CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY

Overview

Location

Details

NY 3955 NE, 671-1/10/18

CARLISLE, THE ABBEY

Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity

01/06/49

GV

I

Priory Church and Cathedral, now all Cathedral. Early C12 with various rebuildings until the early C15, with 1652 alterations to west end; minor 1764 alterations; 1846 (by Thomas Nelson) and 1853-57 restorations by Ewan Christian; 1950s restoration and vestry etc additions.

Oldest parts are of mixed red and calciferous squared sandstone blocks; the remainder is red sandstone ashlar, heavily restored, on chamfered plinth, with stepped buttresses carried up as pinnacles; string courses, dentilled cornices and solid parapets, battlemented on tower. Steeply pitched lead roofs, copper on south transept and flat on tower; coped gables, that at east end with numerous cross finials. Early C12 nave originally seven bays, now two bays with a fragment of the third bay remaining as buttresses, with aisles and north vestry. South transept also C12 with C13 chantry chapel (dedicated to St Catherine); north transept is late C14 incorporating part of C12 structure (original transept thought to have been destroyed when the tower fell in 1380). Tower rebuilt late C14/early C15.

INTERIOR: 7-bay choir is internally C13 but completed in the late C14, the east window is probably c1380. Nave has triforium and clerestory in Norman style with some internal distortion due to subsidence; the west wall is c.1652 with 1870 windows; some of the other windows in the nave are later insertions; north door (now internal) was added in 1813-4 and gives access to the 1956 vestry. Blocked south doorway to cloisters appears to have been C12. South transept of similar Norman details, the south door is 1856 (here originally the dormitory range joined the Cathedral and roof line can be seen externally); chapel has panelled and traceried wooden screens of late C15. North transept has 1858 inserted north window to memory of Dean Tait's children replacing earlier windows of 1764 and c1380; former external window now internal, lit the crossing when the transept had a flat roof (similar windows over nave and south transept were removed in 1855-7 restoration). Choir has C13 arches on clustered columns with elaborately carved capitals representing the 12 seasons. C15 choir stalls with later C15 mural painting on the backs. Barrel-vaulted ceiling is painted with stars on a blue ground and coats-of-arms of local gentry (originally to the design of Owen Jones in 1856 and replacing a similar medieval ceiling covered by a false ceiling in 1764). East window contains medieval glass in tracery head, the lower glass having been removed in 1764, was replaced with the present plain glass in 1862. For fuller details of the interior see Pevsner (1967) and the Pitkin guide to the Cathedral.

(Pevsner N: The Buildings of England: Cumberland & Westmorland: 1967-: P.88-94; Pitkin Guide to the Cathedral).

Listing NGR: NY3989855964

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

386592

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland, (1967), 88-94
'Pitkin Pride of Britain Books' in Carlisle Cathedral, ()

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.