Origins

In the year 672, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, divided the Kingdom of East Anglia into two dioceses: one covering Norfolk with its episcopal see at Elmham; the other covering Suffolk with its see at Dunwich. During much of the 9th century, because of the Danish incursions, there was no bishop at Elmham; in addition the see of Dunwich was extinguished and East Anglia became a single diocese once more. Following the Norman Conquest, sees were moved to more secure urban centres, that of Elmham being transferred to Thetford in 1072, and finally to Norwich in 1094.^[3] The new cathedral was dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity.^[4] As with the Norman cathedrals at Bath, Winchester, Worcester, Canterbury, Rochester, Durham, and Ely, it incorporated a priory of Benedictine monks.^[5]

Norman period

The structure of the cathedral is primarily in the Norman style, having been constructed at the behest of the first bishop of Norwich, Herbert de Losinga, who had bought the bishopric for £1,900 before its transfer from Thetford.^[4] It still retains the greater part of its original stone structure. An Anglo-Saxon settlement and two churches were demolished to make room for the buildings and a canal cut to allow access for the boats bringing the stone and building materials which were taken up the River Wensum and unloaded.^[6]

Later Medieval period

The cathedral was damaged after riots in 1272,^[4] which resulted in the city paying heavy fines levied by Henry III, king of England^[6] The cathedral was re-consecrated in the presence of Edward I of England on Advent Sunday, in 1278.^[4]

The Norman spire was blown down in 1362. Its fall damaged the east end of the building.^[4][7] In 1463 the spire was struck by lightning, causing a fire to rage through the nave which was so intense it turned some of the cream-coloured Caen limestone a pink colour.^[6] In 1480 the bishop, James Goldwell, ordered the building of a new spire which is still in place today.^[7]

16th and 17th centuries

The composer and 'singing man' Osbert Parsley worked at Norwich Cathedral for 50 years, until his death in 1585.^[8]

The cathedral was partially in ruins when John Cosin was at Norwich School in the early 17th century and the former bishop was an absentee figure. In 1643 during the Civil War, an angry Puritan mob invaded the cathedral and destroyed all Roman Catholic symbols. The building, abandoned the following year, lay in ruins for two decades. Norwich bishop Joseph Hall provides a graphic description from his book Hard Measure:^[9]

It is tragical to relate the furious sacrilege committed under the authority of Linsey, Tofts the sheriff, and Greenwood: what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing down of monuments, what pulling down of seats, and wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves; what defacing of arms, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in the world but of the cost of the founder and skill of the mason; what piping on the destroyed organ-pipes; vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross which had been newly sawed down from over the greenyard pulpit, and the singing-books and service-books, were carried to the fire in the public market-place; a lewd wretch walking before the train in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service-book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping the words of the litany. The ordnance being discharged on the guild-day, the cathedral was filled with musketeers, drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned ale-house.

The mob also fired their muskets. At least one musket ball remains lodged in the stonework. Only at the Restoration in 1660 would the cathedral be restored.

19th and 20th centuries

The pulpitum

In the 1830s the south transept was remodelled by the English architect Anthony Salvin. In 1930–1932 a new Lady Chapel, designed by Charles Nicholson, was built at the east end, on the site of its 13th-century predecessor, which had been demolished during the late 16th century.^[10]

The cathedral is included as one of the "Norwich 12", a list of the city's most iconic buildings produced as part of an initiative launched in 2008 by the Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust.^[11][12]

Modern works

In 2004 the new refectory (winner, National Wood Awards 2004),^[13] by Hopkins Architects and Buro Happold, opened on the site of the original refectory on the south side of the cloisters. Work on the new hostry, also by Hopkins Architects, started in April 2007 after the 'Cathedral Inspiration for the Future Campaign' had reached its target of £10 million. It was opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on 4 May 2010. The new hostry has become the main entrance to the cathedral. Space has been provided within the hostry for temporary art exhibitions.

Dean and chapter

As of 3 February 2023:^[16]

• Dean of Norwich – Andrew Braddock (since 28 January 2023 institution)^[17]
• Canon Librarian & Vice-Dean – Peter Doll (canon since 14 March 2009 installation)^[18]
• Canon Precentor – Aidan Platten (since 24 September 2017 installation)^[19]
• Canon for Mission & Pastoral Care – Andy Bryant (since 29 March 2015 installation)^[20][21]

Dates, styles and architects

Plan of Norwich Cathedral:^{[note 1]}

1. West front
2. Nave
3. Choir
4. Central tower
5. Chancel
6. North Aisle
7. South Aisle
8. North Transept
9. South Transept
10. Cloister

