Peterborough Cathedral
Another look at its history
In 1107, King Henry I appointed the acting Abbot of Canterbury as the new Abbot of Peterborough Abbey. Ernulf (1040–1124), a 68-year-old Frenchman, had all the skills required to build a new abbey using the depressed resources available. He was a skilful architect and a master forger with an in-depth knowledge of canon law. He left his redevelopment work at Canterbury, including the new Crypt, to hold relics for others to finish. The reason for Ernulf’s move was to plan the building of a new Abbey Church at Peterborough.
While the surrounding diocese of Lincoln unsuccessfully fought off a split in its lands to form a new diocese based on Ely, Ernulf set about building the Abbey’s backstory and adding value. He amended the Abbey’s version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He produced historical documents and charters to prove to the King the Abbey held lands and privileges over other nearby abbeys. This guaranteed a perpetual income from tithes and rent.
In addition, he planned for the new Church to be a pilgrimage site full of relics. The most famous being the arm of St.Oswald. The Abbey’s status would be raised so anyone who could not get to Rome could obtain redemption at the Abbey for payment.
Preparations for building
Some of the best building stones in England were quarried less than ten miles away at Barnack on land under the Abbey’s ownership. At the time, the quarry was working flat out, supplying stone for the rebuilding of a number of abbeys, including Ely, Norwich, Bury, Crowland and more. The building at Peterborough would have to wait. A decorative stone called ‘Alwalton Marble’ was also quarried less than 8 miles away via the River Nene. This limestone could be polished, similar to Purbeck Marble, which was so loved in the Early English style.
Timber was also plentiful. There were locally growing tall oak trees with straight trunks that were perfect for roof timbers, scaffolding, and centring. They could be easily cut and shaped while still green. Iron ore has been discovered by the Romans less than 12 miles to the west of Peterborough. The ore was easily smelted to make weapons, tools, reinforcement, and metalwork. Materials were gathered, and agreements were made ready for the building work to start. In preparation, Ernulf set his monks to work on building new dormitories, refectory, necessarium, and the chapter house to cater for the increase in the number of monks.
Ernulf moved to Rochester
In 1114, King Henry I was at Eastbourne waiting to sail to Normandy. He summoned Ernulf and told him he was becoming the new bishop of Rochester. Ernulf declined but was forced into the appointment. Arriving at Rochester, the 75-year-old immediately started planning the building of a new Cathedral and, of course, forging documents to secure the diocese funding.
In 1116, most of Peterborough was destroyed by fire, except for the old Church and new buildings. Ernulf’s plan then came into play.
Rebuilding commences
On 8 March 1118, the building of the new Church commenced following Ernulf’s plan. The monastic altars were required for the continuation of prayers, so work started with the East end, the Apse, Chancel, Choir, and side aisles. Then the transepts, their eastern aisles, and the first bay of the Nave. The three levels comprised a grand arcade, a triforium, and a clerestory in an ascending ratio of 6:5:4. The top of the walls took a timber Scissor Truss roof, intending to add a vault later.
Surmounting the new building was a tower with three levels built over the central crossing supported on four enlarged piers. It was similar to the tower of Castor church, some 5 miles away, built-in 1120.
Next was built a nine-bay long Nave terminating with enlarged pillars to form a pair of Western towers over the aisles. The southside was constructed first up to triforium level to allow the cloisters to be finished and roofed over.
The Canterbury Connection
In 1177, before the towers could rise out of the ground, the new abbot, Benedict, arrived from Canterbury, where he had been the Prior. He had been at Canterbury when Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170. The murder shocked the whole of Christendom, and pilgrims started to flock in enormous numbers to his tomb. Benedict led the repair work at Canterbury following the fire of 5 September 1174. He took the opportunity to enlarge the East End, rebuilding it in the new Gothic style over Ernulf’s original Crypt. The Choir area was back in use six years later and looked magnificent with its arcades of pointed arches.
