lincoln Cathedral are two prominent statues often identified as Edward and Eleanor, but these images were heavily restored in the 19th century and probably were not originally intended to depict the couple.
- Further information: Eleanor cross
Between the years 1307 and 1311 the central tower was raised to its present height of 83 m (271 feet). The western towers and front of the cathedral were also improved and heightened. At this time, a tall lead-encased wooden spire topped the central tower but was blown down in a storm in 1549. With its spire, the tower reputedly reached a height of 525 feet (which would have made it the world's tallest structure, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza, which held the record for almost 4000 years). Other additions to the cathedral at this time included its elaborate carved screen and the 14th century misericords, as was the Angel choir. For a large part of the length of the cathedral, the walls have arches in relief with a second layer in front giving the illusion of a passageway along the wall. However the illusion does not work, as the stonemason, copying techniques from France, did not make the arches the correct length needed for the illusion effect.
In 1398 John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford founded a chantry there to pray for their souls, and in the 15th century the building of the cathedral turned to chantry or memorial chapels. The chapels next to the Angel Choir were built in the Perpendicular style, with an emphasis on strong vertical lines, which survive today in the window tracery and wall panelling.
Magna Carta
The Bishop of Lincoln was one of the signatories to the Magna Carta and for hundreds of years the Cathedral has held one of the four remaining copies of the original. It now resides in the nearby Lincoln Castle, where it is on permanent display. There are three other surviving copies, two at the British Library and one at Salisbury Cathedral.
The Lincoln Imp
One of the stone carvings within the Cathedral is the Lincoln Imp. There are several variations of the legend surrounding the figure.
According to 14th-century legend, two mischievous creatures called imps were sent by Satan to do evil work on Earth. After causing mayhem elsewhere in Northern England the two imps headed to Lincoln Cathedral where they smashed tables and chairs and tripped up the Bishop. An angel appeared in the Angel Choir and ordered them to stop. One of the imps sat atop a stone pillar started throwing rocks at the angel whilst the other imp cowered under the broken tables and chairs. The angel turned the first imp to stone allowing the second imp to escape. The imp that turned to stone, the Lincoln Imp, can still be found, frozen in stone, sitting atop his stone column in the Angel Choir.
Wren library
The Wren Library houses a rare collection of over 277 manuscripts, including the text of the Bede.
Today
According to the cathedral website, over £1 million a year is spent on keeping the cathedral in shape; the most recent project completed has been the restoration of the West Front in 2000. About ten years ago it was discovered that the flying buttresses on the east end were no longer connected to the adjoining stonework, and repairs were made to prevent collapse. The most recent problem was the discovery that the stonework of the Dean's Eye window in the transept was crumbling, meaning that a complete reconstruction of the window has had to be carried out according to the conservation criteria set out by the International Council on Monuments and Sites.
There was a period of great anxiety when it emerged that the stonework only needed to shift 5mm for the entire window to collapse. Specialist engineers removed the window's tracery before installing a strengthened, more stable replacement. In addition to this the original stained glass was cleaned and set behind a new clear isothermal glass which offers better protection from the elements. By April 2006 the renovation project was completed at a cost of £2 million.
Recently, concerns have been growing once more about the state of the West Front, as there has been some stonework falling, which has raised questions as to the effectiveness of the repairs carried out in 2000.
Lincoln Cathedral is at present a very popular destination and is visited by over 250,000 tourists a year. The semi-mandatory entrance fee for week day visiting is £4.00 or about $8.00 which is charged on admission throughout the tourist season. The cathedral offers tours of the cathedral, the tower and the roof. The peak of its season is the Lincoln Christmas Market, accompanied by a massive annual production of Handel's Messiah. The current Bishop of Lincoln is Dr John Saxbee. The current Dean of the Cathedral is the Very Reverend Philip Buckler, who had previously been Canon Treasurer of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
Choir
The Choir is currently formed of 11 Lay Vicars (three of whom are choral scholars), a team of c.20 boys and a team of c. 20 girls.
The Cathedral accepted female choristers in 1995. Lincoln was only the second Cathedral in the country to adopt a separate girls' choir, after Salisbury Cathedral, and remains one of few who provide exactly the same musical opportunities and equal weekly singing duties to both girls and boys. All the choristers are educated at Lincoln Minster School.
The Director of Music is Aric Prentice, who conducts the choir of girls and men, and the Assistant Director of Music is Charles Harrison, who conducts the choir of boys and men. The Organist Laureate is Colin Walsh, previously Organist and Master of the Choristers, and the Assistant Organist is Benjamin Chewter. Like any great cathedral, Lincoln has had its share of organists who have achieved international renown: perhaps the most famous is William Byrd, the Renaissance composer. Although it is uncertain whether Byrd was born in Lincoln as has been claimed, he was organist at the Cathedral from 1563 until 1572 and continued to compose works specifically for the cathedral choir after his departure.
Organ
The organ is one of the finest examples of the work of 'Father' Henry Willis, dating from 1898 (it was his last cathedral organ before his death in 1901). There have been two restorations of it by Harrison & Harrison in 1960 and 1998. The specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[1]
Organists
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from 2003 Colin Walsh became Organist Laureate and Aric Prentice was appointed Director of Music.
In popular culture
Literature
- An important scene in D. H. Lawrence's novel, The Rainbow, takes place at Lincoln Cathedral.
- The cathedral features in Ken Follett's novel The Pillars of the Earth.
Film
- The cathedral was used for the filming of The Da Vinci Code (based on the book of the same name). Filming took place mainly within the cloisters and chapter house of the cathedral, and remained a closed set. The Cathedral took on the role of Westminster Abbey, as the Abbey had refused to permit filming. Although there was protest at the filming, the filming was completed by the end of August 2005. In order to make the Lincoln chapter house appear similar to the Westminster Chapter House, murals were painted on a special layer over the existing wall, and elsewhere polystyrene replicas of Isaac Newton's tomb and other Abbey monuments were set up. For a time these murals and replicas remained in the Chapter House, as part of a Da Vinci Code exhibit for visitors, but in January 2008 they were all sold off in an auction to raise money for the Cathedral.[2]
- The cathedral also doubled as Westminster Abbey for the film Young Victoria, filmed in September 2007.[3]
See also
- List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom
- List of tallest churches
- Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
- English Gothic architecture
- Romanesque architecture
- Church of England
References
- "Lincoln Cathedral: Official Guide", Diocese of Lincoln
- "Lincoln Cathedral" by Peter B G Binnall, Pitkin Publishing
External links
- Choir Association Website
- Lincoln Cathedral Official Website
- The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: a history and description of its fabric
- Large collection of pictures and info on Lincoln Cathedral
- Thayer's site; includes one whole book on the church
- The Association of the Friends of Lincoln Cathedral
- Adrian Fletcher's Paradoxplace – Lincoln Cathedral Pages
- A history of the choristers of Lincoln Cathedral
- Flickr images tagged Lincoln Cathedral
- Conserving the Dean's Eye window, Ingenia Magazine, December 2007
- Spire graphical reconstruction
| Preceded by Great Pyramid of Giza |
World's tallest structure 1300—1549 160 m |
Succeeded by St. Olaf's church, Tallinn |
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Church in Wales
Scottish Episcopal Church