A day in Lincoln

Spent today in Lincoln, touring the castle and the cathedral there. Was the first real "English" weather day, sunny, cloudy, drizzle, hard rain with wind, drizzle, gray, sunny, drizzle, etc. etc. etc. Loved it!

Spent the morning touring the castle, the only one in England with two "mottes", no, not the water thingie, but a mound of earth thrown up with a keep atop it. The castle was started by William the Conquerer in 1068 during his "harrying" of the North campaign to bring the Anglo-Saxons to heel after his victory at Hastings two years before. Very bloody business, so the Normans needed some place safe to sleep and to dominate the surrounding countryside. Here is one of the motte taken from just outside the east gate

As you can see, a stiff breeze. Inside, a model of the entire layout of the place showing the mottes, bailey walls and buildings inside. The one at the left is actually the central criminal court for the district to this day and was in session this morning. The ones on the right were a prison in the 19th century. Executions were staged outside the walls for a time, but the crowds got too rowdy and so they were moved inside the walls .

The castle withstood several seiges but was also taken by coup de main in the 1140s during the time of the civil war between Stephen and Matilda for control of the throne.

But, the crowning glory of Lincoln is its cathedral. Spent most of the day there including a tour up into the roof of the nave which makes my little tours of the bell tower of Old Main look pretty puny. Truly magnificent.

But let us begin at the beginning. Almost immediately the castle went up, they started on a cathedral for the bishop. It was built in the Romanesque style as the rounded arches of the West entrance show.

The row of kings over the top of the arch is a later bit added on after an earthquake destroyed part of the cathedral nave in 1185. When they got going again, the new Gothic style had taken hold, so most of the interior and much of the higher work is in that style rather than Romanesque. And, as you know, the whole point of the gothic style is to reduce the thickness of the walls and allow windows with brilliant stained glass to be cut into them, such as in this rose window in the south transcept.

As it was overcast or raining most of the day, the effect is lost somewhat, but still beautiful to behold.

As I mentioned, however, the triumph of the day was the tour up into the roof area over the nave. Along the way we passed over Joseph Banks' "walk" a narrow walkway high up in the west wall from which Banks painted a number of interiors--all of them better than this photo, but you get the idea.

I later went back down to ground level and took a picture of the area where we were on the walkway. It is located just below the circular window high up in the west wall.

You may be able to see the little "kink" in the axis of the nave roof toward the windows. When the nave was rebuilt,they started at the transcept, building toward the west wall, and they got the alignment slightly off. By the time they got to the two towers of the west wall that were still standing, they were about six feet off, and you can see on the left that extra bit that you don't see on the right.

Then into the roof area via the bell-ringers' room. The cathedral has a set of 13 bells still rung by hand by the bellringers guild. Inside the roof, you can see the timbers which have held the lead roofing in place for 800 plus years. Some of the beams have been determined to have been from trees about 200 years old at the time they were cut down, i.e. 100 years before the Norman Conquest even took place!

You can see that some shoring up and some stiffening have been added, but the great bulk of the wood is original. Fascinating stuff.

We stepped out onto a small balcony of the South Tower on the west facade, and I took this picture of the castle. Remember the motte at the beginning of this post? It is at the left of the picture

So a wonderful day in Lincoln. Looking forward to many more of these.