| Hereford Cathedral | |
|---|---|
| Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Ethelbert the King | |
 Cathedral from the north-west | |
  Hereford Cathedral Shown within Hereford | |
| 52°03′15″N2°42′58″W / 52.0542°N 2.7160°W /52.0542; -2.7160 | |
| Location | Hereford,Herefordshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
| Tradition | Broad church |
| Website | hereford cathedral.org |
| Architecture | |
| Previous cathedrals | 1 |
| Style | Gothic (Early English) |
| Years built | 1079-c.1250 |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 342 ft (104.2m) |
| Nave length | 158 ft (48.2m) |
| Choir length | 75 ft (22.9m) |
| Nave width | 73 ft (22.3m) |
| Width across transepts | 256 ft (78m) |
| Height | 165 ft (50.3m) |
| Nave height | 64 ft (19.5m) |
| Choir height | 62 ft (19m) |
| Number of towers | 1 |
| Tower height | 165 ft (50.3m) |
| Administration | |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | Hereford (since 680) |
| Clergy | |
| Dean | Sarah Brown |
| Precentor | Andrew Piper |
| Chancellor | James Pacey |
| Laity | |
| Director of music | Geraint Bowen |
Hereford Cathedral, formally theCathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Ethelbert the King in Hereford,[1] is aChurch of England cathedral inHereford, England. It is the seat of thebishop of Hereford and the principal church of thediocese of Hereford. The cathedral is a grade Ilisted building.[2]
A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079.[3] Substantial parts of the building date from both the Norman and the Gothic periods.
The cathedral has the largest library of chained books in the world, its most famous treasure being theMappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world created around 1300.[3] The map is listed on the UNESCOMemory of the World Register.[3]
The cathedral is dedicated to two saints,St Mary the Virgin andSt Ethelbert the King. The latter was beheaded byOffa, King of Mercia, in the year 794.[3] Offa had consented to give his daughter to Ethelbert in marriage: why he changed his mind and deprived him of his head historians do not know, although tradition is at no loss to supply him with an adequate motive. The execution, or murder, is said to have taken place atSutton, four miles (6 km) from Hereford, with Ethelbert's body brought to the site of the modern cathedral by "a pious monk". He was buried at the site of the cathedral.[3] At Ethelbert's tomb miracles were said to have occurred, and in the next century (about 830) Milfrid, a Mercian nobleman, was so moved by the tales of these marvels as to rebuild in stone the little church that stood there and to dedicate it to the sainted king.
Before this, Hereford had become the seat of abishopric. It is said to have been the centre of a diocese as early as the 670s whenTheodore of Tarsus,Archbishop of Canterbury, divided the Mercian diocese ofLichfield, founding Hereford for theMagonsæte andWorcester for theHwicce. In the 7th century the cathedral was refounded byPutta, who settled there when driven fromRochester byÆthelred of Mercia. The cathedral of stone, which Milfrid raised, stood for some 200 years, and then, in the reign ofEdward the Confessor, it was altered. The new church had only a short life, for it was plundered and burnt in 1056 by a combined force ofWelsh and Irish underGruffydd ap Llywelyn, the Welsh prince; it was not, however, destroyed until its custodians had offered vigorous resistance, in which seven of the canons were killed.
Hereford Cathedral remained in a state of ruin untilRobert of Lorraine was consecrated as the diocese's bishop in 1079 and undertook its reconstruction. His work was carried on or, more probably, redone byReynelm who was the next but one bishop and who reorganised the college of secular canons attached to the cathedral. Reynelm died in 1115 and it was only under his third successor,Robert de Betun, who was bishop from 1131 to 1148, that the church was brought to completion.
Of thisNorman church the surviving parts are thenave arcade, the choir up to the spring of theclerestory, the choir aisle, the southtransept and the crossing arches. Scarcely 50 years after its completionWilliam de Vere, who occupied the see from 1186 to 1199, altered the east end by constructing aretro-choir or processional path and alady chapel.
