Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the BishopsKendrick, A. F. (Albert Frank)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the Bishops
Kendrick, A. F. (Albert Frank)
Lincoln Cathedral
The church of Remigius was cruciform, with a short eastern limb,
terminating in a semi-circular apse, which, unlike those of Norwich and
Gloucester, was destitute of aisles. In the west front, with its three deep
and lofty arches, and its two niche-like recesses, we still see the work of
the first bishop, but the structure has been twice extended in an easterly
direction--once by Bishop Hugh of Avalon, who built the present choir;
and the second time to receive that bishop's miracle-working relics,
and to afford room for the large and increasing throng of pilgrims
that visited his shrine. The existing portions of the fabric built by
Remigius are the west front, part of the first bay of the nave, and the
side walls now enclosed in Early English chapels. The black basalt font
in the nave is of the same period. On the erection of St. Hugh's choir,
at the end of the twelfth century, the whole eastern limb of the original
structure was removed. But the foundations remained, and were discovered
in 1852 by Mr. T. J. Willson, architect, of Lincoln, under the floor
of the present choir. The apse was found to have extended a little way
beyond where the litany-stool now stands in the choir. The foundations of
the lateral walls were also laid bare for some distance. Just beyond the
springing of the apse on the north side, there are traces of a pilaster
buttress, and on the inside of the lateral walls, sixteen feet from the
springing of the apse, the foundations still exist of the piers of the
great transverse arch which divided the presbytery from the choir of
the Norman church. The measurement of these foundations, as well as the
still-existing west front, are sufficient to show the sturdy strength
of the early church. The walls of the apse must have been about eight
feet thick. There appears to have been a lantern of some kind over the
crossing, since the tower which fell in 1237-9 was called _Nova turris_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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