Hereford Cathedral

I pointed out two to the more amazing things to see in Hereford Cathedral yesterday... the Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library. Today we start our walk through the Cathedral itself.

Wikipedia tells us that some sort of place of worship has stood on this site since at least the 8th century, perhaps earlier. The present building was begun in 1079 but the original building has it roots in the sort of bloody and miracle soaked past you might imagine.

The cathedral is dedicated to two saints, St Mary the Virgin and St Ethelbert the King. The latter was beheaded by Offa, King of Mercia in the year 794.^[2] Offa had consented to give his daughter to Ethelbert in marriage: why he changed his mind and deprived him of his head historians do not know, although tradition is at no loss to supply him with an adequate motive. The execution, or murder, is said to have taken place at Sutton, four miles (6 km) from Hereford, with Ethelbert's body brought to the site of the modern cathedral by 'a pious monk'. He was buried at the site of the cathedral.^[2] At Ethelbert's tomb miracles were said to have occurred, and in the next century (about 830) Milfrid, a Mercian nobleman, was so moved by the tales of these marvels as to rebuild in stone the little church that stood there, and to dedicate it to the sainted king.

Even though there are lights and chandeliers hanging here that clearly date from Victorian or more recent times, it is a place steeped in history and filled with amazing stone work.

From floor to ceiling this place is beautiful in a dramatic sort of way. Drama has long been part of the story here. It was substantially completed in its present form in 1535. It was much damaged during the civil war (mid 1600's): every time it changed hands as the result of a siege, the victors ran rampant creating destruction, much of which could not be repaired.

Yet more changes were coming.

On Easter Monday, 1786, the greatest disaster in the history of the cathedral took place. The west tower fell, creating a ruin of the whole of the west front and at least one part of the nave. The tower, which, unlike the west tower of Ely, was in the west bay of the nave, had a general resemblance to the central tower; both were profusely covered with ball-flower ornaments, and both terminated in leaden spires. James Wyatt was called in to repair the damage. As he did at Durham, instead of just repairing, he made alterations which were (and are) not universally popular.