When was chichester cathedral built

After 5 years of construction the tower stood at 82 metres tall, and is what you can see today. Although the building itself is famous for its unique and beautiful architecture, Chichester Cathedral is also home to some internationally important pieces of art, both modern and historic. In the floor can be seen a small fragment of uncovered Roman mosaic, whilst nearby are two early twelfth century carved reliefs regarded as outstanding examples of pre-gothic sculpture.

The Cathedral suffered from heavy raids during the English Civil War, and a large screen was built to hide the two reliefs, which were then re-discovered at a later date. They are well-known for their use of modern works of art, including a beautiful and brightly coloured John Piper tapestry, a Marc Chagall stained glass window that entices visitors from far and wide, and a 'Virgin and Child' sculpture by John Skelton.

The Cathedral is still a lively and thriving centre attraction in the city, and has an extensive events and learning programme, with music and workshops, weddings, a choir and daily prayers. The Novium Museum. Open - Tues - Sat Click here to book your visit now. The cathedral was extended westwards in after a fire, and in , a second fire tore through the town of Chichester and heavily damaged the cathedral. The roof of the Nave had been made of wood, and the fire resulted in a reconstruction project, and to the current stone vault that we see today.

The 13th century also saw the completion of additional chapels on either side of the Nave which formed double aisles, common in French cathedrals. This meant that Chichester became one of the widest cathedrals in England. The Lady Chapel was extended in the 14th Century, and the south wall of the south transept was redesigned to include the 7 windows we see today.

The 14th century also saw construction of the spire, and it was repaired by Sir Christopher Wren in the 17th century,. Unfortunately it collapsed in , but was immediately rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott. It rises a total height of feet. It is a touching memorial as husband and wife are depicted holding hands which is quite unusual.

The reformation of the church under King Henry VIII affected the cathedral greatly, with many monuments and carvings defaced. The shrine of St. The 17th century saw the civil war and the cathedral suffered further under Parliamentary troops. Thankfully, after centuries of neglect, a restoration was begun by Dean George Chandler in the s.

Chichester is a wonderful place to see many different centuries of influence on cathedral architecture. I was also impressed by the Roman history, and you can see a Roman mosaic under the floor of the cathedral through a glass window. There is a lot of art in the cathedral as well, and Norman carvings remain.

You can view his impressive resume on his Wikipedia […]. You are commenting using your WordPress. The responds and cross-arches were apparently of greater thickness at the west end of the aisles than the eastern part, and close to the towerarches there still remain wall-shafts which probably served partly to carry the cross-arches against the towers.

There were also similar arches in the triforia, the responds of which still exist. The material used in all these works is said to have come chiefly from Quarr Abbey in the Isle of Wight. Although one sees no traces of the damage done by the fire of , the results are far more obvious of the much more serious fire which took place on 20 October , in which the city, the bishop's palace and the canons' houses were all involved.

This fire seems to have occurred at a time when an enlargement of the cathedral was being carried out, and since the chief damage was to the interior owing to the collapse of the blazing roofs, opportunity was taken in the subsequent rebuilding to effect certain changes in the internal detail, which were most ingeniously contrived. The work was carried out under Bishop Seffrid II, who seems to have shown the greatest energy in his task. The repairs to the damaged parts were effected with strict economy, the burnt surface of the masonry of the piers and arcades being scaled and refaced with Caen stone ashlar, including the outer orders of the arches towards the main body, but the remainder of the stonework of each pier and arch was left unaltered.

The Purbeck marble shafts which replaced the engaged shafts towards the quire and nave may perhaps be considered the only piece of extravagance on this work of necessary repair, and it is probably more noticeable because of the contrast with the extremely simple plain masonry of the earlier unaltered parts of the piers and arches.

The use of Purbeck marble for the shafts may be assigned in part to about the date , when King John gave licence for a year to Bishop Simon de Wells to fetch his marble for the repair of the cathedral, by sea, from Purbeck to Chichester.

The triforia arcades were barely damaged and were left unchanged, but the clearstory, which must have suffered very severely from the burning wood roofs, was almost entirely remodelled, only the actual windows being left unaltered. In the west half of the nave there is a difference in detail in the later reconstruction as well as in the earlier work. This part may well have suffered less harm from the fire owing to the absence of stalls or other woodwork on the floor.

It is not improbable that while the eastern part and the crossing were perhaps in ruins, the western part of the nave was in a sufficiently good condition to be temporarily fitted up for services during the work of renovation.