When Benedict arrived at Peterborough, the Abbey was 1,500 marks in debt, and the building work would shortly have to stop. He decided to raise money by attracting even more pilgrims to Peterborough and immediately returned to Canterbury to collect relics associated with Thomas. He placed small relics in a purpose-made French casket (Becket Casket, V&A Museum no. M.66–1997) and returned with a range of items, such as two vases of Becket’s blood and clothing items. Benedict had all of Becket’s relics placed in a newly dedicated chapel by the West Gate. There, he set up two altars made out of blood-stained flagstones from the sacred spot of Becket’s assassination. Here, the pilgrims could see, touch, and, more importantly, make donations. By the time of Benedict’s death in 1193, the debt had been cleared, and the Abbey was in surplus.
Benedict made changes to Ernulf’s planned building work. He lengthened the Nave by two bays and added a western transept capped with two side towers in the new Gothic style. He set out plans for the future impressive west Portico comprising three major freestanding arches, buttressed each end by stair-towers topped with spires and pinnacles to prevent the Portico from spreading.
The Cult of the Lady Chapel
Glastonbury Abbey suffered a significant fire in 1184. Generally, roof structures comprised of timber, boarding, thatch, and even centuries of abandoned bird nests could catch fire following a lightning strike. A roof collapse could demolish walls and finally balanced stone roof vaulting, flying buttress, and pinnacles.
In 1191, the ‘tombs’ of King Arthur and Guinevere were said to have been found in the grounds of the Abbey. The myths about the two were popular at the time, and the discovery led to a large increase in the number of pilgrims. Their donations funded the rebuilding at Glastonbury. A Lady Chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was included in the planned rebuild. King Edward I and Queen Eleanor visited the Abbey on 19 April 1278. In their honour, the black marble tomb of Arthur and Guinevere, which stood before the high altar, was opened.
In France, Chartres Cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1194. Some clerics sheltered in the Crypt as the building collapsed above them. With them in the Crypt was a relic, part of the robe of the Virgin Mary, which she had worn when she gave birth to Jesus. They said this saved them, and it was a miracle. The resultant pilgrims funded the rebuilding of Chartres Cathedral.
So the cult of the ‘Lady Chapel’ started, and they were added to the east end of most significant churches. In Peterborough, a ‘Lady Chapel’ was added to the northeast side with access from the north transept during 1272–86.
Ely decided in 1321 to build their Lady Chapel in a similar location, but the excavations for the foundations caused the Central Tower to collapse in 1322. It was rebuilt in the form of an imaginative, beautiful lantern.
Peterborough’s Lady Chapel was wrecked when Cromwell’s troops arrived in the town in 1643. The Lady Chapel was later sacrificed to save the main building. Its materials and those of the cloisters and other redundant abbey buildings were sold off to pay for urgent repairs.
Timber boarded ceiling
On 15 April 1185, Lincoln Cathedral suffered a structural failure of its vaulting, destroying much of the building. It was initially described as an earthquake but was later attributed to bad building as no other structures were damaged. Due to this, the planned vaulting of the Nave at Peterborough was abandoned. A timber-boarded ceiling was later installed in the Nave and transepts using imported boards from the Baltic, where they had developed water-driven sawmills. The boards have been dated as being cut from around 1230 onwards and were probably stock-piled for over forty years or more before being used.
Replaced windows
Following a four-year period when King John harvested the wealth of the Abbey, a new abbot, Robert of Lindsey, was appointed in 1214. He attended the Lateran Council in 1215 at Rome and returned full of inspiration. Over the next six years, he glazed 30 church windows and 14 elsewhere in the Abbey.
Between 1290 and 1345, most of the small Norman windows were replaced with large new windows in the Decorated style. The internal surrounds were chamfered, leaving the interior flooded with light. The old glass was reused in the leaded lights, and stained glass became fashionable.
Consecration of the New Church
Many English churches had never been consecrated as they were still being built. Otto, the papal legate in England (and future Pope Adrian V), ordered any such churches to be consecrated by the end of 1238, whether finished or not. Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, consecrated the Church on 28 September 1238 when passing from London to Lincoln.
The old Church had been dedicated to Saint Peter, but the new Church was dedicated to Peter, his brother Andrew, and Paul. The Abbey held relics of all three plus 117 other relics of saints, including Jesus, Mary and St.Oswald. All these relics were destroyed when the Catholic Abbey was dissolved in 1539. These relics had funded the building of the Abbey over 421 years, with the help of the ‘Canterbury influence’.
