'Floor' Tour

There were about a dozen people on the guided 'floor' tour and it was conducted by a lady who had the looks and demeanour of Miss Marple. She led us first to the large font that was made of Tournai marble, which is a limestone polished to look like marble. It was locked up in order to deter thieves; people used to steal the Holy Water, apparently.  At this point my phone went off for a call I had to take, which didn’t go down too well with the group and Miss Marple. Once my call had finished, I caught up with the group further down the nave. They’d congregated around a large chandelier. It was a simple design, much like the Mercedes car insignia. It was made in the Cathedral’s workshops after the Second World War. The concave glass cups below the candle holders were made of the domed glass from a Lancaster bomber. 

We reached the crossing point, the central part of the cathedral. Miss Marple pointed out the intricate carvings  that decorated a wall separating the west and east part of the nave. They were intricate and amazing. It was difficult to see how they managed to carve such detail from the stone. It is thought that some of the faces might have been modelled on other stonemasons. They certainly captured the character in the faces. Just beyond, there was a wall of carvings made up of tiles. Each tile was the work of a trainee stonemason. The central part of the tile was usually a bud of a flower, but some of them were birds. Even the trainees seemed talented. 

Our guide led us into the Quire and pointed out the Cathedra where the main man sat. It was another place adorned with intricate carvings, but this time in dark wood. The pipes of the Cathedral’s organ ascended towards the ceiling at the west end of the seats. Miss Marpale said that the instrument had around 4,000 pipes, although some internet references claim up to 5,000. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anybody practising while I was there. Some of the seats were of the ‘tip-up’ type and had a small seating area even when the seat was tipped up. These were known as misericords, or ‘mercy seats.’ They was because they gave some support to clerics standing during long services. I returned to the Quire later in the day and spent some time studying the interesting carvings on and around the seats. The lectern was modelled on an eagle. This dates back to the Middle Ages and symbolises clarity of vision and an ability to fly high over the earth, removed from earth’s distractions and closer to heaven. Other cathedrals like Durham feature a lectern modelled on a Pelican. The Pelican is a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice. Based on medieval legend, a mother pelican would pierce her own breast to feed her young with her blood in times of scarcity, a representation of Christ shedding his blood for humankind. It sounded pretty grim to me. 

We came to Bishop Richard Fleming’s Tomb. He was the Bishop of Lincoln between 1420-31. Oxford University’s Lincoln College was founded by the bishop, which is a reminder of how far Lincoln’s diocese stretched. Miss Marple told us that she’s had young children take this tour and they'd described the tomb’s carvings as a bunk bed. I could sympathise with their thinking since it consisted of two carved figures laid on what looked like a bunk bed. The top bunk was occupied by a figure that definitely looked like a bishop, whilst the one on the bottom I mistook to be his wife. I’d made the schoolboy error of course.  This was a cadaver tomb and the bottom bunk actually represented the bishop in an emaciated state in a shroud. This was a reminder that even the most powerful people cannot take their glory and riches with them after they die. 

We’d now reached the eastern end of the nave. As with all Miss Marple’s tales, she gathered the group together and set out the details of a mystery before us. Could any of us spot the Lincoln Imp, a small stone carving of an imp. I have to confess that I had an advantage over the rest of the group here since I remembered its location from a school visit when my age was in single digits. I pointed it out straight away, just in case any prizes for spotting it was involved. Unfortunately I didn't win a thing. For some reason this diminutive carving has grown a life of its own; even the city’s football team is known as The Imps. The legend goes that two imps were sent by the devil to cause trouble on earth. They first went to St Mary and All Saints Church in Chesterfield and sat on its spire, causing it to spiral. I can confirm the accuracy of this part of the story since I used to walk past this church every weekday for many years. I’d always thought it was the use of unseasoned wood that caused it to twist, but what do I know. Anyway, the two imps then went on to Lincoln Cathedral. They tried to trip up the Bishop and managed to knock down the Dean, whilst teasing the Vergers and Choir. When they started to break windows, the Angels told them to stop and then turned one of them to stone, as now can be seen high up in the nave. The other one escaped and became Ian Anderson, the vocalist and flute player of the band Jethro Tull. 