When the eastern part was finished and in use, the refacing of the walls of the western half of the nave, more or less to match, was almost immediately proceeded with, before the vaulting was erected over the whole. The scheme for vaulting, which is of quadripartite design throughout the building, was the natural concomitant of the desire to have no more to do with inflammable wood ceilings, and this form of construction had already been begun in the Lady Chapel, erected just before the fire of The vaulting of the main body necessitated the strengthening of the aisle-buttresses and the provision of flying buttresses to resist the thrust on the walls; the original cross-arches in the triforia, being no longer required, were demolished.

The flying buttresses to the south aisle of the nave are in two separate stages one below the other and concealed by the triforium roof; but elsewhere in the eastern arm and nave one arch was considered sufficient, although some have had to be reinforced by a lower arch in contact with the original soffits.

The transept, being divided in each arm into two bays, instead of the original three, had to be furnished with new buttresses, but, having no aisles, flying arches were not required.

The re-dedication of the church by Bishop Seffrid II, in the presence of six other bishops, took place on 12 September , fn. Probably the actual repairs and vaulting over the eastern arm were completed, and although it was said that Bishop Seffrid, at the time of his death in , had rebuilt the church at great expense, fn.

It was simply a desire to make the aisles conform to the new ideas that led to their alteration. Not being an urgent matter, this could proceed more slowly; for example, the vaulting of the south aisle of the eastern arm may not have been erected before the middle of the 13th century.

With the work of repair there arose the desire to lengthen the eastern arm by two bays and to make the east end of the main body square. Here there was little to restrict the aims and tastes of the builder, and it is therefore here that are found the most beautiful details of the Transitional 12th—13th century period in the cathedral, without being in any way a violent contrast to the older design.

Probably the lengthening was begun from the east and the junction effected with the older walls when the work was far enough advanced.

Whether it was actually contemporary with the renovations is uncertain, but it seems improbable that the dedication of would have taken place without at least the lower part of it being in a fit condition to be included in the new sacrarium. It is quite obvious that the clearstory of these two bays is of a different period from that of the remodelling of the original clearstory west of it, whether earlier or later.

It probably shows a greater difference than would occur in a period of twelve years, although it may be assumed that after the fire of Bishop Seffrid would have devoted most of his energies to the completion of a sanctuary fit for services and left the further work on the church to be treated in due course. The eastern chapels of St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalene were probably added slightly later, and during the following three or four decades many other changes were effected.

These include the building or rebuilding of the north and south porches, the addition of the chapels east of the transept, the northern at least in place of a pre-existing apse, and the building of the sacristy west of the south arm.

It is not easy to place the exact sequence of these works, but that they were not all built at one time is evident from their details. Perhaps the earliest change was the south porch, which may even have preceded the fire; but it is a peculiarly difficult piece of architecture to date.

Its mouldings lack much of the subtlety and grace of the contours seen in other parts of the building and there are indications of an early date in the walling and particularly in the carved heads of monsters in the entrance archway, yet the foliated capitals are less conventional and 'stiff' than elsewhere.

Perhaps the masons, familiar with the fashioning of 12th-century grotesques, etc. It is possible, on the other hand, that the porch was later remodelled in part and that the present mouldings are the work of later 'restorers' who were very thorough in their methods, but it is interesting to compare the mouldings with those of the chapel in the bishop's palace, which seem to be by the same hand.

The porch was originally gabled, the upper story, used as a treasury or 'secret chamber,' being a later alteration. The south doorway is a better piece of workmanship than the porch and is evidently of a later decade or two, perhaps displacing a 12th-century doorway after the porch had been erected.

The north porch is not of the same date as the south and is a rather more finished piece of work so far as its mouldings are concerned. It is more likely to have followed the south porch than to have preceded it, as there seems to have been already a porch existing, although this was not quite of the earliest period of the earlyth-century fabric, judging from the evidence of a pre-existing window above the north doorway.

One shaft-base of the 12th century exists west of the doorway, but whether it belonged to a doorway or one of the tower buttresses is uncertain: it corresponds in size and contour with the bases of the latter.

One criterion for dating the other parts of the building may perhaps be the sections of the vaulting ribs, which vary, although they may not always be coeval with the walls beneath them. For instance, the ribs of the easternmost bay of the eastern arm and the south arm of the transept, which are enriched with dog-tooth ornament and are not keeled, are probably later than the ribs of the west bays of the sanctuary, while those of the north arm of the transept may be of a date between the two.

Again, the ribs of the aisles may be later than those of the main body. Partly on this evidence and on the early appearance of the walling inside, and also the existence of a shallow buttress to its south wall, it may be assumed that the square chapel of St. Pantaleon was one of the earliest additions.

