You need to be signed in to respond to this topic. Topic index A-Z index. Register Members sign in. Search: in posts titles. Order: Date order Date order Most recent post first. My father's uncle married in the old Cathedral in Nov and scores of my family worked in the ribbon factories of Victorian age.
They would have known Gutteridge, Beck etc. Choir from St Lawrence's Chapel. Shows some of the beauty lost to us in the Old Cathedral. The old Cathedral was built by the Botoners, the founders and builders of the structure. In we have a peculiar record connected with the spire of St Michael's Church. It appears that a clergyman named Marston was preaching in the church from the text "Be sober, and watch, for the end of all things is at hand", when, to the amazement of the congregation, as he was uttering the conclusion portion of the sentence, a thunderbolt fell on the spire, the stone work falling on to the church roof.
The noise and damage done so dreadfully alarmed the congregation that they at once expected the day of judgement to be at hand. If I remember rightly Kaga, that phrase uttered just prior to the lightning strike was reported in that favourite book of ours, Humorous Reminiscences? It's one of the most genuinely funny coincidences I've ever heard! The Botoners, of course, paid for the enlargement of St. Michael's church, including the tower and spire, but they certainly weren't the founders - the church having stood there in various smaller forms for centuries before them, being gradually enlarged from a small chapel inside the castle grounds in Norman times.
I've wondered how much of St Mary's went towards upgrading and repairing the other churches, especially St Michael's. Yes, quite a lot I'd have thought - it would've saved a lot of quarrying and stone cutting. I've seen it documented that people were allowed to pay something like a shilling per barrow-load of stone bartering is welcome if I'm wrong! Michael's were added in the s, so good timing to take advantage of the redundant bulk of St.
I also wonder how they date sections of the old buildings given that they were often rebuilt, repaired and remodelled with new and old stone. I've a sneaking suspicion that parts of the south side were moved. The evidence is patchy but 1 there is a very early sketch of the south side that shows the porch standing clear of the chapels either side.
