Today’s picture shows Turner’s painting of the south transept of Ely cathedral plus the central octagon lighting the crossing.
By the eighth century it had evolved that each of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England (as now), the so-called ‘Heptarchy’, had its cathedral although no modern cathedrals evidence the buildings of that time. However, with Mercia being a large kingdom by the early 8th century three new bishoprics had been carved-out of the original one at Lichfield, the newly created cathedrals of the time being at Hereford, Worcester and Lindsey. The exact location of some of these Anglo-Saxon cathedrals remains uncertain, in particular the one serving the diocese of Lindsey. Only briefly, by historic time, was Lindsey a separate Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Lindsey being one of the ‘thirdings’ of Lincolnshire, the north one which now includes the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North-East Lincolnshire. One possible site for Lindsey’s Anglo-Saxon cathedral was at the village of Stow just north of Lincoln. Certainly the church building at Stow (St. Mary’s) mostly comprises Anglo-Saxon and Norman walling and is ‘monumental’ in size in relation to its function as a parish church. With being of an early architectural style, including small window openings by later standards, the atmosphere in the church is very dark and gloomy, but this would have been typical of the time.
The Normans (1066 and all that) were enthusiastic church and cathedral builders and by 1150 there were 19 cathedrals across England, a number relatively newly built – Canterbury, York, Winchester, Rochester, Lichfield, Worcester, Hereford, Salisbury, Exeter, Lincoln, Bath, Wells, Coventry, Ely, Norwich, Chichester, Durham, Carlisle and London. These cathedrals were much more than just a church, nine were the church for a monastery served by Benedictine monks, Carlisle also but for Augustinian canons. The remaining nine had a cloistral range of buildings for secular canons led by a Dean and Chapter. Canons were clergymen living with others in a cathedral precinct and ordering their lives according to the rules of the Church, Augustinian canons renounced private property.