ChurcHistory

Chester Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England, and is located in the city of Chester,Cheshire, England.
The Cathedral, formerly St Werburgh's abbey church of a Benedictine monastery, is dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Since 1541 it has been the center of worship, administration, ceremony and music for the city and diocese. The cathedral is a Grade 1 listed building and the heritage site, including the former monastic buildings, lying to the north of the cathedral is also listed Grade 1.
The cathedral, typical of English cathedrals in having been modified many times, dates from between 1093 and the early 1500s, although the site itself may have been used for Christian worship since Roman times.
All the major styles of English medieval architecture, from Norman to Perpendicular are represented in the present building.The cathedral and monastic buildings were extensively restored during the 19th century, and a free-standing bell-tower was added in the 20th century.
The buildings are a major tourist attraction in Chester, a city of historic, cultural and architectural importance. The cathedral is also used as a venue for concerts and exhibitions.
The cathedral is a place of Christian worship, with three services held daily, and five each Sunday. There is Holy Communion each day, and Choral Evensong each day except Wednesday.
The cathedral organizes a pro gramme of events, including bible studies, weekly organ recitals, concerts and exhibitions. Every five years, the cathedral is a venue for the Chester Mystery Plays,a cycle of medieval plays,traditionally performed by the townsfolk.
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Chester began when the Romans built a fort next to the River Dee about 75 AD. The Roman fort was called Deva. At first the fort was made of wood. It had a ditch outside and an earth embankment with a wooden palisade on top. At the beginning of the 2nd century parts of the fort were rebuilt in stone.

Soon a civilian settlement grew up outside the fort. The soldiers provided a market for the civilian's goods. In Roman Chester there were the same craftsmen found all over the empire such as potters, bakers, butchers, carpenters and blacksmiths. Roman Chester was also a busy little port and luxuries such as wine and finely made pottery were imported.

In Roman Chester there was a large amphitheater were people were entertained by gladiators or by cruel 'sports' such as cock fighting, bear baiting.

However in the 4th century Roman civilization began to break down. People drifted away from the town like Chester and they were left almost or wholly abandoned.Please click here for more information.

Once inside Chester Cathedral can seem a bit gloomy. But there are many treasures that await the visitor. The sandstone floor of the Cathedral was replaced in 1997 and was partially excavated. The old floor dated from 1777. During the excavation some Saxon masonry were found in the west of the Nave. There were also a small number of Roman finds. If you look carefully you will be able to pick out the older Norman masonry.

The Creation Window in the Refectory

The superb Creation Window at the west end of the Refectory was designed by Rosalind Grimshaw and installed in 2001; it illustrates the Genesis account of the six days of Creation in the upper lights, with a contemporary interpretation of the image below.
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St Mary's Church, Handbridge is in Handbridge, an area south of the River Dee, in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England . It is also known as the Church of St Mary-without-the-Walls. The church is a Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester. Its benefice is combined with that of the Church of St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester.
History

The church was built between 1885 and 1887 to a design by F. B. Wade for the first Duke of Westminster. A porch was added on the south face of the tower in 1914 which was designed by P. H. Lockwood.

Structure

The church is built in red sandstone with Westmorland green slate roofs. Its plan consists of a five-bay nave with a clerestory, a three-bay chancel, a chapel at the southeast, an organ chamber and vestry, and two south porches and a north porch. At the west end is a three-stage tower with a recessed spire. It has clock faces to the north, west and south, paired louvred bell-openings on each face, a machicolated parapet, two pinnacles at each corner, lucarnes to each cardinal face of the spire and a weathervane.

Fittings and furnishings

The baptistry is in the tower and has an encaustic tiled floor and a stone font with an oak cover. The stained glass in the baptistery is dated 1887 and is by Edward Frampton. It depicts Christ's baptism. In the baptistry is a portrait memorial dated 1900 to the first Duke of Westminster. The nave is floored with wood blocks. There are three steps up to the chancel with wrought iron rails. The chancel has a mosaic floor. The southeast chapel has a wrought iron screen. The pulpit and lectern are in oak. To the north of the chancel is a sedilia. The east window is probably by Frampton.Pevsner considers that the reredos is "the most interesting piece in the church". It is dated 1888 and was designed by Frederic Shields and made in cloisonné by Clement Heaton. The church plate has been moved from St Mary-on-the-Hill and includes a cup and cover from the Elizabethan era, a credence paten dated 1638, a large paten dated 1683, flagons dated 1711-12 and 1712-13, a flagon dated 1734, a spoon dated 1750, and an alms dish dated 1822. The ring consists of eight bells which were cast by Mears & Stainbank at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1887.
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St Paul's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, although the number is higher if every major medieval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedral. The cathedral sits on the edge of London's oldest region, the City, which originated as a Roman trading post along the edge of the River Thames. The cathedral is one of London's most visited sites.

