Cathedrals of Britain: Central and East

By Bernadette Fallon

**Pointing persistently to heaven: A guide to UK cathedrals**

Power, glory, bloodshed, prayer: cathedrals in the UK are as much about human drama as spiritual sanctuary, as much about political wrangling as religious fervour. From Christian beginnings in the Middle Ages through Reformation, Renaissance and Modernity, the great cathedrals of Britain have been both battleground and place of quiet reflection; created for the glory of God for sure, but also for the glory of men.

There’s a litany of great deeds and a list of secrets tied up in our national cathedrals and all are revealed within our guides, the ideal companions to the stories behind the greatest cathedrals of all. Whether you are travelling to view the buildings themselves or being an armchair enthusiast, let us take you on a journey.

**Book Three: Central and the East of England**

Heavy hitters on the religious landscape, the famous cathedrals of East Anglia were a roll-call of riches, power, authority and influence in the Middle Ages and still attract hundreds of thousands of visitors today. In cathedral terms, they rank among some of the brightest and the best - Norwich, Lincoln, Ely, Peterborough and St Edmundsbury - along with their close neighbors Oxford - the smallest cathedral in England - and Lichfield - the final resting place of the 7th century St Chad and his multitude of angels.

Here are wonderful treasures to be explored. From a building that was once the tallest in the world, surpassing even the monumental Great Pyramid of Giza, to one that is the final resting place for the digestive system of a legendary queen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Sep 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781526703903

Bernadette Fallon

Bernadette Fallon is an author and journalist, with a penchant for travel and a love of old buildings. Her work as a travel writer has taken her all over the world.

Book preview

Introduction

Heavy hitters on the religious landscape, the famous cathedrals of East Anglia were a roll-call of riches, power, authority and influence in the Middle Ages and still attract visitors in their thousands today. In cathedral terms, they rank among some of the brightest and the best – Norwich, Lincoln, Ely, Peterborough and St Edmundsbury – along with their close neighbours Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford – one of the smallest cathedrals in England – and Lichfield – the final resting place of the 7th century St Chad and his multitude of angels.

Here are wonderful treasures to be explored. The awe-inspiring Octagon of Ely was the largest and most complicated piece of carpentry ever made when it was created in the 14th century to hide a troublesome problem – a very large hole in the ceiling caused by the tower falling down.

Lincoln Cathedral was once the tallest building in the world, rising higher than even the Great Pyramid of Giza at the start of the 14th century when a spire was added to the cathedral tower.

The beautiful angels of Lichfield Cathedral were created to honour St Chad, who was visited by them a week before his death, and are found throughout the building, culminating in the angel quire, where musical stone angels on the corbels add their ‘song’ to join the humans below.

The wonderful medieval vaulted nave of Norwich dates from the 12th century. And the 13th century wooden ceiling of Peterborough is the only one of its type in Britain and one of only four from this period surviving in Europe.

The vast grounds of St Edmundsbury were once home to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, one of the most famous medieval monasteries in all of England and the resting place of the country’s former patron saint. And the cathedral of Oxford is one of the smallest in the country and, given its history, a miracle it’s still with us at all.

East Anglia comprises the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, including the City of Peterborough. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a tribe that originally came from Angeln in northern Germany. The kingdom was established in the 6th century and initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk – the ‘north folk’ and the ‘south folk’ – extending to include the Isle of Ely after the East Anglian princess Etheldreda was given it as a dowry. We’ll meet her later in the book.

East Anglia was one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain that eventually unified into the Kingdom of England under one ruling king. That king is often confused with Alfred the Great – but Alfred never ruled the entire kingdom. He is characterised as king of the Angles and of the Saxons but the first king to rule the unified country was Athelstan in the early 10th century, hailed as King of England. East Anglia’s heyday came in the early 7th century when, after a victory over the rival kingdom of Northumbria, it was briefly the most powerful kingdom. But in turn it was defeated in battle by Mercia and eventually over-run by the Danes.

Contact with the neighbouring kingdom of Kent brought about the movement from Paganism to Christianity in the early 7th century. The East Anglian king Redwald was converted when staying with King Ethelbert of Kent. Ethelbert had himself converted when Pope Gregory sent Augustine to preach Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons in 597, and his first port of call was Kent. Ethelbert was also married to the Christian queen, Bertha, who was keen for him to practice the new faith.