Between the years 1226 and 1246, theLady Chapel was rebuilt in the Early English style—with acrypt beneath. Around the middle of the century the clerestory, and probably the vaulting of the choir, were rebuilt, having been damaged by the settling of the central tower. UnderPeter of Aigueblanche (bishop 1240–68), one ofHenry III's foreign favourites, the rebuilding of the north transept was begun, being completed later in the same century by Swinfield, who also built the aisles of the nave and eastern transept.
Peter of Aigueblanche, also known as Aquablanca, was one of the most notable of the pre-reformation Bishops of Hereford, who left his mark upon the cathedral and the diocese. Aquablanca came to England in the train ofEleanor of Provence. He was a man of energy and resource; though he lavished money upon the cathedral and made a handsome bequest to the poor, it cannot be pretended that his qualifications for the office to whichHenry III appointed him included piety. He was anepotist who occasionally practised gross fraud.[4]
WhenPrince Edward came to Hereford to deal withLlywelyn the Great ofGwynedd, Aquablanca was away in Ireland on atithe-collecting expedition, and the dean and canons were also absent. Not long after Aquablanca's return, which was probably expedited by the stern rebuke which the King administered, he and all his relatives from Savoy were seized within the cathedral by a party of barons, who deprived him of the money which he had extorted from the Irish.[4]
Thomas de Cantilupe was the next but one Bishop of Hereford after Aquablanca. He had faults not uncommon in men who held high ecclesiastical office in his day, however he was a strenuous administrator of his see, and an unbending champion of its rights. For assaulting some of the episcopal tenants and raiding their cattle,Lord Clifford was condemned to walk barefoot through the cathedral to the high altar, and Cantilupe himself applied the rod to his back. Cantilupe also wrung from theWelsh king Llewellyn somemanors which he had seized, and Cantilupe, after a successful lawsuit against theEarl of Gloucester to determine the possession of a chase near the Forest of Malvern, dug the dyke which can still be traced on the crest of theMalvern Hills. Excommunicated byJohn Peckham,Archbishop of Canterbury, he went to the papal court in Orvieto to plead his case with the pope. He moved with the court to Montefiascone where, already ill, he died in 1282 before his case was fully resolved. His flesh was buried in the monastery of San Severo outside Orvieto and his heart and bones were brought back to England. His bones were placed in a shrine at Hereford Cathedral where they became a focus of a large pilgrimage cult. Rome was urged tocanonise him, and among the evidences of his saintliness which his admirers appealed to, in addition to the miracles of healing wrought at his shrine, were the facts that he had exhibited extreme dislike of the Jews and appealed for their expulsion,[5] never ceased to wear his hair-shirt, and would never allow even his sister to kiss him. The testimony was regarded as conclusive, and 40 years after his death, in 1320, Cantilupe's name was added to the roll of saints. His arms were adopted for those of the see.
Considerable work was done to the Cathedral at this time to accommodate his cult. Among the works believed to be associated with his cult are works to the north porch, which include the figures ofSynagoga, representing the supposed blindness and obstinacy of the Jewish faith,Luxuria and a bagpiper. It is also likely that theHereford Mappa Mundi is associated with the cult; it also shows antisemitic features.[6][7]
In the first half of the 14th century the rebuilding of the central tower, which is embellished withball-flower ornaments, was carried out. At about the same time thechapter house and itsvestibule were built, thenThomas Trevenant, who was bishop from 1389 to 1404, rebuilt the south end and groining of the great transept. Around the middle of the 15th century a tower was added to the western end of the nave, and in the second half of this century bishopsJohn Stanberry andEdmund Audley built threechantries, the former on the north side of the presbytery, the latter on the south side of the Lady Chapel. Later bishopsRichard Mayew andCharles Booth, who between them ruled the diocese from 1504 to 1535, made the last additions to the cathedral by erecting the north porch, now forming the principal northern entrance. The building of the present edifice therefore extended over a period of 440 years.