Building of the cathedral started from the east end in 1096, with the nave being completed by around 1120.^[23] The entire cathedral was completed by 1145, when the crossing tower was built.^[24] The cathedral was constructed from flint and mortar and faced with cream-coloured Caen limestone.^[6]

The present spire, a stone structure that replaced one made of wood and covered with lead, was added in 1480.^[7]

Following the riots of 1272, repairs to the building were completed in 1278.^[4] Some of the windows were replaced with ones in the Gothic style during the 13th century.^[23]

The cloisters was begun in 1297 and finally finished in 1430 after the Black Death had plagued the city. The system of building remained the same over this period, though the details, in particular the tracery of the openings facing the cloister garth, did change.^[25]

Following the destruction caused by the collapse of the spire, the clerestory of the choir was rebuilt in the Perpendicular style.^[4][7]

In the 15th century, the cathedral's flat timber ceilings began to be replaced with stone vaults;^[23] the nave was vaulted under Walter Hart (bishop, 1446–1472), the choir and the Bauchun Chapel (on the east side of the south transept) under James Goldwell (bishop, 1472–1499) and the transepts after 1520.^[26][27] The system of vaulting is of a tierceron vault with Lierne ribs forming patterns of lozenges and stars along the ridge. The vaulting was carried out in a spectacular manner with hundreds of ornately carved, painted and gilded bosses studding the liernes.^[28]

Plan

Measuring 461 ft (141 m) and 177 ft (54 m) wide at completion, Norwich Cathedral was the largest building in East Anglia.^[29] The ground plan remains entirely as it was in Norman times, except for that of the easternmost chapel. The cathedral has an unusually long nave of 14 bays. The transepts are without aisles and the east end terminates in an apse with an ambulatory. From the ambulatory there is access to two chapels of unusual shape, the plan of each being based on two intersecting circles.^[7] This allows more correct orientation of the altars than in the more normal kind of radial chapel.

Exterior

Norwich Cathedral tower (detail)

The tower, the most ambitious of all the Norman towers to have survived in England,^[24] is decorated with geometrical circles, lozenges and interlaced arcading.^[7]

The spire is of brick faced with stone, supported on brick squinches built into the Norman tower.^[7] At 315 ft (96 m) high, the spire is the second tallest in England; only that of Salisbury is taller at 404 ft (123 m).

Norwich Cathedral has the second largest cloisters in England, only exceeded by those at Salisbury Cathedral.^[30] It has two-storeys, the only example of its kind in England and nearly 400 carved stone ceiling bosses.

Interior

The eastern end of the cathedral, near to the sanctuary, is in the form of an apse The tribune (the vaulted area within the apse) is unusually tall, and contains piers with large capitals.^[31]

Norwich no longer has its rood screen, which would have been used to support the great crucifix. It was located one bay west of the pulpitum (the screen that separated the nave from the choir).^[32] The aisles are vaulted in stone, but lack ribs.^[33]

The Anglican cathedrals at Norwich, Salisbury, and Ely are the only ones that have no ring of bells.^[34] The original clock at Norwich Cathedral was one of the earliest mechanical timekeepers made in Britain.^[29]

The east end and apse

The south aisle, looking west

The nave

Stained glass

The medieval stained glass windows in the cathedral, which was largely destroyed during the English Reformation,^[35] sustained further damage during the English Civil War.^[36]

The glass in the west window was designed by George Hedgeland, and was installed in 1854.^[35]

Bosses

Foliate Man. Boss in the east walk of the cloister, 1310–1314

The bosses of Norwich Cathedral are one of the world's greatest mediaeval sculptural treasures, and certainly a near miraculous survival of the iconoclasm from the Tudor and English Civil War periods. They have been described by the church historian Charles John Philip Cave as "undoubtedly the most important series in the country".^[37] There are over 1,000 bosses; the earliest subjects are natural, mostly flowers and foliage. Then come figural representations such as foliate men, acrobats, mythical animals, hunting scenes and single bosses which show a story such as events from the lives of the saints. Then there are narratives which tell a story in a sequence of bosses. The nave vault shows the history of the world from the creation. Later bosses revert to foliage or formal subjects such as coats of arms.^[27] The bosses can be seen most clearly in the cloisters, where they are lower than those elsewhere. The east range has much foliage, and a sequence of the Passion of Jesus. The north range has the Resurrection and scenes of Mary, mother of Jesus and the saints. The south and west walk have the Apocalypse, as well as the Annunciation and Herod's Feast.^[27] Catalogues of the cloister bosses have been published by M.R. James (1911),^[38] with drawings of the bosses of the north walk.

