The restored West
Front to be finally revealed.
The following item and photographs
are taken and modified, with the permission of the Editor
Mr Michael Sassi, from an excellent illustrated article
published in the Saturday 10-Mar-2001 edition of the
Lincolnshire Echo, the local evening newspaper for
Lincoln and Lincolnshire. The original article was by Dan
Sharp.
| "It is the
site Lincoln people have been waiting 17 years to
see. Steel poles, wooden platforms and plastic
sheeting have covered Lincoln Cathedral’s
West Front while craftsmen toiled to restore it
to its former glory. But when Prince Philip draws
back the last remnants of the protective shell
the newly polished stone facade will be revealed." Prince Philip is due to unveil
the centrepiece of the restoration which is the
re-carved version of the building’s famous
Romanesque frieze on March 26th at 11:30am.
The painstaking 17 year project
has involved the cleaning and conservation of the
whole of the cathedral’s West Front. There
has also been specific detailed conservation work
to other individual parts in the area such as the
doorway to the Ringer’s Chapel. The eight
panels of the Romanesque frieze which have been
14 years in the restoration depict various
biblical scenes and concepts such as punishment
for lust, sodomy, avarice, the harrowing of hell,
the elect of heaven, Abraham’s bosom, the
feast of Dives and the death of Lazarus plus
Dives in hell. Each panel has cost about £8,000
to restore and most of the work has been funded
by private donations.
|
|
| Stonemason John
Roberts' Abraham's Bosom from
the Romanesque Frieze. (picture ref: 1-0923-9). |
|
There are still many more panels around
the building which are still un-restored. These include
scenes of the expulsion of Adam & Eve from the garden
of eden, God telling Noah to build his Ark and Daniel in
the lion’s den.
The Dean of Lincoln, the Very Rev. Alec
Knight said: "The recarved frieze is a revealing
widow into the medieval mind. Good and evil and heaven
and hell are depicted as stark realities, in turn both
beautiful and fearsome.
It is not possible to misread the
message. This is a unique project and tells us much about
those who built this great cathedral. Some may be shocked
by the power of the images."
| Work began in 1987 when its
eight panels were cleaned using micro air-abrasive
while still attached to the building. While this
work was being carried out it was found that the
panels were extremely fragile with large areas
crumbling and barely clinging to the wall. When
the panels were taken down for further
examination they were found to be seriously
damaged and in danger of falling apart so a four
year programme of emergency treatment was begun
to prevent any further deterioration Gaps in parts of the frieze were filled
with colour matched lime mortars but when the
conservation work was completed in 1991 the
panels were assessed and considered too fragile
to be returned to the west front wall. Since 1993
they have been exhibited in the cathedral’s
angel choir and work of producing reproductions
have been ongoing.
Team leader for sculpture and
conservation, Alan Micklethwaite, said "The
original work is very distinctive but only 75 to
80 per cent of it was in a sufficiently good
condition for us to copy. The rest had been
washed away by general weathering and the effects
of acid rain. A lot of the heads of the figures
and some other details were missing. We wanted to
make the frieze as authentic as possible so we
produced technical drawings allowing us to
recreate exactly as much as possible of the
original.
|
 |
| Stonemason Alan
Micklethwaite with the piece The
Elect In Heaven. |
|
The next step was to go back and
look at existing sculpture and manuscripts. Many of the
scenes and themes dealt with in the frieze have been
depicted elsewhere. These scenes told us what was missing
and allowed us to fill in the blanks. This was done
following the style and technique of the original artist."
He said that sculptors had examined the
minute details of the 12th century artist’s
styles, noticing that several different sets of hands had
worked on several of the panels.
"Some of the figures are quite
crude, but that is part of the design. Other parts are
more sophisticated . Form example there is a figure of
Christ which is more finely depicted than other figures,
and we had to be aware of those differences.
People who look at the carvings in
a hundred years might say it looks a bit 21st
century, but it is an accurate reproduction. The original
frieze had a definite purpose, the message was ‘this
is what could happen to you’ and I am sure it was
meant to put the fear of God into people.
The images are quite graphic. There
are devils, dragons and serpents, people having their
genitals bitten, that kind of thing, it gave us some
interesting carving work to do."
He said he would be sad to see the work
coming to an end. " I was 27 when I started and
I am 38 now. It has taken a long time although I haven’t
been working at it constantly, I think the result speaks
for itself."
 |
| Bill Roberts shows off
a panel (The Feast of Dives) by
stonemason sculptor John Roberts. (picture
ref1-0923-32) |
|
Clerk of the works, Bill
Roberts, said: "We are picking up the
threads of work that was begun 900 years ago. We
are doing our best to restore it to its original
condition so that in 900 years time it will still
be here. For the
first 12 months after the frieze is unveiled it
will all look very new but after that it will
begin to weather and it will blend in very
quickly with the rest of the building.
The building has been under
wraps for a long time but the unveiling will
prove to people that we have been working hard
beneath those plastic sheets."
He said there was still work to
be done but the cathedral project is almost
complete in principal. "Over the past 18
years a great many people have put a lot into
this. Having the Duke of Edinburgh come to unveil
the frieze is the icing on the cake. I can’t
think of anyone better to do it. I’m very
proud that I am to be the clerk of the works in
the chair when this project is completed"
said Mr Roberts.
"This restoration is a
shot in the arm for Lincoln. Although the frieze
will be kept under wraps until march 26th,
the rest of the west front should be clear of
scaffolding by this time next week."
|
| Throughout the last two
decades the cathedral has benefited from a
rolling programme of repairs. In 1998 work was
carried out to repair the building’s 19th
century stained glass windows, which were in
danger of collapsing. The windows were
manufactured in the 1840’s and 1850’s
when Victorian churchmen tried to replace
medieval glass destroyed by Henry VIII during the
reformation. The enormous
weight of the stained glass and lead was causing
the windows to buckle. In 1999 the cathedral
secured more than £350,000 from English Heritage
to help pay for repairs to the 13th
century Deans Eye Window, the magnificent Nave
aisle windows and the North Nave and Aisle roofs.
|
 |
| Thomas Kupper repairs
one of the stained glass windows. |
|
Each year the cathedral’s running
costs exceed £2 1/2 million. Apart from grants for
building work, the building receives no public funding.
|