In the war between King and Parliament (theEnglish Civil War) the city of Hereford fell into the hands first of one party, then of the other. Once it endured asiege, and when it was taken the conquerors ran riot in the cathedral and, in their fury, caused great damage which could never be repaired. In the early years of the 18th century,Philip Bisse (bishop, 1712–21), devised a scheme to support the central tower. He also had installed a largealtarpiece and an oak screen, and instead of restoring the Chapter House he allowed its stones to be utilised for alterations to the Bishop's Palace.
It was during this period that his brother, Thomas Bisse, was the chancellor of the cathedral. In 1724 Thomas Bisse organised a "Music Meeting" which subsequently became, with the cathedrals atWorcester andGloucester, theThree Choirs Festival.
OnEaster Monday, 1786, the greatest disaster in the history of the cathedral took place. The west tower fell, creating a ruin of the whole of the west front and at least one bay of the nave. The tower, which, unlike the west tower ofEly, was in the west bay of the nave, had a general resemblance to the central tower; both were profusely covered withball-flower ornaments, and both terminated in leaden spires.James Wyatt was called in to repair the damage. As he did atDurham, instead of just repairing, he made alterations which were (and are) not universally popular.
In 1841 therestoration work was begun, instigated byDean Merewether, and was carried out byLewis Nockalls Cottingham and his son, Nockalls. Bisse's masonry, which by this time had been found to be useless, was swept away from the central tower, the lantern was strengthened and exposed to view, and much work was done in the nave and to the exterior of the Lady Chapel. When Nockalls Cottingham drowned on a voyage to New York in September 1854,George Gilbert Scott was called in, and from that time the work of restoring the choir was performed continuously until 1863, when (on 30 June) the cathedral was reopened with solemn services.Renn Hampden, Bishop of Hereford, preached in the morning andSamuel Wilberforce preached in the evening. In his diary, Wilberforce characterises his right reverend brother's sermon as "dull, but thoroughly orthodox"; but of his own service he remarks (not without complacency), "I preached evening; great congregation and much interested."[citation needed]
The west front was restored byJohn Oldrid Scott over the period 1902 and 1908.[8]
Between them these restorations cost some £45,000, (equivalent to £5,934,650 in 2023[9]). Since then much else has been done. "Wyatt's Folly", as James Wyatt's west front was often called, has been replaced by a highly ornate façade in commemoration of theDiamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, whose figure is to be seen at the beautifulstained glass which fills the seven-light (i.e. with seven main vertical "lights", or sections of glass) window subscribed "by the women of Hereford diocese".
A new library building was constructed in the early 1990s and opened byQueen Elizabeth II in 1996.[10] In 1967 with the new liturgical fashion, George Gilbert Scott'siron choir screen was removed in pieces and discarded. It has since been restored and is now in theVictoria and Albert Museum.
Work on a new Cathedral Green, with pathways, seating and gated entrance to the cathedral was undertaken in 2010 to 2011.
In 2015, landscaping and restoration efforts began at the cathedral, financed by theHeritage Lottery Fund. These efforts involved reburying thousands of corpses, some from 12th century to the 14th century stone-lined graves, from the cathedral burial plot. Unusually, from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, anyone who died on church grounds had to be buried within the precinct. Notable among those reburied during the restoration was a knight who may have participated in tourneyjousting, a man withleprosy (it was unusual for lepers to be buried anywhere near a cathedral due to the stigma associated with the disease), and a woman with a severed hand (a typical punishment for a thief, who would normally be unlikely to receive cathedral burial).[11]
As of 11 May 2022:[12]
Among eminent men who have been associated with the cathedral – besides those who have already been mentioned – areRobert of Gloucester, the chronicler,prebendary in 1291;Nicholas of Hereford, chancellor in 1377, a remarkable man and leader of theLollards atOxford;John Carpenter, town clerk of London who baptised there on 18 December 1378;Polydore Vergil, prebendary in 1507, a celebrated literary man, as indeed with such a name he ought to have been; andMiles Smith, prebendary in 1580, promoted to the See of Gloucester – one of the translators of theAuthorized King James Version of the Bible.