Misericords

During the Middle Ages, the monks assembled eight times daily for the canonical hours, and the greater part of their services was recited while standing. In time, some monasteries fitted stalls with ledges for the monk to lean against. The so-called 'misericords' were literally an act of mercy. Most of the misericords are carved with a central subject and two supporters positioned on either side. ^[39]

There were likely to have once been 70 choir-stalls at Norwich, which were allotted to the bishop and his senior clerics, and 60 monks. There are 64 surviving choir-stalls, of which all but four have misericords dating from the early 15th century onwards; it is possible that the more senior clergymen were able to choose the theme for the carving on their own misericord. The elbow rests were also intricately carved. Many of the supporters in Norwich's choir-stalls are connected with their central subject, as in the case of the misericord for Bishop Richard Courtenay, which is a seated monk who supporters are a bishop tending sheep, and by a representation of the bishop as Chancellor of Oxford. The fire of 1463 at Norwich damaged many of the stalls, whose replacements were given new misericords.^[40]

The misericords in Norwich Cathedral can be categorised by their designs. A group known as Wakering's have ledges that are curved and ribbed, battlement patterns, and are carved with the coats of arms of the patrons who helped to pay for the rebuilding of the choir. The so-called Goldwell misericords have more rounded ledges and a pair of lobes. The two Nykke misericords have characteristically carved seat edges.^[41] The subjects chosen appear to be random in nature, with a wide selection of real and legendary animals, tasks, events, people (both actual and imaginary), representations of the seven deadly sins, and stories (mostly non-Biblical) being carved.^[42]

Misericords

A foliate mask

A schoolmaster beating a boy

An owl mobbed by small birds

A monk and supporting scenes, representing Bishop Richard Courtenay

Despenser Reredos

The medieval Despenser Reredos

In St Luke's Chapel, behind the altar, is a late 14th century altarpiece, known as the Despenser Retable or Despenser Reredos. It was named after the Bishop of Norwich, Henry le Despenser (1369–1406). During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Despenser's forces successfully contained the revolt in Norfolk, and the reredos may have been commissioned as an act of thanksgiving. Shields in the border of the painting are associated with others who led the defence against the peasants. The reredos was rediscovered in a damaged state in 1847, having been reversed and used as part of a table.^[43]

Other features

The copper baptismal font, standing on a moveable base in the nave, was fashioned from bowls previously used for making chocolate in the Norwich Rowntree's factory, and was given to the cathedral after the factory closed in 1994.

Since 2013, the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey (NMGS) has recorded a large amount of medieval graffiti, including organ music inscribed on two four-line staves, on the interior stone surfaces of the cathedral.^[44]

Organ and organists

Norwich Cathedral's organ is one the largest in the UK. It was built by local builder Norman and Beard in 1899, but was later damaged in a fire in April 1938. A Cymbelstern with six bells and a rotating star was added to the organ in 1969.^[45] In 2017 the dean, the Very Rev Dr Jane Hedges, revealed that the cathedral was planning to spend £2 million on rebuilding the organ and supporting its existing choirs.^[46]

Most of the records of the organists at Norwich Cathedral have survived.^[47] The earliest organist recorded is Adam the Organist, who was employed in 1333.^[48] Notable organists of Norwich Cathedral have included the composers Thomas Morley,^[49] and Heathcote Dicken Statham.^[50]

Cathedral choirs

The cathedral choir in 2004

Norwich Cathedral's choirs are directed by the Master of the Music, Ashley Grote.^[51] There are places for around 20 boys aged from 7 to 13, attend Norwich School and its Lower School, with at least half of their school fees being paid by the Norwich Cathedral Endowment Fund.^[52]

Girls were introduced to the choir in 1995. There are places for 24 girls, aged from 11 to 18, who are drawn from across Norfolk. They sing evensong once a week (alternately on their own and with the men) and at least one Sunday Eucharist a term.^[53]

The choir has 12 men, six of whom are choral scholars; the others are professional singers.^[52] The men sing with the boy choristers at five services a week, and often more at special times of year such as Easter and Christmas.^[52]

Documentaries

The cathedral and other churches in the diocese were featured in the 1974 BBC documentary A Passion for Churches, presented by the English poet and writer John Betjeman.^[70] In 2012, the cathedral and the adjacent Bishop's Palace were featured in the BBC Four documentary The Medieval Mind: How to Build a Cathedral.

The cathedral was featured in the 2016 BBC Four documentary The Search for the Lost Manuscript: Julian of Norwich.^[71]

Use as a location

Norwich Cathedral was used as a location for the 1971 BBC Christmas ghost story The Stalls of Barchester, based on the story by M. R. James.^[72] It was also used as a location for the 2013 film Jack the Giant Slayer,^[73] and in the 2017 feature film Tulip Fever.^[74]