Possibly it may have been one of the works that were being executed when the great fire of occurred, although it is certain that it was remodelled at a later period. It may have displaced an apse, but of this there is no remaining evidence. The chapel, now the Canons' Vestry, was evidently free on its three outer sides, but it was soon decided to fill in the small pocket which had been left between it and the south aisle by what is now the Priest-vicars' Vestry, perhaps to serve as a vestry.

The heightening of this chamber as a 'watching chamber' may have been done subsequently, in the 14th century. The chapel of the Four Virgins, fn. Pantaleon's chapel, it was decided to fill the whole space up to the aisle wall instead of leaving a pocket. The result was the beautiful double-aisled structure we see to-day, containing the only actually free column in the cathedral, apart from window-shafts and the like.

There is a curious mixture of styles here, for while the windows are carved with dog-tooth ornament, the vault-ribs exhibit the typical zigzag ornament of the 12th century. The chamber above seems to have been of the same period, inasmuch as the stairvice which leads up to it is part of the same work as the vaulting, but the chamber was altered subsequently.

It is suggested by Walcott that this chamber was the original library or muniment room, and its importance may be inferred by the lofty roof which once covered it, the marks of which remain on the north arm of the transept. Another point, noticed by Willis, is that the aisle-buttress, seen within the library, was one work with the vaulting-shaft attached to it.

As this buttress was required to resist the aisle vault as well as to carry the flying buttress, it may not have been till after the erection of this chamber that the aisle-vaulting, at least, was erected in place of the earlier groined vault.

The next addition to be considered is the sacristy on the west side of the south arm. Here the buttresses to the aisle and transept were probably already in position, and use was made of them, in vaulting the chamber, to reduce the span. But owing to the width of its west wall, the vault against it was divided into two bays, so that instead of the usual quadripartite plan, the bay is divided into five compartments. Being intended for more utilitarian ends than the chapels, its vault-ribs were not moulded, and apart from the carving in the corbels and bosses, it is a very plain piece of architecture.

It is probably the work of about upon which Bishop Ralph Neville expended considerable sums. There was a gabled chamber above the sacristy which has left its mark on the west wall of the transept : whether this upper story was contemporary or later is uncertain as it was all cleared away when the present upper chamber, serving as the chapter house, was erected some time in the 15th century. A new wide stair-turret to serve this chamber was inserted north-east of it, next the transept, and entered from the south aisle.

Presumably the entrance to the earlier upper chamber was by the vice south-west of the transept. It must have been about the same time or very soon afterwards that the scheme was initiated for adding the chapels flanking the nave-aisles.

The idea began apparently with the addition of the one-bay chapel of St. Thomas and St. Edmund off the second bay of the north aisle. This chapel was free on its three outer sides, and when it was erected there seems to have been no immediate intention of extending the scheme westwards. It is said that St. Richard de Wych , who was bishop from to and previously to that a follower of St. Edmund Rich , was buried near the altar of the Blessed Edmund which he himself had consecrated.

Edmund died in and was canonised in , and therefore the consecration is fixed at between and But the style of the architecture is suggestive of a somewhat earlier period and it is more probably the work of Bishop Ralph Neville —44 ; possibly he dedicated it to St.

Thomas of Canterbury alone, and the dedication to St. Edmund was added after his canonisation in The vaulting of this chapel is earlier than that of the two south chapels of St. Clement and St. George, which must have followed almost immediately.

This was a great task involving the piercing of the outer walls of the aisle with a new arcade of four bays, and the alteration to the main buttresses, etc. The arcades were probably begun before the outer walls of the chapels and the cross-arches were erected, and from its details it is quite probable that the easternmost arch preceded the others.

Each chapel was of two bays and separated by a solid cross-wall, the chapels themselves being divided by moulded arches like the arcades, but having a slightly later appearance. Each chapel was furnished with a reredos incorporated in the walling as in the chapel of SS.

Thomas and Edmund, but here the capitals are rounded instead of square, a sign generally in this building of later work. This addition may have proceeded less rapidly than some of the other parts, because its vaulting shows no difference from that of the two later northern chapels, which are attributed to St.

Theobald and St. Anne, each of two bays like the others, but separated by a low wall across an open archway instead of a solid wall. The arcade of four bays, which was cut through the north aisle wall, was based in general appearance on those to the other chapels but with later details, probably of about , when chantries were founded at the altars of the Four Virgins and St.

Each of the two chapels had a reredos modelled more or less on that in SS. Thomas and Edmund's Chapel, that to St. Anne's being against or rather in the low dividing wall between the two chapels.