Several years ago I sat in on Kim Sexton's architecture history course on great medieval churches. Bill had never been to the Cathedral of St. Andrew, otherwise known as Wells Cathedral, so we decided to pay it a visit. This is a view of the westwork or narthex. It faces the cathedral green. Also, it is wider than the nave of the church. The westwork is 100 feet high and 150 feet wide; I am intrigued by the exact 2:3 ratio of height to width.
The cathedral has lots of niches for sculpture. Originally, there were more than 500 sculptures, but sadly, close to 200 of them were destroyed by Cromwell.
Below is a view of the westwork's south tower as seen from inside the cloister.
Below is the crossing tower where the nave intersects the transept. The crossing tower foundation began to sink about 150 years after the nave was begun. In the next blog you will see the fantastic remedy designed to prevent the crossing tower from collapsing.
Curse you, Cromwell!
Here is Bill casting a long shadow while he photographs the westwork.
Below is a closeup of the front facade. Cromwell and his armies left Christ in the top center niche.
A twilight view of the cathedral from the east side. On the far right is the Chapter House where the bishop and his staff convened daily to discuss business. Directly behind the nave is the Lady Chapel.
Below is the facade of the north transept with a pretty clock.
These two medieval soldiers appear on the north side of the north westwork tower. I love the little guy on the left--he looks like a character out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Here are some pictures of a flying buttress on the Lady Chapel.
More flying buttresses.
A closeup of ashlar masonry.
We were extremely fortunate to have sun on both the afternoon of our arrival and our only morning in Wells. Here is a morning shot where the sun cast long shadows on the cathedral green.
Finally, here is a picture of a bird, a gargoyle, and a little guy wearing glasses. I didn't know they had glasses back then!
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