The misericords and history of Ely Cathedral,
The Holy and Undivided Trinity.
Ely Cathedral has Eighty four, 16th century misericords.
Click to launch a description of the misericords of Ely Cathedral
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History of Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire.
Ely was founded in 673 as a monastery by Etheldreda, the daughter of an East Anglian King., after what appears to have been 2 troublesome marriages (married twice, and died a virgin - pity the husbands). This monastery, and its attendant lay community flourished for the next 2 centuries, until it was destroyed by the Danes.
For the next 100 years or so, the monastery lay in ruins - although the lay church may have survived, until re-formed by Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester in 970 - this appears to have been part of a programme to re-found derelict monasteries, as it included Peterborough an Ramsey.
This monastic church survived until it was replaced in 1083 - 1107. In 1109 it was granted Cathedral status, taking its lands from the See or Lincoln.
At some point in the 12th century, the Romanesque West Front was added. The west tower was added between 1174 and 1197. The Galilee Porch was built immediately after, from 1198 to 1215. The lady chapel, which is in the decorated style, was built from the north transept between 1321 and 1349. Finally between 1322 and 1328 the unique Octagon 'Lantern Tower' was built to replace the original central crossing tower, which had collapsed, destroying the choir - but with no loss of life.
The misericords date from the early 16th century, which begs the question - what happened to the choir stalls that must have been built to replace those destroyed when the tower collapsed? Did they have misericords? If so, what did they depict? The answers seem to be unknown. All that seems certain is that new choir stalls and misericords were created in the early 16th century.
The dissolution of the monasteries was certainly less disastrous to Ely Cathedral than to many others - especially the relatively local Peterborough, but most of the statues were defaced or destroyed. It may also be because Oliver Cromwell was a local, that Ely avoided many of the ravages of the Commonwealth.
In the 18th century, James Essex performed the first major restoration of Ely Cathedral - he was a proponent of the Gothic revival, which although meant he was not totally sympathetic to the Romanesque parts of the cathedral, he was at least kind to Decorated parts. In 1839 Sir George Gilbert Scott was invited in for the next restoration project. A third, and most extensive restoration was carried out between 1986 and 2000.
The Official Ely Cathedral website.
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