South Transept

South transept was built c.1220 in an Early English style of architecture. It suffered much damage in the Civil War and has been altered on multiple occasions. It has a small wheel window, a remembrance chapel, and Kempe’s window. 

     The south transept was built with an ‘Early English’ style of architecture. It had simplicity, external buttresses, pointed arches and the south face had a five-light window with an innovative wheel window above. Licences to obtain stone and wood, overseen by King Henry III, help to date this part of the cathedral to a construction around 1220.[1] The master-mason was Thomas the Elder. The north transept differs architecturally in many ways[2] and its date has been fixed as ‘Late Early English’ with construction c. 1240. Wall shafts under the vault in the south transept have on their top an Early English abacus[3] and above that a later abacus in Perpendicular style suggesting the stone vault roof was added considerably later than when the lower walls were built.[4]^,[5] Indeed, some have suggested the transept may have had an initial wooden roof.[6] In 1221, the king gave the chapter twenty oaks from Cannock Forest, perhaps, intended for the roof trusses, or more likely the necessary scaffolding.[7]

 
View of South Transept interior.    

   

AI rendition of the south transept exterior taken from Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum 1693. Shows the poor buttressing and a wheel window.

Plan of South Transept; internally, c. 15.5 m (51 feet) long and c. 14 m (45 feet) wide. It is three bays long.

 

Shaft capital in the north east corner showing an Early English abacus below a Perpendicular abacus. It suggests a change in style from wall to roof or perhaps a change of roof.

           

          The south transept suffered much damage in the Civil War with the middle spire falling towards it. Hewitt stated the south door was ‘much injured’.[8] One loss was a series of wooden tablets on the west wall inscribed with the names of the kings of Mercia and the bishops of Lichfield. Fortunately, the listing was copied in 1569 and the copy confirms much about the history of the cathedral. The wall tablets were destroyed in the Civil War, 1643. Savage makes the point that up to their removal they reminded the visiting pilgrim of the long history of the cathedral.[9]

By 1665, Bishop Hacket wrote the roof had been repaired and leaded after the Civil War. In 1758, 1796 and again in 1892, the wheel window high up on the south side was restored.

Wheel window from the inside. It has 12 radiating spikes and is 17th-century. It is not a Rose window.

In 1795, Wyatt had to strengthen the buttresses. In 1819, the Great Window[10] had John Betton and David Evan’s depiction of 18 figures from the Old and New Testament, but this was replaced in 1895 by Charles E. Kempe’s ‘Spread of the Christian Church’. Some of Betton and Evan’s glass is now in the transept’s east clerestory windows. In the 1960s, the rafters were found to be infected with the death watch beetle larvae and damaged wood had to be removed. This can be seen in the roof space. The west side of the transept was repaired in 1964.

Ai Rendition of Charles Wild 1813 image showing the repaired buttresses and the wheel window,

 

South transept showing the Great Window and the round window.

 

In Medieval times pilgrims and penitents entered the cathedral through the south transept door. Some have suggested the staircase to the door would have made the pilgrim feel they are visiting a lofty sacred site. Two chapels had been added to the east side of the transept with priests ready to offer prayers for the dying and the dead.[11]

 South Transept door. Statues from left to right, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome from Croatia, Ambrose of Milan, Gregory the Great from Rome, John Chrysostom of Constantinople, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea. These statues have a Roman cement casing.  

 Some early glass showing the moon and sun, now thought to be post-Civil War. It is in the chapel of St Michaels.

Regimental Standards hang over the south wall.  

                      Southwest corner door to the spiral staicase leading to the transept roof space,

Date of the roof conjecture

          Willis¹ stated, ‘the transepts of Lichfield now have stone vaults considerably later than the walls.’ This has led to much speculation (see note 4 and 5), including whether there was a timber roof originally and later replaced with a stone, vaulted roof.[12] Some suggest an Early English capital under one from the Perpendicular period indicates two periods of work on the roof. This idea of a timber roof replaced with a stone roof occurs again with the nave, but there is no strong evidence for this anywhere in the cathedral; it is a subject that invites conjecture. There are tierceron vault ribs in the stone roof and this has been thought to show a date later than the c. 1220 for the south transept. However, such a roof exists above Lincoln’s nave with a date of c. 1235. This also fits in with the remodelling of the choir and a roof possibly added at this time. Since adding a roof requires a very tall, timber, scaffold frame to hold a centring frame around which the stone is rested before all voussoirs of the arch are in place, it is logical several roofs are completed in a sequence. An explanation could be the roofing of the middle part of the cathedral was undertaken concurrently and all was late Early English or very early Decorated. The south transept is possibly the least understood part of the cathedral.

