Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Rochester: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeePalmer, G. H. (George Henry)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Rochester: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Palmer, G. H. (George Henry)
Rochester Cathedral (Rochester, Kent, England)
Various other faults in Cottingham's work have since been pointed out,
but at the time his restoration received much praise. On the 30th of
November, 1827, we find the dean and chapter voting him an honorarium of
L100, as a token of their appreciation of the ability and zeal that he
had shown.
The opening years of the fourth decade of the century form our next
period, during which Cottingham still had the direction of the works. He
now substituted the present rich and elaborate, but not altogether
praiseworthy roof of the main crossing, for the plainer one that he had
placed there earlier, when he rebuilt the tower. He restored the canopy
of Bishop John de Sheppey's monument, designed a new pulpit, and a new
bishop's throne for the choir, and later, in 1848, was responsible for a
new font in the nave. These will be described and their several fates
recorded later.
To Mr. Cottingham we also owe a repair of the ceilings of the choir and
nave, and a final cleaning from whitewash of the Purbeck marble shafts
throughout the building. He cleared the crypt out thoroughly, lowered
the ground there to the base of the columns, repaired the whole, and,
especially, renewed the shafts. The organ was enlarged by Hill in 1842,
at Canon Griffith's expense; and at that of his wife, in 1852, the Lady
Chapel was restored.
From the year 1871 till his death in 1877 the fabric was entrusted to
Sir G. Scott, and the work in it was all carried out from his designs
and under his immediate superintendence. At an early stage of his work
he put the clerestory of the nave in sound repair, and the western arm
of the church was then used for services while the restoration of the
choir was in progress. During the latter part of the time its aisle
walls were underpinned. To the western transepts and crossing Scott
devoted much attention, considering rightly that they formed one of the
most elegant parts of the structure. He largely repaired the masonry of
both the south and north transepts, underpinned the former's end,
inserted some new windows in the west wall of the latter, and gave it a
new doorway and massive oak door, in place of the ruinous entry that
before existed. He did away with the low eighteenth century roofs and
gables of both, restored the former gables, chiefly on the authority of
old prints, and erected roofs of the old high pitch once more. In the
south transept he made good, also, the interesting vaulting, with its
oak ribs, which were decayed and threatening to fall. The spaces between
them, which had been formerly boarded, he found filled only with lath
and plaster. To the organ screen he gave back its original plainness,
which made it rather an eyesore, as there was now no further screen in
front of it, on the other side of the transept, as there had been when
St. Nicholas' altar stood at the east end of the nave. For the organ a
new case was made after his design, which, without any removal of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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