Miss Marple finished her tour at Queen Eleanor’s Visceral Tomb. I’d come across her, or rather the remains of a stone cross dedicated to her, during my tour of Lincoln Castle yesterday. In 1290, she was on her way to the Cathedral to pray when she fell ill and died. King Edward I was so devastated that he arranged for her body to be embalmed, with most of her internal organs (viscera) buried in the chapel. He also ordered elaborate stone crosses to be erected at each of the places where her body rested overnight on the journey to London. These started at Cross O’Cliff Hill in Lincoln and ended at Charing Cross in London. Her body was buried in Westminster Abbey and her heart placed in the chapel of Blackfriar’s Priory in London. It seemed to me an odd business chopping up a body and burying bits of it throughout the country and given Miss Marple’s detective skills, I asked her if there was any motive for doing this. She sounded a bit indignant at my question and said that she didn’t. It was the end of the tour and I thanked Miss Marple for her time. There was only so much you could cover in one hour, but she definitely crammed a lot in. 

'Roof' Tour

It wasn’t long before my ‘roof’ tour started and so I made my way back along the nave to the western entrance. There were about a dozen people on the ‘roof’ tour and the guide took us into a separate room (chapel?) where he gave a brief history of the Cathedral. The original Norman cathedral looked very different to what we see now, due to the structural limitations of their architecture. As with all these structures, the building evolved over time. The large central tower (271 ft) was even topped with a lead-encased wooden spire at one stage, but it was blown down in a storm in 1548 and never rebuilt. The spire would have made the central tower reach a height of 525 ft, making it the world’s tallest structure at the time, although some are doubtful of this. Each of the smaller twin towers also had their own spires, but these were eventually dismantled too. Given the towers' current prominence situated on what seems like the only hill in Lincoln, it must have been some sight to have seen them topped with spires. After this historical introduction our guide led us up a stone spiral staircase towards the roof. On the way up, the he told us that some of the walls had cavities into which  stonemasons would throw stone debris. He showed an example of this on the staircase where the cavity was exposed. The rubble had  settled over the centuries and in the 1920s some of these spaces were filled with concrete. This wasn’t the best decision since concrete doesn’t react well with limestone. The concrete itself is now crumbling and remedial work has to take place. The guide pointed out some of the thousands of steel rods and beams that are tying the stonework together. 

We entered a bell ringing room. I knew this because a number of bell ropes were suspended from the ceiling like a large spider. The ends of these were tied away so that you couldn’t accidently pull one. A sign said ‘DANGER: Do Not Touch The Ropes Bells Upset.’ I’d no idea that bells were sentient and had emotions, but the guide explained that this really meant they were positioned heavy side up, making it easy to generate momentum when the bell ringing started. Even so, boxes were available for the bell ringers to jump off to get the heavier bells started. I reviewed a music sheet that consisted of a series of bell numbers linked by coloured lines. Traditionally, bell ringers have been rewarded for their efforts with beer. These were brought up to this room in 22 pint ‘jacks’ which was a type of jug. There was a photo of some of these jugs on the wall. I couldn’t really imagine carrying 22 pints of beer up that stone spiral staircase. Nowadays, I believe the Bishop keeps a tab at a local pub to recompense the bell ringers. 

We left the cosy bell ringers room and headed up an even narrower stone spiral staircase to a large room. Looking at the large number of wooden beams on my right, they were obviously the rafters of the nave. The room was a bit of a museum too and there was a large model of the Cathedral in a glass case, including its former spires. I have to say that if the actual spires were anywhere near like those in the model, the Cathedral must have spectacular. One wall of the room held tools that workmen used to build and maintain the structure. The guide showed us an example of some wood that had been damaged by the lava of the death-watch beetle. It looked pretty devastating. We walked along a walkway through the roof beams. There was no sense of exposure since we couldn’t see the floor below. All we could see was the top side of the ceiling. The guide stopped us at one point where the reverse side of the ceiling was covered in red bits of paper. He pointed out a hole that went through the ceiling into the nave below. Apparently they wanted to do a ‘paper poppy drop’ from the ceiling for a Remembrance Day service, but negative air pressure meant the poppies actually blew back into the roof space and hence all the red paper litter. They’ve since resolved this technical issue. 

