Keith and the girls and I had visited Salisbury Cathedral and had enjoyed it, so we decided to take Mom and Dad up to the Lincoln Cathedral (about an hour and 40 minutes from ours).
William the Conqueror had a castle in Lincoln and decided in 1072 that he would like to build a cathedral as well. It took about 20 years to complete, and was built out of local Lincoln limestone. In 1141, a fire destroyed the roof, and in 1185, an earthquake split the cathedral from top to bottom. Only the main entrance survived. In 1186, reconstruction started and section by section was eventually rebuilt to match up with the original entrance. They have trouble however keeping the oldest section attached to the rest of the cathedral because of differences in craftsmanship between the Gothic and Norman stonework.
This is the original west front--main entrance.
The nave. . .this section of all of these old cathedrals that we visit is always so impressive! The baptismal font here has been used for baptisms since Norman times (11th century). And you can't see it in my picture, but when the newer part of the cathedral was built, the builders realized it was not perfectly in line with the older, original part. So the line along the top center of the nave does not line up. I imagine that design review was just a bit trickier pre-computer!
The two round "rose" windows above and below face each other across the transept (in this case a corridor that lays across the main section of the building and creates a cross shape within the cathedral). The window above is the "Dean's Eye" and looks north to "keep out the dark deeds of the Devil." The one below is the "Bishop's Eye" and looks south towards the sun to " welcome in God's light and love." And if you look at the long windows underneath, you can see that some are narrower than others--a result of workers using their eyes and hands to measure and make things fit.
The next three are from a Stations of the Cross exhibit along one wall of the nave.
Maggie singing in Saint Hugh's Choir. . .a bit of a church within the church. Services take place in here daily.
When we visited the Salisbury Cathedral, we were able to see one the four original Magna Carta documents--another copy is here at the Lincoln Cathedral, and the other two are at the British Library in London.
In the room above, the stained glass is intended to tell the story of the cathdral; one of the windows is blank because "the cathedral's history is not finished yet." I liked that!
We have membership to English Heritage and get free entry to a number of sites around the country. Next to the cathedral is the Lincoln Medieval Bishops' Palace--the administrative centre of the largest diocese in medieval England. We attempted to get there while it was open, but no luck. . . but, as you can see, a good amount of it is in ruin so we got to see it from the outside.
Back past the Cathedral to our car. . .
Love this picture. . .I'm guessing Charlotte was asleep in the pushchair!
On the grounds outside the cathedral is this statue of Alfred Lord Tennyson. . who was born in Lincolnshire.
Next we were off to Chester & Liverpool and then Wales. . .more to come!!
