Peterborough Cathedral III: The Interior

      Finally a few days in London and a respite from the Infernal City, and a trip north to Peterborough and Stamford.  An opportunity to complete by series of posts on the cathedral at Peterborough with a look at the interior.  It was, as you can see, a bit of a drab day.  Hardly June weather at all.

     The interior is vast, cavernous, without the usual subdivision one would expect in a large Medieval church.  Of the two medieval screens in the nave, the pulpitum has altogether disappeared but the wooden rood screen survives however, ex situ in the north transept. The architecture is pretty much heterogeneous, being Anglo-Norman with little addition.  The most important of these additions are the dramatic, vertiginous west transepts (E.E.), the crossing tower (Dec), and the New Building (Perp). Very sophisticated, the latter.  The work most likely of John Wastell.  The painted wooden nave ceiling (early 12th century) is a very rare survival indeed.  The painted wooden ceiling of the chancel is late Medieval.  Both ceilings have been extensively restored, by Blore and Gilbert Scott respectively.  They give some welcome colour to an otherwise grey, austere interior, which I think is partly at least due to the aesthetic preferences of John Loughborough Pearson in the late 19th century.  As I said in my post about the exterior of the building the cathedral suffered greatly during the Civil War, and as a result is pretty low on furnishings. The choir stalls are, I believe, by Pearson.  He also repaved the chancel with cosmati work and designed the imposing ciborium over the High Altar. His was the second major restoration of the 19th century.  the first was by Edward Blore.  George Pace worked here during the second half of the 20th, but thankfully did little damage - the seating in St Sprite's Chapel is actually rather good.

      The cathedral does, however, contain to interesting pieces of early sculpture.  Firstly is the enigmatic Hedda Stone - Anglo-Saxon of disputed date.  There is a stone relief in the south transept long thought to be Anglo-Saxon in origin but is more likely to be Roman.  It depicts two deities, rather than, as previously thought, two abbots.   Dancing. 

Sir John Ninian Comper III

     A shopping to trip to Cardiff the other week and quick visit to the church of St John the Baptist, Cardiff's remaining Medieval church. Nestling in the broad south aisle is this rather splendid altarpiece, the work of Sir John Ninian Comper. It dates from the second phase of his career when Comper blended Classical with the Gothic - this synthesis he called 'Unity by Inclusion'. It is a sort of a sublimation, a conclusion to the so called 'Battle of the Styles', that contest between Classical and Gothic that dominated the Mid Nineteen Century British architectural scene. This desire for a reconciliation in the sometimes-conflicting elements of Western culture is, I think, to be found also in the work of the Oxford Inklings: Tolkien, Lewis and Williams. It also occurs in the work of John Masefield and in particular in his evocative children's novel 'The Box of Delights', which I am currently re-reading during Advent, and in which Christianity is reconciled with the Pagan Gothic North. Anyway, this a rather a fine design, a little austere perhaps, a triptych with folding wings, the classical details being rathe Jacobean in quality. One feels that Comper was amongst so many other things attempting to create the sort of church furnishing that would have existed in Britain had the Reformation not veered so strongly towards the Reformed as it did under Edward VI. All this, however, is all somewhat spoiled by the lamentable absence of altar frontal. The current altar candlesticks are by George Pace - 'nough said.

Better late than never: St Cadoc, Llancarfan

     You may remember last year, about this time actually, the bf took me into the Vale of Glamorgan to look at a church, and how I felt I couldn't even bring myself to discuss the church let alone share my photos with you. If you can remember I was snapping away happily in the church - a church, I should remind you has received any amount of Lottery Funding to make it suitable for tourists - only to find an A4 notice pinned to a notice board inside the church stating that anybody wishing to post any image of the church online had to receive permission from the PCC or equivalent thereof. Utterly absurd. And shameful. How for instance were they going to police that? Anyway, emboldened by a recent conversation on twitter, here are the photos I took.

     Village and church nestle in a wooded valley - hard to think that we are not that far from Cardiff. The church, with those characteristics of Medieval Welsh churches - twin naves, no clerestory, austere unbuttressed tower - is very attractive, a bit beyond the ordinary. And that sense of being a bit beyond the ordinary continues within, for St Cadoc holds a couple of treasures, both of which are not quite apparent when you walk in, for Llancarfan church opens up to the visitor like a flower, atmospheric and accretive like all good country churches should be. The architecture is uneven and full of incident. There are old floors, whitewashed walls and at the far end of the s aisle a tall medieval screen all drawing in the visitor so that they can miss the immense late medieval wall painting of St George looming over them in all his pomp and pageantry. That, a recent discovery, is the first treasure. Step through the arcade into the nave and there in the chancel is the second treasure - the remains of a wooden Perp altarpiece. A rare survival. Equally astounding is the vast window in the N chancel wall that lights it.
     In the mid 20c George Pace came this way. He is an architect for whom I have a deep sense of ambiguity. He was capable of great sensitivity particularly when dealing with an ancient building but equally capable of producing the most rebarbative work imaginable. Thankfully his work here errs toward the former rather than the latter as at Spalding in Lincolnshire where the organ case is utterly atrocious. The outer doors of the porch are rather lovely, rather Arts and Crafts and will continue to improve with age. The s chapel furnishings are a mixed bag - the best things are the pews. As to the High Altar I will swiftly pass on.