Lincoln Cathedral

I have been to Lincoln before mainly to walk around the Christmas market and not buy anything, they have been occasions with friends and family. I have even been in the cathedral to have a sit down but I had never had the opportunity to walk around and take the place in. I guess like Southwell Minster the nearness of it made it a place that I could always go and see next week if I wanted to.

You can see the cathedral for miles, it's location on top of one of the few hilly parts of the county gives it more gravitas. Which is what those that built it wanted. The Normans hadn't quite secured the country from all rebellious factions and along with the castle in Lincoln park hey made their intentions clear.

The church had a big say in the running of the country right up to the reformation it would probably be hard to differentiate between church and state. In some ways Lincoln Cathedral benefited from this. Although not during the reign of king Stephen when the cathedral was regularly under siege. 

It was after the murder of Thomas Beckett that the cathedral started to resemble totally it's current form. Damaged by fire and earthquake the cathedral had under gone much building work. With the murder of Beckett park of Henry II's penance was to build churches and monasteries and Lincoln was one of the places to benefit under it's own saintly bishop Hugh.

Saint Hugh isn't to be confused with the shrine of little Hugh in the cathedral. Lincoln had a large and thriving Jewish population during the 13th century and as is often the case the outsider is vilified. In this case a young boy is said to be the victim of ritual killing. This was pinned on the Jewish community. It is something that the cathedral has come to except is wrong and when the body was exhumed show to be totally false. There is a plaque near the shrine acknowledging the fact. Up steep hill is still some reminders of this time in the names of the buildings such as Jew Court.

I was interested to see the tomb of Katherine Swynford who was the mistress and later the third wife of John of Gaunt, they also married in the cathedral. these are an interesting couple and I will in due course write more about them.

I somehow missed the visceral tomb of Eleanor of Castile. She was the wife of Edward I. When she died in 1290 near Lincoln, her journey to London to bury her in Westminster Abbey started a cross was erected to mark each stop of her journey and ended at Caring Cross.

the cathedral is on a scale that isn't surpassed by a building of it's type in England. For a time it was the largest building in the world and the sense of awe that you feel from just standing in front of those imposing towers you can almost feel the wonder that pilgrims 800 years ago would have looked at this cathedral with.

There are so many interesting and important people that passed through the cathedral it seems a shame to condense them into such a short blog. So I will come back and talk about them in more detail. I will be coming back to Lincoln again. After all much of the castle was closed and won't open until next year.

The survival of this wonderful place is amazing, and the work in conserving it is just a astounding. I suggest if you have never been you should go, even if you have go again. maybe I will see you there.