 

The bosses in the south transept roof look perpendicular in style and show that the roof was altered in the 15th-century. The small boss in the middle of the photo is different from the others.

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[1] R. Willis, 'On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral'. The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 1–24. York Minster south transept was constructed 1230–41 and Willis thought the two buildings had a correspondence in their dating. Masons marks on the stonework of the west front were found to replicate, with one exception, those on the south transept. From this Rodwell thought there was an earlier west front (1220–30), but there could be later work on the south transept, c. 1300; see W. Rodwell, Dating the west front. Unpub. paper in Cathedral Library (1989), 4. A. B. Clifton, The Cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1900) quotes a date of 1230-1241 without reference.

[2] For example, the aisle is much larger that the one in the south transept. The two doorways and associated statues are very different. These differences between the transepts are exaggerated by differences between the bays. See M. Thurlby, 'The Early Gothic Transepts of Lichfield Cathedral'. in Medieval Archaeology and Architecture at Lichfield, J. Maddison (ed.), 1993, 50-64.

[3] A large, flat slab above the capital on the top of the wall shaft which supports the arch.

[4] The later roof is said to have been instigated by Bishop Walter Langton. See J. Britton, The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1820), 28. It could have also been undertaken in the 1350s. Alternatively, Bishop Blyth, 1503–1533, was recorded as having made considerable repairs to the cathedral. "Templum tunc temporis reparatur et ordinatur; ad cujus instaurationem contulit D. Episcopus L quercus, et xx libras. Dedit etiam in ornatum templi aulæa pretii xx librarum ; etimagines argenteas D. Ceddæ et S. Katerinæ" Whitlocke, Anglia Sacra, i. p. 455. The perpendicular insertions in this and the opposite transept may have been made at this time.

[5] The position of the south round wheel window between the lower stone vaulted roof and the upper external roof, so that it cannot be seen from inside the cathedral, has been said to be proof for the stone roof added later. See, J. C. Woodhouse, A short account of Lichfield Cathedral. Lichfield: (Lichfield: 1811), 5. Furthermore, the wheel window is said to have features from the Decorated period.

[6] Willis (1861), 18.

[7] M. W. Greenslade and R. B. Pugh, 'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970), 140-166. 

[8] J.Hewitt, Handbook of Lichfield Cathedral. (Lichfield: 1882).

[9] H.E. Savage, The Lichfield Chronicles. Unpub. article in the Cathedral library (1915), 9.

[10] Now a nine-light window.

[11] Willis (1861), 11, presumed the transepts originally had east facing chapels on their eastern walls, but there is no documentary evidence. Rodwell had also assumed round chapels off the second cathedral choir, but no firm archaeological discovery has supported this. These are assumptions based on arrangements found elsewhere, such as at Leominster. 

[12]J. Hewitt, Handbook of Lichfield Cathedral, (Lichfield: 1882), 15, wrote “But the most curious feature of the Transepts is the roof. It will surprise many to learn that not only the original roof was of wood, but that the practice of constructing wooden roofs and passing them off for stone, was not unknown to the builders of that brilliant period of mediaeval architecture, the thirteenth century.”

 

West front including the 'singing windows'

Summary. The Victorian Gothic west front, resembling the west fronts of Wells and Salisbury cathedrals has an eclectic mix of statues. The west door, lower statues, slit windows for choristers and spires are special.

     Twin towers,[1] tall spires, a flat, symmetrical elevation, numerous aligned statues and the great west window combine to give an unusual welcome for visitors.[2] It is an ‘architectural screen’ similar to the cathedral façades of Wells and Salisbury.[3] Five layers of statues, 113 in total (153 around the whole cathedral), two pointed spires with many pinnacles encourage the viewer to look to the heavens. Cobb thought the original frontage had about a hundred figures all gilded,[4]  and stonework painted red and green. Erdeswicke in the 16th-century described “a great number of tabernacles containing statues of prophets, apostles, kings of Judah and divers’ other kings of this land.” The frontage was described by three visitors in 1634.[5] The original top statue was Christ seated.[6] The story of a seated Christ statue, 2.1 m (7 feet) high and 13th-century, found at Swynnerton Church as being the lost statue is plausible, but unlikely.[7] Willis gave an approximate date for the front as c. 1275,[8] but this was probably the start of construction and it took many  decades for completion.

