Wednesday dawned cloudy and after brief discussions we decided to visited Lincoln and view its wonderful cathedral. Perched at the top of a hill its can be see for miles around and has a castle nearby too.William the Conqueror ordered the first cathedral to be built in Lincoln in 1072. The church that existed before that, St. Mary’s Church, was a mother church but not a cathedral. Bishop Remigius built the first Lincoln Cathedral on the present site, finishing it in 1092. He died two days before it was to be consecrated on May 9 of that year. About 50 years later, most of that building was destroyed in a fire.
Bishop Alexander rebuilt and expanded the cathedral, but it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1185. Only the central portion of the west front and lower halves of the west towers survive from this period.King Henry II of England approved the election of St. Hugh of Avalon, a Carthusian monk, as Bishop of Lincoln in 1186. St. Hugh began a major rebuilding project in the emerging Early English Gothic style, but died in 1200 before his plan was completed.
The east end of the cathedral was moved each time the building was enlarged. The eastern wall of the Norman cathedral (1073) was in the middle of what is now St. Hugh’s Choir. The east end of the Early English building (1186) was in what is now the Angel Choir behind the High Altar.The existing structure was finished by about 1280, but repairs and remodeling have continued. There have been repeated problems with the spires (removed in 1807) and towers, which were sometimes thought to be in danger of collapsing.
Lincoln Cathedral and its bishops have had a leading role in the history of England. The Magna Carta was signed by the Bishop of Lincoln amongst others, and one of only two remaining copies resides in the cathedral’s library.
Still struggling with my knees after a stop in the Magna Carta for refreshment we headed through the castle and had a brief look around the castle and surrounding streets and shops before moving off to the museum of Lincolnshire Life only to find it closed when we got there. The Museum of Lincolnshire Life is a museum in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, in the UK.
The museum collection is a varied social history that reflects and celebrates the culture of Lincolnshire and its people from 1750 to the present day. I popped into the Plough Boy for a Guinness while the others went to get the car then we headed for home.