Exterior
The massive bulk of the cathedral only really becomes apparent from a closer position, and the walk proper begins in the cathedral close, just south of the high street.
English diocese are large by continental standards because they were established early, when the economy was poor. As the economy improved they became relatively rich. Where continental, and particularly French cathedrals express their wealth by height, English cathedrals are relatively low, but rich in decoration. Even by English standards, Winchester is not high. However, at 556 feet the cathedral is the longest in Europe - and when it was originally built it was even longer.
Why so long?
We can only speculate, but some of the factors may be:
The local stone is not good building material, and most buildings in Winchester use brick or flint. Stone for the cathedral had to be imported. It is mainly Quarr limestone from the Isle of Wight, which is easily worked, and weathers well. It would be brought up the river Itchen by barge. The timber came from the royal forest at Hempage towards Alresford. It is said that the bishop persuaded King William to allow him as much wood as he could fell in four days and nights. With an army of workmen he was able to strip the wood, apart from one tree. The king was furious but forgave the bishop. “I was as much too liberal in my grant as you were too greedy in availing yourself of it”.
The main approach from the high street to the cathedral brings us to the west front. The main body of the cathedral is about 900 years old, but the work we are facing is about 600 years old - a new west front was needed when Bishop Erdinton shortened the cathedral in the 14th century.
The stonework has recently been cleaned, and the light stone is particularly striking in bright afternoon sunlight.
Ahead of us is the main entrance, and we will return here for our walk around the interior and our walk around the cathedral close. But before we enter the cathedral we will turn left, and follow the path to walk round the outside of the building, in a clockwise direction.
With many large church buildings today this would be difficult, but at Winchester a path leads all the way round the building, and it will be straightforward to follow the structure, and the history of the building as we progress. At the east end it will be necessary to make a short diversion away from the cathedral grounds, but for in the main we simply follow the path, keeping the cathedral to the right.
As we walk eastwards we pass the north wall of the nave on the right, and approach the north transept ahead. In essence both are part of the original Norman cathedral of 1079, but the nave has been heavily modified, while the north transept remains virtually unchanged. The round arches above the windows on the transept and on the tower are typical norman arches. The highest windows on the transept are later replacements.
Set into the grass is the layout of the second Saxon cathedral. This replaced an earlier Saxon cathedral further to the north, which itself was reputedly the largest cathedral of its time.
For four years after the Norman conquest of 1066 the Saxon bishop (Stigand) remained in place. In 1070 he was replaced by a Norman bishop (Walkelin) who, with Hugh the mason, undertook to replace the Saxon cathedral. The foundations were laid in 1079, and the building dedicated in 1093, at which point the Saxon cathedral was demolished.
Notice that the first two bays of windows are of a different style to the rest. These were remodelled by Bishop Erdington at the same time as he built the west face. The remaining windows were done later by William of Wykeham in a slightly different style. (This is not apparent in the photograph).
The large buttresses in the nave wall were added when the nave was remodelled in the 14th century. The intent was to provide additional strength, but in practice they were not given adequate foundations, and were found in the early 20th century to be effectively hanging, unsupported, from the nave wall and hence detracting from, rather than adding to, the strength of the building.
Moving further round, it becomes clear that the outer wall of both the nave and the transept only rises to part of the final height. The roofs then slope up to an inner wall, which contains further windows, and supports the highest roof. The second tier of wall and windows are known as the “clerestory”. This is a recurring structure in large church buildings, and particularly gothic cathedrals. It provides good support for high buildings, and good internal light through two rows of windows. Internally it provides aisles each side of a higher central space. The structure is known as a Basilica, and like the round Norman arch, was inherited from Roman architecture.
The weight of the roof tends to push the tops of the inner walls outwards, and the architect needs to “ground” these forces to prevent the walls from collapsing outwards. In early cathedral structural strength was largely achieved by sheer weight of masonry, but as technology evolved more sophisticated techniques were used. Part of the strength of the nave at Winchester comes from the basilica structure, with the outer aisle walls supporting the height of the main body of the nave, and partly by the buttresses on the outer walls. These provide additional strength, and the pinnacles on the top of each buttress weight it down to further balance the forces of the roof.
Passing the end of the north transept it is obvious that some of the Norman round-headed windows remain, while others have been replaced or adapted to later designs.
The corners of the transept have been thickened by buttresses to strengthen them. The end wall has three further buttresses to provide additional strength. This is early Norman building, gaining its strength from the weight of masonry. As masons developed greater understanding their structures became less massive. The other characteristic of early Norman building is the simple decoration. There is a difference of about 30 years between the building of the lowest, round windows at the end of the transept, and the round arches in the tower.
At the top of the north-east corner of the transept the structure becomes muddled. It appears that the original design intended a tower at this point, but during construction, plans were changed. Presumably because of the subsidence which we will see more of on the north side. The result can be seen more clearly from further round.
At the top north-east corner there is the start of an arch in the north wall, and the last window in the east wall is inconsistent with its neighbours.