The guide led us back to the museum-type room and then onto an external balcony area above the front entrance. It was a tremendous view with Lincoln Castle directly in front of us. We could see for miles over Lincolnshire’s flat landscape. I was sure I could see the tower at the International Bomber Command Centre on the outskirts of Lincoln. Looking around the balcony, there had been great effort on the architectural details even in this place of the Cathedral where few would venture.    

We went back inside and joined a walkway that followed the internal side of the nave. Although we were high up, the walkway felt completely safe and there wasn’t much sense of exposure. We walked immediately under the stained glass window of Bishop Remegius with his Freddie Mercury moustache. A music system and light show was being tested at the crossing point of the nave. It felt as though the protagonists were getting themselves ready for a pop concert. A rave in the nave, no less. We made a small detour from the walkway to visit what seemed like an empty room. The guide pointed out some graffiti carved on the walls.  Charles Fisher left his mark there in 1734. Another example was a crude carved figure that looked like he was brandishing weapons, whilst a nearby figure was smoking a clay pipe. We returned to the walkway above the nave and made our way around to the Services Chapels. A stone spiral staircase brought us back down to ground level and this concluded the guided ‘roof tour.’ It had been a very interesting 2 hours and well worth the token fee charged.

Chapels And Chapter House

The guided ‘roof’ tour finished outside the Services Chapel. There was a Chapel each for the Airforce, Navy and Army. The Airforce Chapel hosted a stained glass window with an interesting design of World War II bombers avoiding searchlights and anti-aircraft fire. Lincolnshire was known as ‘Bomber County’ with 25 bomber airfields. There were other Chapels in the Cathedral too.    

I walked around the cloisters to the Chapter House. The ten sided Chapter House was supported by a single central stone column. This column supported 20 stone ribs that fanned out to the walls of the buildings. It was  a spectacular sight. The room has been used over centuries for meetings and bishop elections. The Lincolnshire Rising was a mob rebelling against Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. They gathered here in 1536 to receive an answer to a letter they had sent to the king demanding that he cease the closure of the religious houses. Henry VIII treated the letter exactly you might expect; the mob blinked first and stood down.

Exhibition Gallery

Time was pressing and I had a train to catch. I proceeded to the Cathedral’s exit and found the Exhibition Gallery on the way. This place was quite a gem and I wished that I’d had more than the 10 minutes I had spare to look around. The highlight for me was the display of the Romanesque Frieze that can be seen on the west front of the Cathedral. The items displayed in the Gallery are the originals with carved copies put in their place. Similar work has begun on the southern frieze panels and the Exhibition now contains a collection of both originals and replacement panels. The images on the panels don’t leave much to the imagination. The first five panels warn of the consequences of sin: Lust, Sodomy, Avarice, Torments of Hell, Harrowing of Hell. The heads on the original panels seem to have been intentionally damaged. A group of three panels tell the story of Adam and Eve and another five panels tell the story of Noah and the Ark. In a time when most people couldn’t read, the friezes were a visual representation of their religion. 

Time had caught up with me and it was time to leave. I’d spent about 6 hours looking around the Cathedral and felt there was still plenty more I could have seen. The guided ‘floor’ and ‘roof’ tours had been informative and excellent. There are plenty of other tours on offer including ‘tower’ (summer only), ‘historic graffiti’, ‘the sacred and the strange’, ‘secrets of minster yard’ (summer only) and ‘stained glass’ tours. Given the standard of the two that I went on, the others must be worth a punt.