Winchester Cathedral Architecture
85 photos with architectural notes
This page for the exterior, or go direct
to the interior
Click photos to enlarge.
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Information mainly from Hampshire
and the Isle of Wight by Nikolaus Pevsner
and David Lloyd (1967) Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
Direct quotes in italics. |
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Winchester Cathedral is an
excellent representation of all the architectural styles through the
Middle Ages, i.e from Romanesque (Norman) through the three main phases
of Gothic: Early English, Decorated and
Perpendicular.
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General view from the north-west. The cathedral is
the longest in Europe, 556 feet. Built largely of stone from the Isle of
Wight. Originally all Norman, started in the 1070s, there are several major periods of
re-building in later styles up to the early 1500s. This picture shows the
Norman tower and north transept begun 1079 and the nave remodelled in Perpendicular Gothic
in the late 1300s. |
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The west end is a particularly good specimen of
Perpendicular architecture, i.e. a grid of vertical panelling in both
windows and walls. It is in three sections, fronting the nave and two
aisles.
The central nave section is flanked by two slender octagonal towers.
The great Perpendicular
central window at the west end is of nine lights, filling the whole
width of the nave.
The panelled octagonal
towers terminate in pinnacles. Balustrade and panelled gable, crowned by
an image niche with pinnacles.
The aisles have a four-light window
each too broad for its position.
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The three
entrance porches at ground level have panelled sides and lierne vaults.
The central arch is four-centred, the aisle arches become straight after
the initial curve. Top balustrade. |
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Nave, north side. The
first two windows from the west at aisle level are broader than the rest, being four-light windows with four-centred
arches. They were built first and then the nave design changed.
Nave, south side. Three-light Perpendicular windows in aisle and clerestory.
Buttresses between the windows. The detached flying buttresses were
added in 1909/12 to protect the building from collapse.
Crossing of nave, tower
and south transept.
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The Crossing Tower has
small Norman windows below and three tall Norman arches above on each
side of the tower. The tower windows carry
zigzag carving on shafts and rolls, indicating a date a little after
1100 - in fact, a rebuilding after the original tower had fallen in
1107. |
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South transept, south
face. Norman window openings, but two of them with Perpendicular tracery
inserts. Two buttresses with flat turrets, another buttress up the
middle. In the gable is blank, flat intersecting arcading, and higher up
stepped arches.
South transept, west
face. The transepts and tower are Norman of late 1000s, the earliest
parts of the cathedral. Both transepts have east and west aisles. Top
corbel table. Two of the four Norman clerestory windows have had
Perpendicular windows inserted. The Norman frame of the south
(rightmost) window is unusual, It has been deduced that four towers were planned for the four outer corners of the
transepts, and that this window
was meant to look into the transept from the tower.
The lowest tier of the
Norman windows on the south transept west face has a roll, a band of
chip-carved saltire crosses, and a billet hood-mould. |
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South transept,
east face. Similar to west face except for ground level
windows, see next picture.
Ground level windows of
south transept, east. The original Norman windows have been replaced
with later, Gothic styles. The left window is the latest, mid 1300s or
later, recognised by its Perpendicular style of verticals in the tracery
right up to the arches. The right window is early 1300s, reticulated
tracery within the Decorated period. The central window, also Decorated,
is in a style ten or twenty years earlier than reticulated, containing
spherical triangles.
South transept
clerestory windows. Norman with Perpendicular insert in left window. |
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North transept. Largely similar to
south transept but with some variations in the detail. |
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Chapter House remains on south side of south
transept. Pevsner describes the entrance as one of the mightiest pieces of Early Norman architecture in the
land. Entrance and two bays of arcading l., two r. Sturdy round piers
and big capitals of two scallops. Inside blank arcading all along the N
side. Block capitals. |
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Cathedral east of
transept. Three sections of different periods: Chancel, Retrochoir, Lady
Chapel (under scaffold, but uncovered below). |
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The Chancel (also
called presbytery) is Perpendicular and largely of early 1500s, although
the arcades inside are of early 1300s. The
east bay cants in noticeably where the earlier Norman ambulatory curved
round. Four-light windows with panelled tracery.
Flying buttresses. Plain parapet.
Chancel window tucked
behind transept aisle. Pevsner: At the very W end of Fox's work it is interesting to note that
a window like the others was made and placed which is almost entirely
covered by the E aisle of the Norman transepts. So there was a plan to
rebuild here and cut out the E aisle. We must be grateful to fate and
the Reformation that nothing was done.
Chancel north side. Main details as for south side
except for openwork panelled
balustrade instead of plain parapet, and the pinnacles set diagonally.
Chancel gable end is
closely panelled and flanked by octagonal turrets. Not unlike, but a little bit fancier than, the west front built a
century earlier. |
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Retrochoir, south side, Early
English c.1200. Pevsner: The exterior of the N and S sides of the retrochoir is of noble
design. Three bays, with a high bare ground stage and above tall blank
arcading, four units per bay with the middle ones a pair of lancet
windows (i.e. tall, narrow with pointed arches, typical of Early
English style).
Further E, however, the design gets confused externally
as it is in so much E.E. external work. The walls step back with two
staircase turrets, octagonal at the top. Then follows the stage of the
NE and SE chapels flanking the longer Lady Chapel. These bays have one
large window, now Perp, and one blank E.E. unit added to it. ... Above
are two small tiers of blank arcading with trefoil heads. The number of
arches is more in the top row than in the lower row.
Lady Chapel and SE chapel.
The Lady Chapel is
a Late Perp remodelling (late 1400s). One seven-light window
(three plus one plus three) to N, S, and E with a transom and much panel
tracery. Blank panelling below (not on the N side). The top corbel-table of small
pointed-trefoiled corbels,
however, is E.E. The re-cast buttresses have have crocketed gablets
applied to them. |
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To
Interior |
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Jane Austen -
grave and memorials in the cathedral
King Canute and Queen Emma -
mortuary chest and information
Ecclesia - medieval
statue in cathedral
Winchester
Cathedral's Website
Robert
Willis, The Architectural History of Winchester Cathedral 1846
- Very comprehensive
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Other
Winchester Buildings |
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