One of the best kept secrets of English Cathedrals, if only due to the poor transport links to Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral is one of the most highly regarded in the land. It's construction was ordered by William the Conqueror shortly after the conquest, and it was intended to overawe the local populace as much as it was to religiously instruct them. It was complete within a few years, and its designer, Archbishop Remigius, went on to become the archbishop of the diocese.
This was saying a lot, however, as the diocese of Lincoln covered virtually the entirety of the midlands, as well as much of the south country of Britain. This was reflected in the extravagance of its construction.
Sadly, at the Battle of Lincoln, Matilda's troops set fire to the Cathedral, and captured Stephen. The resultant flame-burnt wreck was subsequently grandly rebuilt by Alexander the Magnificent. At this time, the cathedral was generally regarded as the most splendid in the land. Once again, however, fate was not kind to the Cathedral, and an earthquake in the late twelfth century precipitated another rebuild, this time by St. Hugh of Avalon, one of the pioneers of the Gothic Style. He died long before completion, and several of his ideas were changed by his successor, Bishop Grosseteste. This left the cathedral much as it is today. It had had the highest building costs of any Cathedral built in the British Isles, and it certainly did its bit to make medieval visitors describe Lincoln as "a heavenly city on earth"So much so that spires were added to the cathedral, making it the tallest building in the world. (It remained so until 1549).The floor was gilded at great cost, and supposedly made the nave shine brightly in the evening sun.
This was was zenith. Then came the tumble. Henry VIII ordered the seizure of all the Cathedral's vast supplies of Treasure (rumour has it these were sold to wealthy Florentine bankers and Flemish merchants). Then, in a storm in 1549, the central tower blew off in a ferocious storm. It was 248 feet in length, and 225 feet from the ground. Needless to say the amount of collateral damage caused by it meant that it was never put back up again, with the shorter spires being removed in 1812 for similar reasons of safety.
Then, in the civil war, Cromwell captured Lincoln Cathedral. He ordered all the statues have their heads cut off, all the stained glass windows be shot out by his musketmen, the gilding be removed from the floors and the brasses be melted down and recast into carronades. What little money the cathedral had left was seized, and it seemed that that was going to spell the end for the "great" Lincoln Cathedral.
It didn't. It went through something of a renaissance in the 18th century, due to a bishop who passionately cared about it. His fund raising programme helped rais enough money to restore the Cathedral. Indeed, Christopher Wren was called in to build a library to house the Bishop's 5000 books, which are still there today.
The Cathedral was a soot-caked mess by the 19th century (not that that stopped John Ruskin saying that it was "worth roughly any two other cathedrals in the British Isles"). Fortunately, the Cathedral went through one of the most expensive restoration projects ever undertaken on a building in the year 2000, and now stands as a proud mascot for the city which I call home.
I have included some pictures:
This picture is from No info given on who took the photo:
Here we have one of my own:
And here we have one of the nave, from GandN from the website I hope I have acted within my rights to use all these pics, btw
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I'll upload more pics if anyone is actually interested!
Bye for now.
Lincoln Cathedral
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