Pre-Norman

There had been a late-Roman See in London, but the first Saxon cathedral was built of wood, probably by Mellitus or another of the Augustinian missionaries, on the see's re-foundation in AD 604 on Ludgate Hill in the western part of the old Roman city and the eastern part of Lundenwic. It was these missionaries' habit, as in mainland Europe, to build cathedrals within old Roman city-walls.
This building is traditionally said to have been on the site of an ancient megalith, or stone circle, and a temple dedicated to the goddess Diana, in alignment with the Apollo Temple that once stood at Westminster, although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this (Kruger, 1943).
This would have only been a modest chapel at first and may well have been destroyed after Mellitus was briefly expelled from the city by Saeberht's pagan successors. It burned down in 675.
The cathedral was rebuilt in stone, in 685. In it was buried King or Saint Sebbi of Essex. It was sacked by the Vikings in 961, as cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The third cathedral was begun in 962, again in stone. In it was buried Ethelred the Unready. It burnt, with the whole city, in a fire in 1087 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).

Old St Paul's


The fourth St Paul's (known as Old St Paul's, a 19th century coinage, or the pre-Great Fire St Paul's) was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. Work took over 200 years, and a great deal was lost in a fire in 1136. The roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. This 'New Work' was completed in 1314 - the cathedral had been consecrated in 1300. It was the third-longest church in Europe. Excavations in 1878 by Francis Penrose showed it was 585 feet (178 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet or 87 m across the transepts and crossing), and had one of Europe's tallest spires, at some 489 feet (149 m).

By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and other buildings in the churchyard.
Many of these former religious sites in St Paul's Churchyard, having been seized by the crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers, who were often evangelical Protestants. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.
Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced; this event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions.

England's first classical architect, Sir Inigo Jones, added the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacing mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed (Kelly 2004).
Old St Paul's" was gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead. Indeed this had been contemplated even before the fire.

Bodiam Castle looks almost too romantic to be true. This fairytale castle was begun in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge to discourage French raids. The picture book design is emphasized by the castle's moat, and its crenellated battlements. Bodiam is reached by no less than three drawbridges and a barbican.

There was a Saxon hall on this site before the Norman Conquest. After the Normans took over the hall passed to the Bodeham family. For several centuries the Bodeham's lived on in the Saxon hall, much strengthened and expanded.

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Present day Bodiam Castle




The French raided nearby Winchelsea in 1380, so when a new French invasion threatened in 1385 Sir Edward Dalyngrigge applied to King Richard II for a license to crenellate and strengthen the existing hall. The license was granted, but Sir Edward decided to build a new fortress rather than fortify the old. This new castle he located near the River Rother, where the greatest possibility of French incursion threatened. The castle he built is essentially the one which can be visited today.

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, (Irish: Ardeaglais Naomh Fionnbarra) is a Church of Ireland cathedral located in Cork City, in the Republic of Ireland. The site of the cathedral has been a place of worship since the 7th century.
The three spires of the cathedral are one of Cork's main landmarks. It is the seat of the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, currently Bishop Paul Colton. It is named after Cork's patron saint.

Medieval Cathedral

A Medieval Cathedral was situated on the site prior to the 18th Century building, but few traces of it are visible.
The cathedral was damaged during the Siege of Cork in 1689/90, when it came under fire from the nearby Elizabeth Fort. When the steeple was demolished in 1865, a 24-pound cannonball from the siege was discovered, which is now on display in the cathedral.

18th century cathedral

A small Neo-Classical building was constructed on the site in 1735 by Bishop Peter Browne. It was demolished in 1865 to make way for the present cathedral. The 1735 entrance gate survived the re-building and is still in use.

Inside the Cathedral



Cathedral Exterior



Present Cathedral

Architect William Burges began work on the present Gothic Revival cathedral in 1862. Construction started on the cathedral in 1865 and in 1870 the unfinished building was consecrated. The towers and spires were finally completed in 1879.
Burges gave a Resurrection Angel, made of copper and gold leaf, which is located on the pinnacle of the sanctuary roof. There is a local superstition which states that if ever the angel falls, it would signify the end of the world.

Burges' Resurrection Angel

Hylton Castle is a ruined stone castle in the North Hylton area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. Originally built from wood by the Hilton (later Hylton) family shortly after the Norman Conquest in 1066, it was later rebuilt in stone in the late 14th to early 15th century.
The castle underwent major changes to its interior and exterior in the 18th century and it remained the principal seat of the Hylton family until the death of the last "baron" in 1746.
It was then Gothicised but neglected until 1812, when it was revitalised by a new owner. Standing empty again until the 1840s, it was briefly used as a school until it was purchased again in 1862.
The site passed to a local coal company in the early 20th century and was taken over by the state in 1950.

One of the castle's main features, is the heraldic devices found mainly on the west façade, which have been retained from the castle's original construction.
They depict the coats of arms belonging to local gentry and peers of the late 14th to early 15th centuries and provide an approximate date of the castle's reconstruction from wood to stone.

This is how the castle would of looked



Today, the castle is owned by English Heritage, a non-departmental public body which manages the historical environment of England. The surrounding parkland is maintained by a community organisation.
The castle and its chapel are protected as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. As of 2008, a survey is being carried out to determine the future of the site.

Hauntings

Hylton Castle is said to be haunted by the spirit of Roger Skelton, known as the Cauld (a pronunciation of "cold" in Mackem) Lad of Hylton.
Various versions of how he was killed exist, the most popular being that he was decapitated by Sir Robert Hylton (later de jure 13th Baron Hylton), after falling asleep and failing to get his master's horse ready on time.
Skelton's spirit then began to haunt the castle and would move objects, similar to a poltergeist.
The spirit was said to have been finally laid to rest when the castle servants put a cloak out for him.