Lincoln Cathedral - The Exterior Part III

 

The Chapter House

The West Front of Lincoln Cathedral, with its Norman features is, as at Rochester Cathedral and Selby Abbey, the most interesting part of the building for me but, with time moving on during my day out in Lincoln, I took only a few general photographs of the north elevation.

 

St. Hugh's turret

On my last visit to Lincoln in 2015, with the Heart of England English language school, the Early English Gothic St. Hugh’s turret on the north-west corner was wrapped in scaffold but, this time, the lancet windows and associated shafts and capitals were clearly visible – as were the Romanesque detailing of the lower stage of the tower and the gable with blind arcades below it.

 

A detail of St. Hugh's turret

Zooming in to the higher levels of the turret, there is an abundance of carved human heads - some of which are quite grotesque – a Green Man and intricate decoration to the windows, including nail-head mouldings and floriated capitals.

 

The north aisle and north transept

The north aisle, the clerestory above it and the north transept all have the same Early English detailing as seen on the south elevation, including massive buttresses supporting the aisle and flying buttresses connecting to the clerestory.

The north-west tower and St. Hugh's turret

Although there are railings to the north elevation of the cathedral, which prevented me from getting close up to inspect the details, the north part of Minster Yard is much more open and, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was looking into the sun, I would have photographed the whole elevation.

 

The cathedral refectory

Continuing eastwards around the outer walls of the cloister, I paused at the refectory, which was added in 1914 and contains the cathedral libraries above it. Although I had been exploring the city for 2½ hours without a break, I didn’t stop to see if it was open and, noting its Perpendicular Gothic style two storey bay window, I continued to the Chapter House.

 

Flying buttresses on the Chapter House

Building of the Chapter House was commenced in 1220, with a decagonal plan and eight flying buttresses, supported by massive freestanding piers. It is decorated with a quatrefoil frieze and crocketted pinnacles and the double lancet windows have shafts and capitals that are similar to those seen in other C13 parts of the cathedral.

 

The Chapter House