Kings, Queens and Consorts
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The medieval equivalent of a datestone, dozens of regal sculpted heads adorn the Cathedral architecture, from the House of Normandy to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
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Aerial exploration
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Precision recording from a quadcopter drone by Geoff Watkins of Aerial Imaging South East provides some stunning views and a wealth of new data on the Cathedral architecture.
Read MoreStatue Swap
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Two statues flanking the Great West Doors are a statement of the dual patronage of the Cathedral in the mid-twelfth century. Eight-hundred years of weathering and damage have obscured their identities, so exactly who is depicted?
Read MoreDemons and Dragons
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The medieval sculpture of the Nave Crossing features a bestiary of demons, dragons, imps and grotesques. Why did the builders and patrons of the medieval Cathedral fill their place of sanctity and refuge with such nightmarish imagery?
Read MoreCottingham's Crossing bosses, 1840
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The crossing ceiling was rebuilt several times in the C19th. The crossing bosses designed by Lewis Cottingham in 1840 are based on medieval Green Men and grotesques in the Nave Transept and the North and South Quire Aisles and are painted as vividly as they would once have been.
Read MoreNorth Nave Transept haircuts and headwear
/Decorative carvings in the form of human heads became popular in church architecture around the turn of the 13th century, fossilising a record of medieval clothing, hairstyles and headwear.
Read More'Gundulf's Tower' camponile, 13th century
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The ruins of a camponile (detached bell tower), to the north of the Cathedral has been known as ‘Gundulf’s Tower’ since the 18th century. Though it actually dates from the early thirteenth century, it may be constructed from reused material from Gundulf’s Tufa Stone transept.
Read MoreGreat West Door Portal, c.1150
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Dozens of dragons, chimera, disgorging beasts and other grotesques encode worldly sins and dangers as preached by the Church in the mid-C12th, ‘othered’ and outside of the sanctity and mission within.
Read MoreJesus altar archway, 13th century
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Tim Tatton-Brown reports on some small-scale archaeological investigations in August 2000 in advance of the production of the fresco in the eastern archway of the greater North Transept.
Read MoreThe bells and bell towers in the early thirteenth century
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Colin Flight pieces together the evidence for the bells and bell towers of the Cathedral in the early thirteenth century.
Read MoreBuilding stones, 11th-19th century
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Bernard C. Worssam investigates the many types of building stone used in the construction of the Cathedral from the medieval times until Sir George Gilbert Scott’s restoration of the 1870s.
Read MoreThomas Hellyer Foord (d. 1917)
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Thomas Hellyer Foord (d. 1917)
Historic doors
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Dr. Jane Geddes explores some of the historic doors of Rochester Cathedral.
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