Description

NY 3955 NE, 671-1/10/18

CARLISLE,
THE ABBEY

Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity

01/06/49

GV

I

Priory Church and Cathedral, now all Cathedral. Early C12 with
various rebuildings until the early C15, with 1652 alterations
to west end; minor 1764 alterations; 1846 (by Thomas Nelson)
and 1853-57 restorations by Ewan Christian; 1950s restoration
and vestry etc additions.

Oldest parts are of mixed red and
calciferous squared sandstone blocks; the remainder is red
sandstone ashlar, heavily restored, on chamfered plinth, with
stepped buttresses carried up as pinnacles; string courses,
dentilled cornices and solid parapets, battlemented on tower.
Steeply pitched lead roofs, copper on south transept and flat
on tower; coped gables, that at east end with numerous cross
finials.
Early C12 nave originally seven bays, now two bays with a fragment
of the third bay remaining as buttresses, with aisles and north
vestry. South transept also C12 with C13 chantry chapel
(dedicated to St Catherine); north transept is late C14
incorporating part of C12 structure (original transept thought
to have been destroyed when the tower fell in 1380). Tower
rebuilt late C14/early C15.

INTERIOR: 7-bay choir is internally C13 but completed in the
late C14, the east window is probably c1380. Nave has
triforium and clerestory in Norman style with some internal
distortion due to subsidence; the west wall is c.1652 with
1870 windows; some of the other windows in the nave are later
insertions; north door (now internal) was added in 1813-4 and
gives access to the 1956 vestry. Blocked south doorway to
cloisters appears to have been C12. South transept of similar
Norman details, the south door is 1856 (here originally the
dormitory range joined the Cathedral and roof line can be seen
externally); chapel has panelled and traceried wooden screens
of late C15. North transept has 1858 inserted north window to
memory of Dean Tait's children replacing earlier windows of
1764 and c1380; former external window now internal, lit the
crossing when the transept had a flat roof (similar windows
over nave and south transept were removed in 1855-7
restoration). Choir has C13 arches on clustered columns with
elaborately carved capitals representing the 12 seasons. C15
choir stalls with later C15 mural painting on the backs.
Barrel-vaulted ceiling is painted with stars on a blue ground
and coats-of-arms of local gentry (originally to the design of
Owen Jones in 1856 and replacing a similar medieval ceiling
covered by a false ceiling in 1764). East window contains
medieval glass in tracery head, the lower glass having been
removed in 1764, was replaced with the present plain glass in
1862. For fuller details of the interior see Pevsner (1967)
and the Pitkin guide to the Cathedral.

(Pevsner N: The Buildings of England: Cumberland &
Westmorland: 1967-: P.88-94; Pitkin Guide to the Cathedral).

Listing NGR: NY3989855964

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Carlisle Cathedral at Wikipedia
• Carlisle Cathedral official website
• Wikidata Q2533552

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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