AI rendittion of W. Hollar’s etching, early 16th-century. Note how all the niches are filled with statues and all are gilded in niches painted red. This is the earliest known image of the west front. Sculpted foliage was green, but how much was present is uknown. Hollar's engravings were presented by Ashmole to Fuller's "Church History," published in 1655.   

         

                    AI rendition of the west front c.1782 engraved by James Basire 

Almost the entire front of the cathedral was destroyed in the Civil War; mostly in the 1646 heavy bombardment. There was a partial restoration completed by 1666, further reordering in 1749[9], twice in the19th[10] and more work in the 20th-centuries; all of which means little is original. The statues are the third set, very Victorian in composition, and undoubtedly different from the originals.[11] The top statue of Charles II, added because of  post-Civil War restoration, was removed between 1877–84 and by 1977 stored forlornly by the South Transept door.

  

   

West front showing Charles II statue and a mistaken hood stone for a cathedra.[12]

AI rendition of Charles II                                              

                             

          West front post-Civil War. S. Shaw, The history and antiquities of Staffordshire, Volume 1. (London: 1798) who copied from Gale, 1720. The clock was known as the ‘clocke bell’.

Gallery of kings 1813 enhanced by AI from a drawing by Charles Wild.

          Much criticism was given to Joseph Potter’s choice to add stucco to the eroding statues on the west front, 1820–2, with work done by Joseph Harris of Bath.[13] Then removal of the grey figures begun by G. Gilbert Scott and finished by his son, J. Oldrid Scott, 1877–84. Almost everyone expressed disdain[14] at the early restoration and later gave praise for the current, reddish, sandstone, figures. Many of the new statues were copied from sepia drawings taken before the 1820–2 restoration,[15] but there is an obvious Victorian bias regarding which figures were included and how they were portrayed. The apostles in the lowest tier sculpted by Mary Grant are considered the finest. Other figures were sculpted by Gilbert Seale and Walter Rowlands Ingram of London and 63 were executed by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield. The figure (probably just the head) of Queen Victoria, was sculpted by her daughter Princess Louise and added in 1885.[16] Princess Victoria visited Lichfield in 1832. The doorways had bushy foliage added around the arches in the early 19th-century and this was removed by Scott and replaced with small statues. The smaller doors were studded and the studs replaced with shaped, wrought-iron decoration. The large central doors had ironwork at the bottom replaced. Hinges and ironwork could be late 13th-century and by Thomas Leighton an ironsmith.

 AI rendition of the west front, c. 1845. Old statues have been removed and the old west window has still to be replaced. C. Knight, Old England: A Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal, And Popular Antiquities. 2 Volumes. (London: 1845), 252.  

  Great west window being replaced in 1869. Like all the cathedral windows after the Civil War it contained various effigies and coats of arms of bishops and other eminent men.[17] The west window had the arms of England and the Earl of Chester and Clare. The new window was furnished by Clayton and Bell and consisted of six lights filled with figures of the Archangel Gabriel, St. Joseph, the Virgin and Child, and the Three Magi; under which respectively are scenes representing the Annunciation, the Angel appearing to St. Joseph, the Birth, with angels adoring; the Journey of the Magi, the Magi before Herod, and the Flight into Egypt. It is sometimes referred as the ‘Nativity Window’. John B. Stone, A history of Lichfield Cathedral (London: 1870).

 AI renditionj of the west front restoration in the early 1880s. The south side and tower have been finished.  

Work on replacing the great west window in 1869.

                                                         West front post-Victorian Reordering.

AI rendition of four statues on the top left are 14th-century and believed to be original. Three are shown. They could have been queens of the kings involved in the early construction of the cathedral (Edward I, Henry III and Richard II are possibilities). Other cathedrals with kings on the front include Canterbury, Exeter, Lincoln and York.

 For a detailed exposition with images of the 113 statues see the website  https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=ST&record=gbwm025. The current eclectic mix of statues contains King Richard II, reigning 1367–1400, immediately left of Chad and added well after the front had been completed.

 Confusion on the Early Medieval kings to the right of Chad.

