HISTORY

FEATURES OF THE CATHEDRAL: Only medieval cathedral with 3 spires, fortifications and a wet moat. Pilgrimage centre from early times. Has a sculpted stone; the best kept Anglo-Saxon stonework in Europe. Has an early Gospels. Has an extraordinary foundation to the second cathedral probably built by King Offa. Once had the most sumptuous shrine in medieval England. Suffered 3 ferocious Civil War sieges resulting in its destruction.

Dates.

DATES. First Bishop of Mercia - 656. First Bishop of Lichfield and Cathedral - 669. Shrine Tower - 8th century. Second cathedral - date to be determined. Third Cathedral - early 13th-century to 14th century. Civil War destruction 1643-1646. Extensive rebuild - 1854-1897. Worship on this site started in 669, 1355 years ago.

Wednesday 2 December 2020

Chapterhouse

     The chapterhouse is an elongated octagon consisting of two long and six shorter sides. The vaulting indicates it is really an irregular decagon. It is 15 m (49 feet) long, 11.3 m (37 feet) wide and 7 m (23 feet) high. It has a ten-celled roof vaulted from a central pillar with a decagonal base. The wall is bordered with 49 richly ornamented arcades having head sculptures above stone benches for seating many. A single, central column from which the vaulting spreads outwards is like Wells, Lincoln and Westminster Abbey. 



Wells chapter house


Lichfield’s chapterhouse is unique by having two similar storeys.[1] The central pillar continues upwards through the upper floor which is very similar to the ground level. The upper room was probably originally dedicated to be a library and treasury, perhaps also a sacristy; but is now the cathedral library.


                                                                      
Medieval floor of the upstairs library.

Plan of Chapterhouse. Despite similarities to other chapterhouses its architecture is unique.[2] Its shape might have been the model for the Lady Chapel.[3]

 

The chapterhouse was used for meetings called ‘chapters’ for conducting cathedral business.[4] The early history of the Lichfield chapter was turbulent and it centred on its link with the monastery at Coventry. When the see was transferred to Chester and then Coventry, Lichfield lost status and self-government. It especially lost its sole right to elect a bishop. The monks of Coventry denied the canons any right of representation and in 1149 Walter Durdent became the bishop despite objections to the Papal Court by the chapters of Lichfield and Chester.[5] Lichfield spurned the new bishop in 1183. This conflict continued until 1228 when Pope Gregory IX decreed all future elections should be made jointly. The canons and monks should meet alternately; the first to occur at Coventry with both chapters sitting together and the next time at Lichfield; this continued for around a hundred years. A further refinement was added in 1255 when it was agreed that at future elections the two chapters should be represented in equal number. The agreement meant Lichfield needed a chapterhouse large enough to accommodate both chapters. In 1295, the monks of Coventry and the dean and canons of Lichfield assembled in the chapterhouse to unanimously elect Walter Langton as bishop.[6]

 

Chapterhouse with alarmed cabinets for St Chad’s Gospels and the Lichfield Angel.

 


                                    Chapterhouse vaulting.

  A chapterhouse was mentioned in the statutes of Bishops Nonant (strictly those of the Dean) and Pattishall and it is thought it stood in the angle between the north transept and the nave,[7] but the evidence is thin. There are other possible locations. The new chapterhouse was built in the 1240s.[8] The master-mason was Thomas the Elder. In 1244, the chapter was granted forty oaks from the bishop's woods, presumably for this purpose. The original plan might have had the entrance in the north transept, but was abandoned with a door cut through the north wall of the choir aisle.[9] It was dedicated in 1249 and was the fourth in line of 12–14 chapterhouses started between 1220 and 1240.[10]

An archaeological investigation of the floor in 2011 found three burials. Parts of two skeletons aligned east-west, thought to have been wrapped with shrouds, appeared to be under the chapterhouse foundation and therefore within a pre-1240s graveyard.[11] Fragments of tile were found and it was evident the original medieval tiled floor lay 0.1 to 0.15 m below the level of the c.1860s floor.

            Dean Heywood, 1457–92, paid for the glazing of the chapterhouse windows, then in 1819 some windows had heraldry and finally windows with narratives connected to Chad were begun in 1887.

Chapterhouse 1864 showing all windows with heraldic shields.[12] Note also the platform with table. 

 Vestibule from J. Britton (London: 1820).

Windows with heraldic shields and the story of Chad.

 

            During and immediately after the Civil War the chapterhouse was used for services since it was the only part of the cathedral with an intact roof. Excavation under the floor in 2011 found a possible dais that was post-Civil War.

 

            It is clear the chapterhouse has been used in many ways. At the start it was a way for Coventry monks and Lichfield canons to meet and conciliate and this continued until the Reformation. It then became a centre for the bishop to meet the cathedral clergy and lay chapter whenever he visited Lichfield. Occasionally it was used for court appearances. In and after the Civil War it was a place of worship. In recent times it has held exhibitions and today is where displays of treasures occur.

 

Various heads from around the wall. The last one is known as the ‘Boy Bishop’ and harks to the ritual of one day in the year being given to the least amongst the brethren. After election on 6 December, feast of St Nicholas, the boy dressed in full bishop's robes with mitre and crozier, and other boys dressed as priests, entered the town blessing the people. The day was usually held on the feast of Holy Innocents, 28 December. It was abolished in the Reformation.


 
Capitol showing remains of red and green paint that once adorned the whole cathedral. 
 
   
  East end arches. Note the cat holding a kitten in its mouth (ringed) in the arch where the bishop or dean would have sat. This is sometimes referred to as the cat and mouse. From J. Britton (London:1820).

Drawing of cat and kitten from the chapterhouse capital. In Charles Knight, 'Old England', (London: 1845), 252.

[1] Norwich and Chichester cathedral’s chapter houses might have originally been two storeys. Wells is on two levels with a lower undercroft. The cathedral priory at Rochester, Beverley and Westminster have two levels, but each level is different in architecture.

[2] H. E. Savage, The Chapter House, Unpub. paper in Cathedral Library. (1919), 19.

[3] Ibid. 20.

[4] Originally called a chapterhouse because every day, a chapter from the Rule of St Benedict would be read out to the monastic community. 

[5] H. E. Savage (1919),15. When Bishop Durdent came to be installed at Lichfield, the chapter closed the Close gates and refused him entry. Savage gave a full account of the friction between the two cathedrals.

[6] J. Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield. (London: 1805), 76.

[7] H. E. Savage (1919),19.

[8] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral'. The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 1--24. Also J. H. Harvey, English Medieval Architects (Art/architecture). Revised edition. (Stroud: 1987). The dating is based on the architectural style.

[9] H. E. Savage (1919), 20.

[10] H. E. Savage (1919) 19.

[11] K. Blockley, Lichfield Chapter House 2011. Fabric report 664. Unpub. paper in Cathedral Library. (2011).

[12] Murray, Handbook to the cathedrals of England, (Oxford: 1864), 263–325.

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