Another famous prebendary wasCardinalThomas Wolsey, who was appointed to a stall in 1510 and made Dean in 1512.[16] The list of postEnglish Reformationprelates includesMatthew Wren, who, however was translated to Ely in the year of his consecration (1635);Nicholas Monck, a brother of theGeorge Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, who died within a few months of consecration (1661); and two bishops around whom ecclesiastical storms raged,Benjamin Hoadley andRenn Hampden. Hoadley, by his tract against the Non-jurors and his sermon on the Kingdom of Christ, provoked theBangorian Controversy and so led to the virtual supersession of Convocation from 1717 to 1852; the appointment of Hampden to this see byLord John Russell in 1847 was bitterly opposed by those who considered himlatitudinarian, including the Dean of Hereford, and was appealed against in theCourt of Queen's Bench. Hampden went his way, which was that of a student rather than that of an administrator, and ruled the diocese for 21 years, leaving behind him at his death, in 1868, the reputation of a great scholar and thinker.
The exterior length of the church is 342 feet (104 m), the interior length 326 feet (99 m), the nave (up to the screen) measuring 158 feet (48 m) and the choir 75 feet (23 m). The great transept is 146 feet (45 m) long, the east transept 110 feet (34 m). The nave and choir (including the aisles) are 73 feet (22 m) wide; the nave is 64 feet (20 m) high, and the choir 62½ feet. The lantern is 96 feet (29 m) high, the tower 140½ feet, or with the pinnacles 165 feet (50 m).
There is decorative work on theNorman architecture columns and arches of the nave built by Reynelm'sstonemasons. Until 1847 the pavement which had been laid down in the nave completely hid the square bases on which the piers rest. Double semi-cylindrical shafts run up their north and south faces, ending in small double capitals at the height of the capitals of the piers themselves. In the south aisle of the nave are two 14th-centurychurch monument tombs, witheffigies of unknown ecclesiastics. The tomb of SirRichard Pembridge in the reign ofEdward III, is an example of thearmour of that period, and it is one of the earliest instances of an effigy wearingthe Garter. A square-headed doorway gives access from this aisle to the Bishop's Cloister.
At the northern entrance is a porch and decorated doorway, a good general view is at once obtained. There is a modernrood screen, a spacious and lofty central lantern, and areredos with a carvedspandrel. The Lady Chapel haslancet windows, foliated ornaments and a groined roof. The tomb ofCharles Booth, bishop and builder of the porch, is in the sixth bay of the nave on the north side, guarded by the only ancient ironwork left in the cathedral. On the south side of the nave is the Normanfont, a circular bowl large enough to allow of the immersion of children.
The north transept, rebuilt by Aquablanca in the Decorated period, andrestored by Scott, is notable for thediapering of the triforium arcade, and for the form of the pointed arches and windows, which have so slight a curvature as to resemble two straight lines meeting at an angle. The north window is filled withstained glass by Hardman as a memorial ofArchdeacon Lane-Freer, who died in 1863. In this transept is the tomb or substructure of the shrine ofThomas de Cantilupe, early Decorated work which has been restored. OfPurbeck marble, it is built in two stages, of which the lower contains 14 figures ofKnights Templars inchainmailarmour, occupyingcinquefoiled niches; the Bishop was Provincial Grand Master of that Order in England. Between the north choir aisle and the eastern aisle of the transept is the tomb of Peter Aquablanca, the most ancient of the episcopal monuments in the church. Theeffigy is an example of a bishop in full vestments; the canopy is supported by slender shafts; the carving throughout is delicate. The south transept is thought by some authorities to be the oldest part of the cathedral, and it exhibits some Norman work, notably the eastern wall with its arcades.