There was much uncertainty on who was being replaced from the second set of statues. The line is: Peada, 655‑6, Wulfhere, 658-75, Æthelred, 675-704, Offa, 757-96, Egbert, king of Wessex, 802-39, Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, 839-58, Æthelberht, king of Wessex, 860-65, Æthelred, king of Wessex, 865-71, Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, 871-86 and then king of much of England to 899, Edgar the Peaceful, 959-75, Cnut 1016-35, and Edward the Confessor, 1042-66. Including the Wessex line of kings, 839‑886 is inexplicable, unless it was believed Æthelwulf’s father, king Ecgberht of Wessex, defeated and completely subdued the Mercians in battle in 825. If so, why is Ecgberht not figured. Why is Æthelstan, king of all Britain (rex totius Britanniae), 924‑39, missing? Woodhouse thought the figures removed in 1749 might have included Æthelstan.[18] There is a case for king Coelwulf II, 874‑880s, who consolidated the Mercians after defeat by the Vikings (Danes), and even Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, c. 881‑911 who maintained the sub-kingdom and prepared the way for Æthelstan. The downgrading of Æthelstan and the lauding of his grandfather Alfred is a bias from medieval times and repeated in Victorian narratives.[19] 

 

          Work in 1878 included the lowering of the ground across the whole of the front of the cathedral; originally there were railings across the front of the cathedral. Also, there has been an entire restoration of the southwest tower, exclusive of the sculpture.[20]

Conjecture on the Great Window extending above the stone vault

The top of the Great West window cannot be seen from the inside of the cathedral because the stone vault roof cuts it off. This has led to speculation on whether the stone roof was added later and whether originally the window was so large. The obvious explanation is the window was built to be admired from the outside and being foreshortened internally was not considered a problem.

 ‘Singing Windows really slits’

The west fronts of Wells, Salisbury and Lichfield Cathedrals[21] have statues with windows behind them. Behind these openings are passageways in which it is contended choristers, and maybe trumpeters, sang and played so that worshippers outside could hear and be welcomed on Palm Sunday.

AI rendition of St Chad with slit windows each side. 

Gallery with ten slit windows, each now with glass.

 

Entrance to the gallery down 4 steps

Wells has four groups of three round holes plus two narrow slits in the middle. All are now glazed.

 

Salisbury has nine small quatrefoil windows almost hidden behind the sculptures. All have been filled in with cement.

 

Ascending spiral staircases in the west towers lead to a doorway below the level of the triforium. This opens with steps leading down into a passageway built into the wall, 1.8 m high (6 feet) and 0.6 m wide (2 feet). The chamber is lit by ten slit windows each 500 mm high (20 inches) and 75 mm wide (3 inches). Higher up the staircases, above the triforium and level with the sill of the west window, is a second passageway.[22] Having two passageways, also seen at Wells and possibly at one time at Salisbury, cannot be explained, unless it is in regard to stress in the wall. Perhaps, two passageways and slits were a way to aerate the wall and for it to dry out.

          The lower passageway has been equated with the ‘trumpet openings’ at Wells Cathedral and thought to be for broadcasting responses and perhaps music outwards to processing worshippers standing below on Palm Sunday. It is a re-enactment of the entry into Jerusalem.[23] The liturgy[24] specified seven choristers were to be ‘elevated’ and to sing ‘Gloria, laus, et honor’[25] as the congregation approached the west front of the cathedral.  

The company of angels is praising you on high; and we with all creation in chorus make reply. The people of the Hebrews with palms before you went; our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.   ‘All Glory Laud and Honour’

At York, the same liturgy was used with the choristers elevated on a temporary platform raised on the front of the Minster.[26] At Wells the openings are at different heights from the floor suggesting it accommodated two heights of choristers. The hidden voices would appear as if coming from the angels sculptured on the front. At Salisbury there was an elaborate procession.[27] Passages, both internal and external, exist elsewhere,[28] but the majority, especially northern churches, do not appear to be churches that used the Sarum liturgy prepared around 1210. Singing from the gallery has been questioned.[29] Furthermore, the procession relied on the particular layout of the cathedral and since this varied, it cannot be assumed the procession stopped at the west door at the right time in the Missal. Mahrt thought the opposite and worked out the Gloria would be sung at Wells just as the procession reached the west door.[30] Another objection is it would have made the procession ‘dither under the west front.’[31] Finally, the construction of a passageway and openings for one service seems extravagant. Especially since the voices would sound muffled and echoey when compared with being in an open space. If singing windows are mythical, it raises the question why build two passageways with openings? If they are for some kind of maintenance, why make them so small? Explaining the purpose and function of the singing windows at Lichfield depends on linking them with the Sarum liturgy used at Wells and Salisbury Cathedrals. If it was used, it strongly suggests the original façade of the west front, that is pre-Civil War, had angels in the arcades where the slit windows occur. The procession was entering the New Jerusalem with heavenly angels singing. It also links with Chad’s death when ‘the song of joyful voices was heard descending from heaven’[32] and that opens a new context for the use of the windows on March 2 and a figure of ascendent Chad surrounded by singing angels.[33]

