Sunday, March 26, 2006

Winchester Cathedral

During this part of my Oxford semester I get to hear a lot of lectures on British history (not so exciting) and take some amazing field trips (very exciting!). After a long four days of lectures on kings killing one another and fighting against the pope, raising taxes, building castles, going to war, etc, I got to board a double decker bus along with all my fellow students and head off to Winchester England to see the famous Winchester Cathedral.

The Cathedral has been in existence in some form since 1079. One of the amazing things about the Cathedral is the architecture which changes as you go into different areas. Two main parts of the cathedral are Norman in style (you can tell by the round arches and plain pillars), the cathedral construction was continued, but the style was change to Perpendicular Gothic (evident by the pointed arches and ornate carving and scrollwork). When closely looked at, you can see changes in the design of the cathedral. Evidently there was no "Master Plan" during the time of construction. Workers made things up as they went along. Window styles change, pillars don't always work out (there is one pillar that just ends, it doesn't do anything!), and fire required the rebuilding of several parts.

Our tour of the cathedral was led by Jonathan Kirkpatrick, one of our Junior deans. He is an amazing history buff and also attended primary school in the nearby Winchester College Boys School. He was able to tell us many interesting and funny stories about the city.

Our tour of the cathedral included a scary climb to the top of the tower and a walk along the roof. Access to the tower is through the narrowest, steepest winding staircase I have ever seen in my life. The picture of Nellie's roommate Laurie (below) gives a glimpse into the tight quarters and steepness of the stair way. We were able to see the bell chamber, housing the sixteen bells of the tower as well as the ringing chamber where the bells are rung. The view from the top of the tower was great! We could see all of Winchester.



Descending the stairs (not an easy operation), we went through a different door and found ourselves above the roof of the cathedral, probably 75 feet above the floor. We walked through the rafters and were able to witness the amazing craftsmanship with which the building was constructed. Rafters the size of oak trees cris-crossed the space and huge wooden pegs held everything together.

The picture at the left of of the cathedral knave. Note the amazing vaulted ceiling. When we were walking in the rafters, we were on-top of the ceiling! The goal of the gothic perpendicular style is to draw your attention up (toward heaven).






1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are quite the architectural genius!!

Sunday, March 26, 2006  

Post a Comment

<< Home