Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Chichester (1901): A Short History & Description of Its Fabric with an Account of the Diocese and See — John Shaqi
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Chichester (1901): A Short History & Description of Its Fabric with an Account of the Diocese and SeeCorlette, Hubert C. (Hubert Christian)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Chichester (1901): A Short History & Description of Its Fabric with an Account of the Diocese and See
Corlette, Hubert C. (Hubert Christian)
Chichester Cathedral
"To the finial is fastened a strong metal ring, and to that
is suspended a large piece of yellow fir-timber eighty feet
long and thirteen inches square; the masonry at the apex of
the spire, being from nine to six inches thick, diminishing
as it rises. The pendulum is loaded with iron, adding all
its weight to the finial, and has two stout solid oak
floors, the lower one smaller by about three, and the upper
one by about two and a quarter inches, than the octagonal
masonry which surrounds it. The effect in a storm is
surprising and satisfactory. While the wind blows high
against the vane and spire, the pendulum floor touches on
the lee side, and its aperture is double on the windward: at
the cessation, it oscillates slightly, and terminates in a
perpendicular. The rest of the spire is quite clear of
scaffolding. This contrivance is doubtless one of the most
ingenious and appropriate of its great inventor's
applications."
About 1814 T. King made a plan of the whole building and several
drawings of the church as it then appeared. One of these [25] shows
some carefully copied specimens of the decorations on the vaults. The
engraving was published in 1831, and on it is the statement, "Painted
1520. Erased 1817." Another drawing showed the interior of the choir
looking west. In this was represented in careful detail the design of
the eastern elevation of the organ-case and the "return" stalls
against the Arundel screen. It also shows the original iron gates in
the archway, which pierced the screen in the centre below the organ,
and formed the entrance to the choir. These gates were evidently
copied in design from the thirteenth-century iron screen that
protected the sanctuary, part of which is now in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. In the distance the decoration on the nave vaulting is
lightly indicated. There is also an original drawing by T. King in the
possession of the Chapter, which gives a view looking eastwards.
Another drawing [26] which was made some time after 1829 shows the
choir looking east towards the reredos. It is a careful study, and is
of peculiar interest, since it is a record of many features now
entirely removed. The early reredos appears still in its place, but
the upper portion of it is gone. This was a gallery which was
accessible from either triforium, across which boys early in the
century used to run races by starting up the staircase in one aisle
and down that in the other. The absence of the gallery in the drawing
shows that it was made after 1829, the year in which the gallery was
removed. The "glory" which was added to the reredos during the
eighteenth century appears just above the altar. On the south side of
the choir are some spectators in the gallery above the stalls. There
were also at this time other galleries on the north and south of the
sanctuary, and above the arch on the east side of the north arm of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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