The picture today shows Gloucester cathedral from the south-west, an image copied from the Gloucester Cathedral website (much of this site is a built-up area today). Gloucester cathedral is an example of a medieval monastic church of the Benedictine order that survived the Reformation of the 1530s because Henry VIII ordered it to become one […]
The last of Thomas Rickman’s (s.p.b.s) medieval church building styles was Perpendicular, the term referring to the vertical thrust of most window tracery. The Perpendicular style of architecture was to become solely British and was also characterised by very large windows shedding daylight in the interior, by complex vault systems supporting the ceilings, by the
From the 13th to the 16th centuries the history of each English cathedral varies according to if, and when, sections of the building were re-built, repaired or extended. However, there were examples of additions to the groundplan, the most significant of which in terms of the extent of the built complex was the addition of
Today’s illustration, taken from Thomas Rickman’s book (s.p.b.), shows the type of features in church architecture that defined what Rickman named as the ‘Early English’ style. The reason for this name seems obscure but it defines the move from reliance on the round-headed arch (see previous illustration) to the use of the pointed-arch for doors,
Throughout the Middle Ages (c.1100 – 1530s) no new diocese were created although at Salisbury, for example, the old Anglo-Norman cathedral at Old Sarum was replaced by a new cathedral and cloistral range of buildings for a colony of secular canons (s.p.b.s) all constructed between 1220 and 1258, although its famous crossing tower and ‘needle’
Today’s photo, taken from an old postcard purchased long ago, shows Ely cathedral’s west entrance and west porch with the single west tower behind and beyond, over the crossing, the octagonal lantern tower, this completed in 1322 and was then the most progressive architecture of its day. Monastic cathedrals (those served by Benedictine monks) had