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| Litchfield Cathedral (or, to give the formal title, the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Chad) was new to us and it's always good to tick another one off the list. Building started just before 1100 and continued in phases through the twelfth century. The original wooden Saxon church was replaced by a Norman cathedral made from stone, and this was in turn replaced by the present Gothic structure begun in 1195 and completed in the 1330s. It is unique amongst English cathedrals in having three spires. |
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| Looking up the nave towards the altar. Apparently the ceiling trusses were originally masonry but were replaced by wood when it was realised that the weight was a problem. Perhaps this was done when the cathedral was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in Victorian times? |
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| This crossing screen was designed by Scott and is made of iron, brass and copper. A wonderful example of High-Victorianism. Not to everybody's taste perhaps but I do like a bit of High-Victorianism. |
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| The Choir. A notice said that there were no old stalls remaining when Scott started work so he had carte blanche to design the new choir stalls. Rather more functional Victorianism was employed here. |
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| From the Gothic splendour of Litchfield Cathedral we moved on to the rustic splendour of Little Moreton Hall. A smack-you-in-the-face moated half-timbered Tudor house.The earliest parts were built by and for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about 1504–08, and the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of the family until about 1610. It remained in the family's ownership until the 1930s. The building is delightfully quirky, with three asymmetrical ranges forming a small, rectangular cobbled courtyard. The house's top-heavy and sort-of-squashed appearance is due to the Long Gallery that runs the length of the south range's upper floor |
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| The original house of circa 1504 - 1508 was relatively modest until William Moreton decided to follow the fashion of the day and install gabled bays and windows. |
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| Those proficient in Latin dates will be able to translate the carved MDLIX as 1559. Others will put it as 2015 and they'd be wrong. |
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| Still following the building fashions of the day, the Moreton family decided to build the Long Gallery on top of the South Range. Very nice for indoor games but, oh, the problems it brought. Think what might happen if you plonk a structure with a riven stone tiled roof, heavy oak beams and a partial cement floor on top of a wooden framed building - and it did. |
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| More carvings. This set is from the carpenter who made all of the windows - Rycharde Dale. Probably a better window maker than a woodcarver or a speller. |
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| And who can guess what this odd shaped hole is for? Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's an opening for a dog kennel, dating from Victorian times. I bet they never had to apply for planning permission - in triplicate - to do this as they would nowadays. |
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| An interesting play on words. This piece of stained glass depicts the Moreton surname in a playful way. More: the black head of the wolf. Tun: the barrel resting below. Ha, ha - who said the Tudor's didn't have sense of humour. |
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| Here's a shot taken inside the Long Gallery showing the steps taken to counteract the problems caused by the weight of the roof. Looking at the apex in the foreground and working downwards: the dark wood at the top is the original; some 30 years later the lighter cross beam was put in place to prevent the splaying; then a metal tie beam was installed and then, but not so visible towards the sides, large metal plates were bolted against the beams. What can't be seen in situ, but can in an exploded model of the house, are a whole set of steel girders hidden away and providing a 21st Century solution to a problem started in the late 1580s. |
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| On the floor beneath the Long Gallery, a number of large support columns were constructed to stop the structure above from collapsing downwards. I wonder what Mrs Moreton thought of having these intrusive beams taking up space in her lovely bedroom? |
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| Me? I couldn't give a quack about the building. Just gimme some mud to root around in and I'm happy. |
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