Old wall and the Spires of Lichfield Cathedral seen from Gaia Lane - panoramic

The spires of Lichfield Cathedral can be seen when you are walking down Gaia Lane towards Beacon Street.

 

There is high wall surrounding the site.

 

panoramic

 

Grade I listed building

 

Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Chad, Lichfield

 

LICHFIELD

 

SK1109NE THE CLOSE

1094-1/5/212 Cathedral Church of the Blessed

05/02/52 Virgin Mary and St Chad

(Formerly Listed as:

THE CLOSE

Cathedral Church of St Chad and St

Mary)

 

GV I

 

Cathedral church. Early C13 west choir arcade and aisles,

chapter house and chapel, transepts and crossing tower; c1280

nave, aisles and west towers; 1300-50 Lady Chapel and east

choir arcade and aisles, and choir clerestory. Major

restorations of 1660s, 1788-95 continued by Joseph Potter Snr

of Lichfield, 1850s by S Smirke, and 1856-78 by Sir Gilbert

Scott, continued by John Oldrid Scott until 1905.

Ashlar with graduated slate roofs.

PLAN: cruciform: 3-bay Lady Chapel, 8-bay choir with aisles,

chapter house to north with library above and consistory court

to south with chapel of St Chad's Head above, crossing steeple

and 3-bay transepts with east chapels, 8-bay nave with aisles

and 2 west steeples.

EXTERIOR: Lady Chapel has 3-bay apse articulated by plinth,

stepped to end due to slope of ground, gabled buttresses with

C19 statues, enriched cornice with traceried and embattled

parapet with pinnacles; 3-light windows, 6-light central

windows to north and south, with trefoil tracery; 3 much

restored tomb recesses to south with cusped arches, gables and

pinnacles.

Choir has similar clerestory, gabled buttresses supporting

flying buttresses and pinnacles, angle buttresses with C19

statues; 3-light aisle windows with Decorated tracery and

5-light clerestory windows with Perpendicular tracery, those

to east bay with Decorated tracery; organ loft to north west

has quatrefoil windows in rich square settings and north east

octagonal stair turret with pinnacle.

Chapter house of elongated octagon form, buttresses with top

tabernacles with statues, Y-tracery windows, vestibule with

Y-tracery north window and 2-light plate tracery windows to

1st floor. Court and chapel have large octagonal turrets with

shafts and pinnacles and 2 statues in niches; 3-light windows

with Perpendicular tracery, 1st floor triplets of lancets.

Crossing tower has polygonal buttresses with crocketed

pinnacles, lines of former steep gables, two 2-light bell

openings in blind tracery settings, traceried parapet and

spire with 5 tiers of lucarnes.

Transepts have 3- and 5-light clerestory windows with

Perpendicular tracery; north transept has polygonal buttresses

flanking portal of 5 orders with rich decoration to arch with

flanking niches, 1880s window of 7 lancets, Y-tracery windows

above; 4-light chapel north window and west windows; south

transept has large C18 gabled angle buttresses flanking portal

similar to above, but much restored, trefoil-headed arcade

with C19 figures, 9-light window with Perpendicular tracery

and top Catherine wheel windows with flanking statues; chapel

has 3-light windows and south tomb recess with cusped arch,

gable and pinnacles; 2 pairs of lancets to west; statue of

Charles II for west front gable, attributed to Sir W Wilson,

attached to south west angle.

Nave has gabled buttresses supporting flying buttresses and

pinnacles, enriched cornices and parapets with pinnacles;

3-light aisle windows with Decorated tracery and spherical

triangle windows to clerestories; south side restored by

Smirke.

West front has gable between towers with large polygonal outer

turrets; central portal with multi-cusped arch and inner doors

with C13 seated Christ over trumeau, original doors with rich

scrolled iron work, statues to returns; flanking portals of 5

orders with restored arches and similar doors; 6-light west

window with Decorated tracery of 1868; towers have 2-light

louvred bell openings, lozenge parapet and square crocketed

pinnacles, spires with 4 tiers of lucarnes.

Facade articulated with blind tracery and crocketed trefoil

arches, corbelled C19 statues, with some medieval statues to

north tower, trefoil-headed arcade with seated figures and

figure of Christ to gable; much ball flower and crocketing,

treatment continued to returns. Wind vanes and C18 rainwater

heads.

 

 

The wall is Grade II* listed.

 

Bastion to North East Angle and Attached Walls of Garden of Former Episcopal Palace, Lichfield

 

LICHFIELD

 

SK1109NE THE CLOSE

1094-1/5/216 (North side)

06/03/70 Bastion to NE angle and attached

walls of garden of former Episcopal

Palace

(Formerly Listed as:

THE CLOSE

Bastion in the garden of the former

Episcopal Palace)

 

GV II*

 

Truncated bastion and garden walls partly built on foundations

of medieval close defences. Probably early C14 with later

alterations and late C17 and C18 garden walls. Dressed stone

and brick. Octagonal tower has rubble base and brick re-facing

with stone quoins and raking brick buttresses; C18 or C19

parapet with some stone coping. Most detail obscured by ivy,

but one stone-dressed window visible to south east; entrance

to west has shouldered lintel and battened door.

INTERIOR recorded as having stone dogleg stair and chamber

with garderobe, 3 high windows and probably late medieval

vault. Garden wall extends south along line of defences, and

the rear garden wall extends west, with dry moat to north and

east; rear wall has stone facing and raking buttresses to

north, stone base to south; the east end has been altered for

conservatory, now demolished.

Wall to west marks boundary between the gardens of the Deanery

and the Palace, with a deviation east about halfway along its

length; part of this wall may be late C17. An important

remaining part of the medieval defences of the close.

(Drury P: The Capitular Estate of Dean and Chapter of

Lichfield Cathedral: 1987-; Victoria History of the County of

Stafford: Greenslade M W: Lichfield: Oxford: 1990-: P.60-1).

 

 

Listing NGR: SK1155709918

 

 

This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.

 

Source: English Heritage

 

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.

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