Hanging on the east wall of the south transept are three individual tapestries designed by John Piper depicting theTree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge, and theDeposition. Made by artists in Namibia in 1976, they were installed in the cathedral the following year.[17]
Until its removal in the 1960s there was awrought iron choir-screen, painted and gilt. Designed by Scott, it was executed by Messrs. Skidmore, ofCoventry, from whose works also came the earlier metal screen atLichfield. After being kept in storage for many years, the screen was completely restored in the late 1990s and re-erected at theVictoria and Albert Museum in London.
The choir, consisting of three Norman bays of three stages, is full of objects of beauty and interest. Thereredos, designed by the younger Cottingham, consists of five canopied compartments, with elaborate sculpture representing our Lord's Passion. Behind it is a pier from which spring two pointed arches; thespandrel thus formed is covered with rich modern sculpture, representing Christ in his majesty, with angels and the four Evangelists; below is a figure of King Ethelbert. Against the most easterly point on the south side of the choir is to be seen a small effigy of this king, which was dug up at the entrance to the Lady Chapel about the year 1700. The Bishop's throne and the stalls, of 14th-century work and restored, and the modern book desks and figures of angels on the upper stalls, deserve attention. There is also a very curious ancient episcopal chair.
The choir stalls support forty 14th-centurymisericords. These misericords show a mixture of mythological beasts, grotesques and everyday events, there appears to be no pattern to the content.
In addition to the misericords in the choir, there are five others contained in a row of "Judges' Seats". It is unclear if these were used as misericords, or if they are just ornamentation.
In the north-east transept, of which the vaulting is supported by a central octagonal pier, a large number of monumental fragments are preserved, forming a rich and varied collection. There is also a beautiful altar-tomb of alabaster and polished marbles erected as a public memorial to a former Dean, Richard Dawes, who died in 1867. The effigy, by Mr. Noble, is a good likeness of the Dean, who was an ardent supporter of the education movement about the middle of the 19th century. The south-east transept contains memorials of severalBishops of Hereford. The remains ofGilbert Ironside (died 1701), together with his black marble tombstone, were removed to this place in 1867, whenSt Mary Somerset in Upper Thames Street, London, was taken down. Here also may be seen a curious effigy ofJohn the Baptist, and a fine marble bust, believed to be the work ofRoubiliac. The handsome canopied Perpendicular tomb ofRichard Mayew (died 1516), with effigy fully vested, is on the south side of the altar. In the south-east transept, again, is a doorway that opens into the Vicars' Cloister, an interesting piece of Perpendicular work which leads to the college of the vicars choral.
Across from the retro-choir or ambulatory is the spacious Early English Lady Chapel, which is built over thecrypt and approached by an ascent of five steps. Of the five lancet windows at the east end, each with a quatrefoil opening in the wall above it, Fergusson remarked that "nowhere on the Continent is such a combination to be found"; and he brackets them with the Five Sisters atYork Cathedral and the east end ofEly Cathedral. They are filled with glass by Cottingham as a memorial of Dean Merewether, who is buried in the crypt below, and is further commemorated here by a black marble slab with a brass by Hardman, recording his unwearied interest in therestoration of the cathedral.
In the Lady Chapel arechurch monuments of Joanna de Kilpec and Humphrey de Bohun. Joanna was a 14th-century benefactress of the cathedral who gave to the Dean and Chapter an acre (4,000 m2) of land inLugwardine, and theadvowson of the church, with several chapels pertaining to it. On the south side of the Lady Chapel, separated from it by a screen of curious design, is the chantry erected at the end of the 15th century byEdmund Audley, who, being translated toSalisbury, built another there, where he is buried. His chantry here, pentagonal in shape, is in two storeys, with two windows in the lower and five in the higher.
Though thecrypt is small, it is of special interest, as it is Gothic rather than Norman. Its use as acharnel house resulted in the nameGolgotha.
