Saturday 8 March 2014
This blog post is an extraction from a document i made to give us a brief overview on the Cathedral and its management/staff, and some of it's history to help us prepare for this task.
Who
runs the Cathedral?
Archbishop Justin Portal Welby (born 6
January 1956) is the 105th and current Archbishop of Canterbury and senior
bishop in the Church of England.[5] As such, he is Primate of All England and
the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Brief
history of cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent,
is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms
part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the
worldwide Anglican Communion.
Founded in 597, the cathedral was
completely rebuilt from 1070 to 1077.
The Cathedral’s history goes back to 597AD
when St Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great as a missionary, established
his seat (or ‘Cathedra’) in Canterbury
Battle
to keep it alive (an idea title for theme of documentary, brief research below will make the theme make sense)
Today, the Cathedral is still governed by
the Dean and four Canons, together (in recent years) with four lay people and
the Archdeacon of Maidstone. During the Civil War of the 1640s, the Cathedral
suffered damage at the hands of the Puritans; much of the medieval stained
glass was smashed and horses were stabled in the nave.
The Corona Chapel at the easternmost end of Canterbury Cathedral contains five tall lancet windows. Of the original glazing little remains; only the east window retains most of its stained glass. Two figures of a Jesse tree which showed the genealogy of Christ are currently housed in the north-facing window nIII. The two surviving panels of the Jesse Tree window (the Virgin and Josias) are an extremely rare and artistically as well as technically sophisticated treasure. Images of the Virgin in particular are rare survivors in England, as they were routinely targeted for defacement and destruction during the iconoclasm events of the Reformation and Puritanism.
The earliest mention of the glass dates to 1841, when the two figure panels were recorded by Joyce in the east window of the Corona Chapel, the ‘Redemption Window’. They may have been installed into that window in 1661, when repairs were carried out, to fill gaps left by the iconoclasm of the 1640s. In 1848 Charles Winston referred to them as ‘part of a Jesse tree’ and placed them amongst the earliest glass in England.
In 1853, George Austin Junior restored the Redemption window, and supplied new glass for the areas that had been previously ‘patched’ with the figures from the Jesse Tree. In 1861 he created a new Jesse Tree, based upon the two surviving figures, and placed the new stained glass into the window adjacent to the East Window.
During the Second World War, the Precincts
were heavily damaged by enemy action and the Cathedral’s Library was destroyed.
Thankfully, the Cathedral itself was not seriously harmed, due to the bravery
of the team of fire-watchers, who patrolled the roofs and dealt with the
incendiary bombs dropped by enemy bombers.
The outer skin of the building is always subject to repair and renewal to repair damage caused by our wet climate, although some of the original medieval stonework is still in place.
The 20th century saw perhaps more damage done to the building than any other period in its history, and now work is underway to repair and restore the Cathedral to its former glory.
Today, the Cathedral stands as a place
where prayer to God has been offered daily for over 1,400 years; nearly 2,000
services are held each year.
(Taken from Canterbury Cathedral website, BBC article, some extra info from browsing the web)
Where
do the funds come from to keep it alive?
Andrew Edwards has been Chief Executive of
The Canterbury Cathedral Trust
‘During the last five years, over £15
million has been raised to support the continuing work of Canterbury Cathedral;
it is humbling to reflect on the great generosity of the very many individuals,
trusts and foundations that have helped us. Now we must build on what has been
achieved and show yet more people the wonders of this iconic place.’ said
Andrew.
Stone
masonry
Who
runs the conservation?
Heather Newton gained a distinction in City and Guilds and a post-graduate qualification in
the conservation of stone and plaster from Weymouth College in Dorset. She came
to Canterbury Cathedral in 1988 and in her own words “I have continued my
training until the present day!”.
She has been Advisor on stone conservation
to Canterbury Diocesan Advisory Committee since 1996, PACR Accredited since
2000 and was appointed to the Fabric Advisory Committee of Rochester Cathedral
and made Head of Stone Conservation at Canterbury in 2006.
Summary
The people who work to conserve the
Cathedral’s fabric are highly skilled artists and craftspeople. Their work
requires sensitivity to the spirit of the building. The aim is to slow down the
process of decay, and to replace only those parts that have lost the battle for
survival.
Canterbury Cathedral currently employs 17
stonemasons, including two apprentices and one trainee. In the past there has
been a tendency for masons to specialise in one area of their trade, but the demands
of maintaining and preserving the Cathedral make it essential that today’s
Cathedral masons are expert in all aspects of their craft, including the care
and conservation of the ancient fabric. The Cathedral is a World Heritage Site
and as such should be a centre of excellence for both the training and practice
of crafts associated with its upkeep.
The masons have a workshop and drawing office in the Cathedral Precincts and a
bigger, industrial yard on the edge of
the City. It is here that blocks of Caen stone trucked in from a mine near
Caen in northern France and Lepine stone from a quarry near Poitiers are
brought for storage and preparation.
The blocks (some of them 1m³ and weighing
over 2 tons) are cut to more manageable size with specialist equipment. Any mechanised
masonry is done here, prior to the stone being transported to the Cathedral
where the masons finish the work using hand tools.
The masonry process can be divided into
5 distinct phases:
Setting out:
measuring old
stones that have to be replaced in order to recreate their shape using geometry
to produce templates.
Sawing:
cutting large
blocks from the quarry into smaller pieces to be carved, but making sure that
this is done correctly so that the stone is fitted into the building in its
“correct bed” and each block is used economically.
Masoning, cutting or carving:
shaping the
stone using the templates to precise dimensions in order to fit a specific
place in the building and perform a particular function.
Fixing:
putting the
finished stone into the building using the correct lime-based mortars.
Conservation:
cleaning and
consolidation of historic, often original medieval stone, using tried and
tested techniques.
Who runs the Glass conservation?
Leonie Seliger is head of the Stained Glass
Conservation Department. She also advises the Dioceses of Canterbury and
Rochester on faculty applications involving restoration/conservation as well as
new designs for windows in the churches of the dioceses.
Leonie is also a versatile designer of new
windows; her work can be seen for instance in St. Bartholomew’s Chapel in
Sandwich and All Saints Church in Boughton Aluph.
extra articles
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1530481/Crumbling-cathedral-held-together-by-tape.html
Hopefully the research from this should prepare us for when we visit the Cathedral, as we know whom we're talking to, and have a vague idea of what we're taking about and the sort of questions to ask, plus what to look out for.