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Conjecture on a date for an earlier lower west front

Rodwell, 1989, examined the stonework below the internal lower passage and conjectured it was Romanesque and earlier than the 1320s.[34] Moulding profiles and mason’s marks (over 200 have been recognised in the cathedral) led him to believe a date of 1220‑30 was more appropriate. It might also explain the two buttress foundations under the pavement and either side of the central door. If true, it means an earlier nave front was contemporary with that at Wells cathedral and earlier than Salisbury. It also gives doubt to the dates of the nave. Hewitt thought the lower tower section up to the niches with the kings was built c, 1280, the middle section c. 1300 and the upper part with the belfry windows c. 1330. [35] He also thought it was probable the upper stage of the northwest tower was not completed until the reign of Richard I. Others have suggested it might even be later.

Statues on the west front in 1831 prior to removal by the Victorians.[36]

The fronts of the towers on each side of it are adorned with figures of the patriarchs; and below them, on each side of the great windows, are two rows of large statues representing Prophets, Prophetesses, and Judges. Below these, is a row of twenty-four statues of the Kings of Judah, and Israel, in various attitudes; except the centre one, which, being in pontifical robes, is supposed to represent St. Chad, the patron saint of the cathedral. This statue stands exactly over the central porch, which is adorned with beautiful sculpture work. Within this porch are placed figures of the four Evangelists, holding the Gospels in their hands. Moses and Aaron are situated on the two sides, and in the centre, between the great doors, is the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus in her arms. These were all formerly richly painted and gilded. A figure of Christ, with his arms extended, appears between two cherubims, on the top of the central pillar. The niches on each side of the three entrance gates are filled with statues of the Twelve Apostles.

[1] There are differences between the towers which has led to the speculation they were built at different times. It is more likely they were built by different masons and the lower ground on the south side was a complication. Furthermore, the south tower held the heavy bells and clock. The south side spire is a little taller than the north side spire. The first recorded bell in the southwest tower was in 1477. This ‘Jesus Bell’ was destroyed in the Civil War and removed in 1653. It was replaced after the War, but had to be recast again in 1688.

[2] J. Leland, 1540s, wrote ‘the glory of the church is the work of the west end which is exceedingly costly and fayre’. T. Fuller, Church History of Britain. Vol. 1. (London: 1842), Book 4, 499, wrote ‘the west front is a stately fabric adorned with exquisite imagery’.

[3] J. P. McAleer, The west front of Lichfield Cathedral. A hidden liturgical function. 52nd Friends Annual Report held in cathedral library. (1989), 26–9. There are similarities between the southwest spire of Lichfield Cathedral with the central spire at Salisbury Cathedral.

[4] G. Cobb, English Cathedrals: the forgotten centuries. Restoration and change from 1530 to the present day. (London: 1981), 140.

[5] Landsdowne MS BM 213, A relation of a short survey of 26 Counties, 1634. “This Ancient Structure of 1000 yeares standing, hath att the entrance into it, 2. stately, strong, and neat, curiously built spir'd Pyramids, and vpon that Frontispice there is about 100, fayre statues, curiously grauen, and caru'd in free-stone, of Kings, Patriarchs, Prophets, Fathers, and Apostles, that grace it much, especially in time past, when (as they say) they were all gilt.”

[6][6] Noted from Hollar’s etching, early 17th-century, appearing in Thomas Fuller’s book, Church history of Britain. Volume 1. (London: 1842).

[7] It depends on a Royalist climbing the front and retrieving a very heavy statue in the middle of a siege. That assumes it avoided damage from cannon and musket and could be taken north without discovery. In contrast the statue is in a stone similar to that used for the cathedral and it has red paint on the sleeve; the cathedral was painted in red and green.

[8] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’. The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 1–24. Willis visited the Cathedral in 1849 to examine window tracery. In 1854 he was invited to forward a drawing for the restoration of the choir area. Before publication Willis gave a lecture reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1861, Vol. 210, 296‑300.

[9] Several statues in a poor state were removed. R. J. King, Handbook to the cathedrals of England. (London: 1864), 271, claimed most of the statues were taken down.

[10] 1820–22 and 1877–84.

[11] Apart from four (two and six are quoted elsewhere) at the top left-hand corner where cannon and musket appear not to have reached out of a total of 113 now present. Wells Cathedral has 297.

