CARLISLE CATHEDRAL

'Carlisle Cathedral' is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Carlisle, in Cumbria, in England.

Contents

History

Organ and Organists

Organ

Organists

External links

History

It was begun during the reign of King Henry I by the first Bishop of Carlisle, the Englishman Æthelwulf (1133-1155), who built a moderate-sized Norman minster of which the transepts and part of the nave still exist. The present cathedral has fine examples of stone tracery, mediæval stained glass, paintings and carvings. The building is made of red sandstone, which due to local weather at some places appears black.
Due to the cathedral's position in the war torn border town of Carlisle, its tower is heavily fortified. During the second Jacobite uprising against George II of Great Britain in 1745, the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie invaded England reaching as far south as Derby. Carlisle and the Carlisle Castle were seized and fortified by the Jacobites. The Jacobites treated the locals with disdain and viewed church buildings in Carlisle with equal disrespect. The Cathedral was partly dismantled and the nave removed so that the stone could be used to patch up the walls ready for the counterattack by the troops of the king. The king's troops re-took the city and locked up the Jacobites inside the cathedral before torturing and executing them. Carlisle cathedral is possibly the only cathedral in the country to witness such horror and suffering.
Carlisle cathedral was restored by in the 19th century by Ewan Christian.
Due to the extremes in wet and dry conditions at Carlisle, the ground on which the Cathedral is built is constantly moving. This is visible when upon inspection of the pillars, which lean in all directions. The local guides say that there is only one arch that is true in the whole building, the rest take on distorted shapes, so much so that it's impossible not to wonder how the building is still standing.

Organ and Organists

Organ

Details of the organ from the National Pipe Organ Register

Organists

★ 1560 Thomas Southick ★ 1587 Robert James ★ 1610 James Pearson ★ 1630 Robert Dalton ★ 1663 John How ★ 1693 Timothy How

★ 1734 Abraham Dobinson ★ 1749 Charles Pick ★ 1781 Thomas Greatorex ★ 1785 Thomas Hill ★ 1833 Richard Ingham ★ 1841 James Stimpson

★ 1842 Henry Edmund Ford ★ 1903 E. G. Mercer ★ 1904 Sydney Nicholson ★ 1910 Frederick William Wadely ★ 1960 Robert Andrew Seivewright ★ 1991 Jeremy Suter

External links

★ Official site

★ Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle - from Project Gutenberg.