Saturday dawned bright and beautiful and we made a fairly early… if somewhat leisurely… start, heading out towards Bakewell for Stuart to visit the church there where I had found such treasures a couple of weeks ago. It doesn’t take long by car, and we didn’t have to stop for supplies of Bakewell tarts as I had stocked up on the way through on the Thursday… honestly, I had to… though we did manage to acquire a Bakewell pudding….
Even though I had spent a fair bit of time exploring on my own, there was still a huge amount to discover, including some forlorn looking stained glass stacked in a side chapel full of medieval and Tudor tombs that looked as if it was being used as a storeroom. I’m never happy about that. I know that churches are not built with huge amounts of storage space, but to see plastic chairs and boxes of stuff piled amongst the ancient dead seems disrespectful somehow. And if they don’t want those stained glass panels I’d happily give them a good home….
From Bakewell we headed out for the main event of the day… a visit to Lincoln Cathedral. There may have been a pause for refreshment on the way… largely because there was a pub called The Fox in a village with what looked like a superb church. There were buzzards flying overhead, a random ancient head in the pub garden and a white horse eyeing us pointedly… so we were expecting something special in the little church on the mound. It was frustrating to find it locked… but perhaps we had found what we had come for in the recurring symbol of the weekend, carved into a gravestone by the door. Whatever the reason, we found we had one of the rituals for the April workshop pretty much written by the end of the trip. Inspiration comes in its own time.
We continued, passing through Sherwood Forest. If we’d had time the great Major Oak there would have been a stopping place, but it deserves more than a rushed visit. It has stood sentinel in the forest for almost a thousand years.
As Lincolnshire… the ancient kingdom of Lindsey… opened up its tableau of flatlands and sky the cathedral on its hilltop dominated the skyline. This too has stood for the best part of a thousand years… and somehow that throws the lifespan of the ancient tree into perfect relief. We parked easily and although there were others there, the town was quiet even for a Saturday in February.
It took a while to make it to the door, as there was a constant flow of ‘oh wow’ as we looked at the carvings, new and old, that smother the graceful building. Paul Ellis is the man responsible for many of the more intricate modern pieces, and his ‘Greed’ was one of the first we saw. He and the team of craftsmen reinstate the ancient carvings when possible with exact copies… make in exactly the same way and with the same skill as they were all those hundreds of years ago. When there is nothing of the weathered stone left they have the freedom to be creative, replacing the lost work with something in the spirit of old, and this, to me, is a beautiful way of watching the history unfold and evolve.
The western façade of the building is just incredible and I think it would take a lifetime to study all the carvings on there alone. From friezes to statues to heads and dragons… if the building was built to inspire awe, that façade is still working.
There was organ music playing as we entered the cavernous interior. Light streamed through the huge windows, casting a mosaic of colour on the floor. I began documenting the windows and carvings in a futile attempt to capture as much as I could…it was a research trip after all… but it very soon became apparent that the camera would die before I got everything.
So, the camera stayed at my side most of the time and with eyes wide open we tried to take in the grandeur of a bygone age. From the ancient beasts of the font to the vaulted ceilings… from the intricate stone carvings to the great rose windows north and south… to the wooden lacework of St Hugh’s choir, to the murals…. It is simply too much. You would have to live in the place to be able to see every detail. It crossed my mind I would like the opportunity to dust the place, just so I could get up close and personal with all the detail…. But a quick flick round with the duster here would also take a lifetime.
Encased within the ancient there is the new… modern artworks are framed within the delicate tracery of stone, murals a mere hundred or so years old decorate the walls, legends grow in stone and glass and even the bosses that support the points of the vaulting tell stories.
We may not have had the same ‘feel’ here as we do in our little old churches nestled quietly in sleepy hamlets, but it was an awesome place nevertheless. And that was the point of it, of course… to inspire awe… a place where political, secular and spiritual power met in unassailable glory. If it can do that today, how much more so when it was first conceived… standing the tallest building in the world for so many years. Awesome? Yes.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
You want to DUST the place….LOL! Not so far away from the great City of Kingston upon Hull then?
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Nope… just a bridge to far, so to speak 😉
Nothing wrong with dusting… in moderation… but it is the only way I can think of to get up close and personal with all that stuff !
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Wow! Such majestic beauty! xxx
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It is gorgeous…and I wish I’d taken more pictures before the camera got tired and tried to go to sleep…xxx
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brings back so many Robin Hood dreams I had as a boy
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I was at the grave of Little John in Hathersage on Friday too, Paul 🙂
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I love Lincoln. We used to go regularly.
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I haven’t been for years, Richard, so it was a treat to share it with someone like minded.
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The pics were great too
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There were so many to choose from… and I barely scratched the surface in there. Some of hem are not as clear as I would have hoped, but they show the scale and majesty of the place.
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I liked them
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🙂
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I’m in awe of the old buildings and churches you have there. Someday…it’s on my bucket list to visit.
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When you do, Pamela… let me know 🙂 There are some wonderful places here.
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Wow! Again, I must get out there someday soon. Same thoughts regarding the stained class and tombs! Also, curious about the figure of the snake/human skeleton…what does it represent?
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That is symbolic of Greed.
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Thanks, I was wondering if that was the one you meant for Greed. Makes sense.
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It does.. and follows (with a modern slant) the ancient symbolism very well.
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Gorgeous and charming post, Sue. Thank you. xo
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Thank you Sirena 🙂
I thought of you in Bakewell… there was an accordionist playing French ‘musette’ by the river… 🙂
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Why, thank you–I am touched that you thought of me! xo
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I know you would have danced there with me in the sunlight 🙂
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:)!! hugs….
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😀 xxx
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indeed, inspiration does come in its own time and your posts never fail to inspire me each and every time i read one )
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Thank you Beth
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Oh! Oh! Erm… Oh! Ah! *sniffffffff*
I may be gone some time… 😀 xx
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You should see the rest of the pics….. ;-)… in fact, just go there…
The chapter house is good…. 😉
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Top of the list… 😀 xx
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Gorgeous indeed! Thank you for sharing the pictures and the words! 🙂
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Thank you Joe 🙂
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I once visited Lincoln and the cathedral..It was great to be reminded of it. Thanks Paul
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Lincoln is an incredible place, I agree, Paul. I’ve been lucky to visit many of our great cathedrals now. Chester is one of my favourites…though quite why they had to have such loud alarms there, I’ll never know 🙂 Still, I probably shouldn’t have crossed the altar step…
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