Stability issues
Following the sudden fall of Ely’s central tower in 1322, there was concern about the central tower at Peterborough when it showed signs of movement. Repair work was delayed as the ‘Black Death’ caused the death of half the monks in 1349.
In about 1370, the central tower was taken down to the level of its four supporting arches, which were rebuilt with pointed arches. The north and south arches were constructed above the retained existing round-headed arches. A lighter tower with a lantern was then built over the crossing. It was again rebuilt in 1883.
In 1375, the West Portico showed signs of movement of the 23m high central arch. Its two freestanding piers had moved alarmingly away from the main building by 37 cm. The solution was to build a two-storey galilee porch to brace the structure and prevent further movement. Its perpendicular style is slightly at odds with the rest of Portico. White-painted Iron ties were later added.
The ‘New Building’
The so-called ‘New Building’ was built 1496 -1508 and still retains its name. It is a beautiful rear single-storey extension at the east end that provides a circulation route for pilgrims to pass all the relics.
John Wastell, the architect of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, designed the building with its large perpendicular-style windows and fan vaulting to provide a third transept. The removal of the apses to the chancel aisles gave access.
Break with Rome
Following the Pope’s refusal in 1534 to annul Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon, preventing him from marrying Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII severed ties with the Pope and the dominant Catholic Church. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 confirmed the break from Rome, declaring Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
The Act of Suppression 1536
Over nearly a thousand years, the Monasteries had acquired a quarter of England’s cultivated land. The Church was the wealthiest institution in the country, and money was bleeding out of the kingdom directly into Rome.
Henry set about establishing the Church of England by closing and confiscating monasteries, convents, and religious houses across England, Wales, and Ireland.
The Act of Suppression 1536 initiated the closure of small monasteries with an income of less than £200 a year. The Crown took their assets, buildings, land and money.
The Pilgrimage of Grace
In October 1536, a formidable rebel force of more than 30,000 individuals advanced towards York, insisting on the reinstatement of the monasteries. This movement gained renown as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Assurances of amnesty and a Parliament convened in York to address their grievances persuaded the rebels to disperse in January 1537. However, they were deceived; Henry issued directives for the apprehension of the rebellion’s leaders, resulting in the execution of approximately 200 individuals.
The Second Act of Suppression 1539
The Second Act of Suppression 1539 allowed for the dissolution of the larger monasteries and religious houses.
Monastic land and buildings were confiscated and sold to families who sympathised with Henry’s break from Rome. By 1540, monasteries were being dismantled at a rate of fifty a month.
Closure of the Abbey
Peterborough Abbey came to an end under the decree of King Henry VIII, who confiscated its lands and assets. Following orders from the previous year to dispose of relics, the Abbey’s collection was annihilated. They were seen to be attempts at witchcraft, and all were beginning to be shown as fakes. The gullible were no longer believing in what they were told.
In the spring of 1539, Henry convened Parliament, which passed legislation enabling the transfer of all monastic property to the Crown. There was some resistance from monastic communities, but Abbot John Chambers surrendered the Abbey seal without opposition when Henry’s commissioners arrived on 29 November 1539.
Chambers was granted an annual pension of £267, but the monks were paid off with a small sum of cash and forced out of the Abbey. Their sheltered existence suddenly came to an end.
Just before the Reformation, the Abbey was the sixth largest in England in terms of income, with 120 monks.
The new Peterborough Diocese
Peterborough Abbey survived because it was the burial site of Katharine of Aragon (1485–1536). Henry Vlll’s first wife had died at Kimbolton Castle, some 23 miles away. They had been married for eighteen years. She conceived seven times but only delivered one healthy daughter, the future Queen Mary. Henry wanted Katharine buried in a suitable church outside of London, and Peterborough was selected as it was in 1536 the nearest great religious building.
On 4 September 1541, the building became the Cathedral of the new Church of England Peterborough Diocese, covering Northamptonshire, Rutland, and the Soke of Peterborough. John Chambers, the last abbot (1525–39), was appointed the first bishop (1541–56). He was allowed back into his old residence adjacent to the Cathedral.