But just as it was a wife who played the upper hand in Ethelbert’s conversion, it was also a wife who was responsible for trying to prevent Redwald making one. Legend has it that Redwald’s wife was not happy with his new Christian status when he returned home and insisted he change back. Finding himself in a bit of a quandary, he opted for a happy compromise by building two altars for worship – one dedicated to Christ, the other to the old gods. He didn’t impress the monk known as the Venerable Bede though. This formidable chronicler of the faith in the Middle Ages, who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People in about 731, described Redwald as ‘ignoble’.

Things started to look up for Christianity when Sigbert Sigeberht took the throne of East Anglia in 631. He had spent his youth in Gaul, a region in western Europe inhabited by Celtic tribes, where he became a devout Christian. It’s likely he brought Felix, the first Bishop of East Anglia, with him from Burgundy. As soon as Sigbert became king, Felix, who is credited with spreading Christianity throughout the kingdom, asked for permission from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Honsorius, to be allowed to preach to the Angles.

Bede liked Felix, saying:

Like a good farmer Felix reaped a rich harvest of believers. He delivered the entire province from its age-old wickedness and sorrow, brought it to the Christian way of life, and – as his own name signifies – guided it towards eternal happiness.

Felix went on to serve for seventeen years as bishop at the Holy See of Dummoc, where he died. His relics were brought first to Ely, then to the abbey of Ramsey, and he was eventually venerated as a saint. The Suffolk town of Felixstowe still bears his name. The name Felix, incidentally, means ‘successful’.

Today there’s some debate as to where Dummoc was actually located. Some believe it to be today’s Dunwich in Suffolk, which is largely under the sea, after being slowly eroded over the centuries. Once the capital of the kingdom of East Anglia, at its height it was a thriving international port, about the same size as 14th century London. Its decline started in the 13th century when a series of storms wrecked the coastline. Today it records a tiny population and its twelve medieval churches are lost forever under the waves.

Or was Dummoc today’s town of Walton in Suffolk, which had an early Roman fort called Walton Castle? Historians claim there was a church dedicated to St Felix within the castle walls in the 12th century, which – if true – makes it also a likely contender.

Sigbert, meanwhile, had given up his kingdom to found a monastery, though it didn’t turn out well for him. He was forced into battle when the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia invaded East Anglia and, refusing to fight, was duly slaughtered.

While Christianity started to spread, it took a while for the mighty cathedrals we see today to rise. Though many of them are known to be standing on the sites of earlier churches, it wasn’t until the coming of the Normans with William the Conqueror in 1066 that what is called ‘the golden age’ of English cathedrals arrived. Of course, that also depends on how you look at it, and whether you were a member of the local clergy at the time. These mighty Norman cathedrals were built across the land to show the conquering army’s power and might. With some casualties: the simpler buildings they replaced and the Saxon clergy who were ousted to make way for the victors.

Canterbury Cathedral kicked off proceedings from 1070, under the charge of William’s close supporter Abbot Lanfranc. Winchester Cathedral was started in 1079, Durham in 1093 and Norwich in 1096, three of the finest cathedral buildings still in existence. Around the same time Lincoln, Ely, Peterborough, Gloucester and Rochester were also underway.

By the start of the 12th century, the rebuilding of most of the great Saxon churches had started. But by the end of the 11th, only a tiny fraction of the abbots who ran the most powerful monasteries in the country were English. The others had all been replaced by powerful Normans, whose remit was frequently as much political as religious.

But the tide never ceases to turn and in their time these Norman expressions of power and glory would themselves come to be slowly replaced, though cathedrals such as Norwich and Peterborough still remain two of the finest Norman buildings in this part of the country. As for the others, many were slowly modified and replaced by a new building style, the soaring and revolutionary Gothic. From the 13th century, buildings began to grow higher and lighter. Norman cathedrals were dark and looked like fortresses, while Gothic interiors were filled with light and space.

And with more light and space came the desire to show off a bit more. Ornate wall carvings, detailed wall paintings, chiselled wooden decorations and sparkling stained-glass windows flourished. Cathedrals became art galleries and exhibition spaces, where the spiritual rubbed shoulders with the everyday and angels sat side-by-side with carved faces from the local community. Masons, carpenters and glaziers became more skilful and moved from cathedral to cathedral, country to country, plying their trade. Arches rose, towers grew, spires soared. People came in awe to marvel at these wonders, as we still do today.

The 13th century also saw a rise in another phenomenon that drew visitors to cathedrals in vast numbers. Saxon cathedrals had always held saints’ relics and pilgrims came to