The "New Salisbury" Cathedral was a massive public works project in the Middle Ages. Its importance to the Western World is hard to over estimate.
(from Salisbury Cathedral's Web site)
The foundation stones for the New Salisbury Cathedral were laid on 28th April 1220. The first part to be completed was the three eastern chapels named for St Stephen, Trinity, and St Peter. The building of the new cathedral was greatly helped by the energy of the bishop and the patronage of powerful people, including King Henry III, who donated trees from Ireland and estates in Wiltshire for the roof timbers, doors, etc., and Alice Brewer, who gave marble for 12 years from her Purbeck quarry, which provided capitals, shafts, columns and bases inside, and some shafts outside. The Bishop, Dean, and 52 Canons also each made substantial donations from income derived from their estates, or prebends.
The main body of the cathedral was finished by the consecration on 29 September 1258. But the whole project also included the West Front, the Cloisters, the Chapter House, and the (now demolished) detached Bell Tower, which stood between the High Street Gate and the Cathedral. All of these were probably completed by 1266. The great energy being released in Salisbury was not confined to this building project. The new town also became a notable centre for education, with the foundation in 1261 of De Vaux College, and then of St Edmund’s College. Cathedral clergy were required to give theological lectures to their students.
As New Salisbury grew up around the construction site for the new cathedral in the early 13th century, the buildings of Old Sarum were dismantled for stone and the old town dwindled.
Since the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were only just developing at that point, there was some chance that Salisbury would be their rival. By the later 13th century the Bishop’s town of New Salisbury, around its huge new market place (still in use on Tuesdays & Saturdays) was a great success, and many new shops, houses and businesses were built in its ‘chequers’ (blocks). Within two centuries it was the seventh largest town in England.
The Cathedral was enlarged upwards between 1300 and 1320, by the incomparable tower and spire. This development was not unique to Salisbury – the cathedrals in London (old St Paul’s) and Lincoln both had taller spires, if only of timber and lead – but this one has proved the longest-lived, and since the late 16th century has been the tallest in England, standing at 404 ft/123m. It seems likely the spire was severely damaged within a few years of completion, and so needed repairs for which the still-existing internal scaffolding was built.
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