Bell's Cathedrals: St. David'sRobson, Philip A. (Philip Appleby)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's
Robson, Philip A. (Philip Appleby)
St. Davids Cathedral
Nothing of note was done to the fabric for a long period after this,
till Bishop Field whitewashed the cathedral internally in 1630! Then we
find that during the Civil War much damage was done, traces of which can
be easily found in the ruined chapels east of the Presbytery. The
transepts and Lady Chapel were stripped of their lead, and consequently
fell into a state of ruin. The roofs of the former were reconstructed in
1696, but the vaulting to the latter did not fall till nearly eighty
years later. Sundry precautions were taken to prevent the main fabric
from falling into absolute ruin--_e.g._, the southern arch of the tower
was filled up; but St. David’s had fallen on evil days, and it is not
till nearly 1800 that we read of a subscription for rebuilding the West
Front from plans by Nash which are said to have been approved by the
Society of Antiquaries. The frontispiece to this chapter shows this
front as it was before Scott’s great restoration of 1862. The additions
from 1800 to 1862, as given by Messrs. Jones and Freeman, make extensive
reading, but do not count for very much in the building. The Chapel of
St. Thomas, east of the North Transept, was converted into a Chapter
House 1827. During the forties the South Transept was re-arranged as a
parish church and the seventeenth-century vestry was treated as a kind
of eastern aisle. Butterfield added some Decorated windows--notably the
great North Transept window--and the north aisle of the Presbytery again
received a roof.
In 1862 Scott was requisitioned by Bishop Thirlwall to examine the
fabric and make a report on its proposed complete restoration, and in
1869 he was able, in his second report, to announce the satisfactory
repair of the tower. This work was one of extreme difficulty, as will be
seen from the Appendix (see p. 97). The church was then for the first
time properly drained; and the next parts to be taken in hand by Scott
were the Choir, Presbytery and their aisles, and after that De Leiâ’s
original Transitional work, at a cost of about £40,000. This amount
included Willis’s organ, and the reconstruction of the West Front in
memory of Bishop Thirlwall (of which latter the Very Rev. James Allen,
[Illustration: SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL BEFORE THE RESTORATION
OF 1862.]
afterwards Dean, was the inaugurator). Dean Allen contributed in a most
generous way towards the restoration, as, _inter alia_, the expenses of
the renovation of the North Transept, St. Thomas’s Chapel, Library, and
Treasury, and the roofs of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the ante-chapels
he defrayed entirely. The Rev. J. M. Treherne and his wife each gave
£2,000 by legacy, and the latter gave an annual subscription of £200
during her life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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