The chancel, which is the full height of the building and contains the choir and the altar, was completely rebuilt in the 14th century and remodelled internally in the sixteenth. Like the nave and north transept it uses a basilica structure, but increasing sophistication allows the architect to provide more interior light, and less weight to the structure. Flying buttresses are used to transfer pressures from higher points on the wall. Pinnacles are still used, but windows are larger, and there is more decoration.
Looking carefully at the band which runs round the tower it appears that the chancel is, in fact slightly higher than the transept roof. All were originally the same height, the chancel and nave roofs were raised when they were remodelled.
At this stage the path comes to an end. Walk round, or through Paternoster house, onto Colebrook Street. Keep right, and look for a small lane leading right, and through an arch (St Swithun's arch) which will bring you back to the east end of the cathedral.
To the east of the chancel are the retrochoir and a row of three chapels. These were added to the Norman cathedral by Bishop Godfrey de Lucy in the early thirteenth century, and are lower in height, and less complex in their design.
The lady chapel in the centre was remodelled in the 15th century and contains windows and decoration of that period.
Beyond the lady chapel is the south-east chapel - with mixed Early English and early Perpendicular styles. The end of chapel shows how subsidence began while it was still being built, and how the builders corrected the subsidence as they continued to build.
It is at this end of the cathedral that the worst effects of the subsidence can be seen. The gravel base, on which the cathedral is built, slopes down towards the river. The water table is close to the surface and the medieval foundations were inadequate. As a result this end of the cathedral in particular was beginning to collapse at the end of the 19th century and a major restoration project had to be undertaken
It is at the end of the south transept that the sheer bulk of the Norman cathedral is most impressive. This view shows the south wall of the south transept. Original norman rounded window arches have been altered with more recent inserts, but still the structure clearly achieves its strength from the mass of stone.
The arches in the foreground are all that remains of the original chapter house.
On the south-west corner of the south transept is a sundial, which would have been visible from the cloisters which originally lay where the green lawn now lies.
Beyond the south transept we come to the outside wall of the nave. This is the site of the cloisters of the original monastery. The dark line along the wall shows the point where the cloister roof was set into the cathedral wall.
However the most striking feature here are the new buttresses built in 1909 to support the south wall of the nave. Before the buttresses themselves were constructed, a wooden model was erected to test the acceptability of the design.
Although the buttresses are visible, the more significant act of preservation was to clear the original norman wooden foundations, and replace them with cement.
Because of the low position in relation to the water table, this involved diving below the water, digging out the wooden foundations and inserting cement bags
The work was done by William Walker, the diver. A statue in his memory, though actually modelled on a colleague, appears in the retrochoir.
William Walker (1864-1918) learned to dive in Portsmouth dockyard, and had worked on Gibraltar docks, and experimental deep diving before he came to Winchester. He was one of two divers recruited in 1906 to underpin the foundations, but his colleague left after a year, while Walker continued for five and a half years until the work was finished.
After a deep trench had been dug alongside the wall below the depth of the medieval beech log foundations, the bulk of the foundation would be removed, and the underlying peat would be pierced. At this point the trench filled with water.
The diver (working under water) then removed the remains of the foundations, and built new concrete foundations on the solid gravel base. Once these had set, the water could be pumped out again, and bricklayers completed the foundations up to the level of the original wall.
His achievement is well documented in the book The Winchester Diver by Ian T. Henderson and John Crook.
But the buttresses and foundations were not the only work that was done to preserve the cathedral. There were also five hundred tons of grouting forced into cracks in the walls, and tie rods inserted in the retrochoir and south transept.
Having circumnavigated the cathedral we are now back at the west face. As you come through the arch, look back for the sign in latin and pointing hands, which was added around 1633. It translates “That way thou who comest to pray, This way thou who are pursuing thy walk” and is part of an attempt by Bishop Curle at the time to impose greater dignity in the church yard.
The cathedral originally ran beyond this point, but the west end was replaced by Bishop Edington in the 14th century. He removed two towers, and two bays - about 40 feet - of the nave, probably because it was unstable. A stone set in the wall near the visitor centre marks the extent of the original building “Have in mind William Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, 1070-1098 who planned the cathedral church. This stone marks the western limit of the south wall”.
Erdington then rebuilt the west face. The large window will have considerably improved the light in the church. The style is perpendicular.
His work was continued by William of Wykeham. We will see memorials to both men inside the cathedral.
Navigation
We now enter, through one of the aisle doors in the west face.
Alongside the door is a list of service times. Take note: partly out of respect for worshippers (who, after all, are putting this building to its intended use), and partly for your own convenience as a visitor, since access to some parts of the building may be restricted during services. The page on practicalities summarises the main services.
William Cobbett visited the cathedral in 1822 and in typically pungent style wrote (his italics) “The service was now begun. There is a dean and God knows how many prebends belonging to this immensely rich bishopric and chapter: and there were at this “service” two or three men and five or six boys in white surplices, with a congregation of fifteen women and four men!”
If you want to postpone entering the cathedral until the end of a service there is a cathedral refectory and gift shop, staffed by volunteers, behind you, to the west of the entrance. Alternatively, have a look around the surrounding cathedral close and streets