Hereford Cathedral Library is aChained library which contains mainly ancientmanuscripts chained to their shelves, some of them fine specimens of ancient handwriting, and containing beautiful illustrations in gold and colour. Two of the most valuable are a unique copy of the ancient Herefordantiphonary of the 13th century, in good preservation, and theHereford Gospels, a copy ofthe Gospels at least a thousand years old, inAnglo-Saxon characters. Another treasure is an ancientreliquary of oak, bequeathed to the cathedral by Canon Russell, who is said to have obtained it from a Roman Catholic family in whose possession it had long been. It is covered with copper plates overlaid withLimoges enamel representing the murder and entombment ofSt Thomas of Canterbury.
One of the cathedral's treasures is theHereford Mappa Mundi, dating from the later years of the 13th century. It is the work of an ecclesiastic who is supposed to be represented in the right-hand corner on horseback, attended by his page and greyhounds. He has commemorated himself under the name of Richard deHaldingham andLafford in Lincolnshire, but his real name was Richard de la Battayle or de Bello. He held a prebendal stall inLincoln Cathedral, and was promoted to a stall in Hereford in 1305. During the troubled times of Cromwell the map was laid beneath the floor ofEdmund Audley's Chantry, beside the Lady Chapel, where it remained secreted for some time.
In 1855 it was cleaned and repaired at theBritish Museum. It is one of the most remarkable monuments of its kind in existence, being the largest surviving of all the old maps drawn on a single sheet ofvellum. The world is represented as round, surround by the ocean. At the top of the map (the east) is representedParadise, with its river and tree; also the eating of the forbidden fruit and the expulsion ofAdam and Eve. Above is a remarkable representation of theDay of Judgment, with theVirgin Mary interceding for the faithful, who are seen rising from their graves and being led within the walls of heaven. There are numerous figures of towns, animals, birds, and fish, with grotesque creatures; the four great cities,Jerusalem,Babylon, Rome, andTroy, are made very prominent. In Britain most of the cathedrals are mentioned.
In the 1980s, a financial crisis in the diocese caused the Dean and Chapter to consider selling the Mappa Mundi. After much controversy, large donations from theNational Heritage Memorial Fund,Paul Getty and members of the public, kept the map in Hereford and allowed the construction of a new library to house the map and thechained libraries from the Cathedral and All Saints' Church. The centre was opened on 3 May 1996.
Hereford is fortunate to possess one of only four 1217Magna Carta to survive, which in turn is one of the finest of the eight oldest that survive. It is sometimes put on display alongside theHereford Mappa Mundi in the cathedral'schained library.
On the south side of the choir is theorgan built in 1892 by"Father" Henry Willis, generally considered to be one of the finest examples of his work in the country. The case was designed by Scott.[18]
William Wood is recorded as organist at Hereford Cathedral in 1515. Notable organists include the 16th-century composersJohn Bull andJohn Farrant, the conductor and advocate of British composersMeredith Davies, the friend of Edward ElgarGeorge Robertson Sinclair, and the editor ofAllegri's Miserere,Ivor Atkins. The current organist isGeraint Bowen.
Hereford Cathedral houses 10 bells 140 ft (43 m) high in the tower. The tenor bell weighs 34 cwt (1.7 tonnes). The oldest bell in the cathedral is the sixth, which dates back to the 13th century. The bells are sometimes known as the "Grand Old Lady" as they are a unique ring of bells. The cathedral is the main tower of the Hereford Diocesan Guild.[19]
Between thecloisters, the Bishop's and Vicars', both on the south side of the cathedral, are the remains of the Chapter House. In thetroubles of 1645 the lead was stripped from its roof, and Bishop Bisse most inexcusably completed its ruin. The Bishop's Palace, theDeanery, residences for thecanons, andcathedral school are in close proximity to each other. The college, the residence of the vicars choral, forms a picturesquequadrangle.
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:The Cathedrals of England and Wales: their history, architecture, and associations; with a series of Rembrandt plates and many illustrations in the text. Vol. 2. London: Cassell. 1906. pp. 17–30..
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