[12] J. Gould, ‘Saxon cathedral or 17th-century niche in Lichfield Cathedral?’ South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society transactions for 1976–7. (1976) 18, 69–72.

[13] A proprietary formula labelled ‘Roman Cement’ which was very hard wearing, had low shrinkage, but was brittle. Roman Stucco is made with a natural cement by burning limestone in a traditional kiln. 

[14] A. W. Pugin wrote a censorious letter in 1834 describing brown, (grey?) cracked cement and heads devoid of expression. The letter was published by B. Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin. (1861), 85–6.

[15] R. Prentis, The restoration of the west front, 1877–1884. Unpub. article in Cathedral Library (2007), 11.

[16] Possibly Chad with a resemblance to a previous archbishop.                  

[17] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 51.

[18] J. C. Woodhouse, A short account of Lichfield Cathedral. (London: 1885), 38_­‑42 (8th ed.)

[19] S. Foote, Æthelstan. (New Haven and London: 2011), 234‑42.

[20] G. H. Holderness, ‘The cathedral a hundred years ago.’ (1977). Unpub. article in cathedral library.

[21] These are the only medieval cathedrals without any Norman architecture. Lichfield differed from the other two in having its frontal twin towers in line with the nave aisles so the west half of the cathedral is a rectangle. At Wells and Salisbury, the towers project out on the sides of the west end.

[22] J. P. McAleer, The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral: A hidden liturgical function. Friends of Lichfield Cathedral 52 Annual Report. (1989), 26–9.

[23] P. Z. Blum, ‘Liturgical influences on the design of the West End at Wells and Salisbury’. Gesta (1986), 25, 1, 145–150.

[24] It was a reformed liturgy first used at Sarum cathedral during Bishop Osmund's prelacy. 1087-1099. It was commonly used throughout southern England and most likely included Lichfield.

[25] It is possibly a 9th-century hymn and a modern translation is the hymn ‘All Glory, Laud and Honour’. One distinctive feature of Lent in the medieval church was the refrain from singing ‘Alleluia’ known as ‘locking the Alleluia’ as a mark of deepening the solemnity of Lent. Therefore, singing this hymn on Palm Sunday was marking the beginning of Easter and its celebration. This ceremony might have originated in Early Medieval times.

[26] H. Gittos and S. Hamilton (eds) Understanding Medieval Liturgy. Essays in interpretation. (London and New York: 2017), 228.

[27] According to N. Orme, Going to church in Medieval England, (New Haven and London: 2022), 274–5. The procession started in the choir with the carried cross, candle holders, incense bearer, someone holding the relics, the holy sacrament inside a pyx, clerks with palm branches, clergy and then the laity. They left the church, and in the churchyard heard the Gospel of Luke describing Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. They re-entered the cathedral with the choristers singing Gloria, laus, et honor. In a description of the procession, 1542, it stated the Gospel was read beside a Palm Cross. After the hymn was sung the cathedral doors were opened only when the priest banged on the door with the foot of the processional cross. Another account has people being given palms which were taken home and attached to their house-door believing this would drive away the Devil.

[28] Examples include Lindisfarne Priory, Rochester, Colchester, Arbroath, Holyrood, St Andrew, Kelso and Elgin. See note 2. Kilkenny has been since added.

[29] C. Hohler, The Palm Sunday procession and the west front of Salisbury Cathedral. Private letter written early 1990s and considered by M. S. Andås, Ø. Ekroll, A. Haug and N. Holger (eds.), ‘Architectural and ritual constructions. The Medieval Cathedral of Trondheim in a European Context’. Ritus et Artes (Turnout, Brepols: 2007), 3, 279–284.

[30] W. P. Mahrt, Review of Façade as Spectacle: Ritual and ideology at Wells Cathedral. (Leiden and Boston: 2004).

[31] M. Spurrell, ‘The procession of Palms and west-front galleries’, The Downside Review. (2001), 415, 136–7.

[32] Historia Ecclesiastica Book 4, chapter 3. J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede: The ecclesiastical history of the English People. (Oxford: 2008), 176.

[33] There are 382 depictions of angels inside the cathedral and 6 on the west front.

[34] W, Rodwell, ‘Lichfield cathedral. Notes on the gallery and other features at the west end of the nave.’ (1989), Unpub. article in the cathedral library.

[35] J. Hewitt, Handbook of Lichfield Cathedral. (Lichfield: 1882). 

[36] W, White, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Staffordshire, (1831), 80.