Peterborough Cathedral, Cambridgeshire

A largely Romanesque cathedral with an amazing west front and painted ceiling

Peterborough Cathedral is perhaps the second finest Norman church in England after Durham Cathedral, and is certainly one of the least altered. The city of Peterborough, in north Cambridgeshire, has relatively few attractions for the visitor, but the cathedral makes the trip very worthwhile.

History

A monastery dedicated to St Peter was built in 656 but this was sacked by the Danes in 870. The Bishop of Winchester built a replacement a century later but this was destroyed by fire in 1117. The core of the present cathedral was begun as an abbey church on the same site in 1118 and completed in 1143. To this was added the cathedral nave, built between 1194 and 1197. The bulk of the cathedral was therefore built in the Romanesque style. Local limestone from Barnack near Stamford (the monks owned the quarry) was used in the construction.

However, the west front of the cathedral, which is one of the most dramatic such fronts in medieval architecture anywhere, is more Gothic in conception, having been added as an afterthought some ten years after the rest of the building was complete. Indeed, it appears that the original front was remodelled while it was still under construction…