Wakefield Cathedral, West Yorkshire

Above: Wakefield Cathedral, formally the Church of All Saints Wakefield, is the cathedral of the Church of England's Diocese of Wakefield.  Located in West Yorkshire, it is not far from Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.  One may find a Wikimapia overview of the cathedral grounds here.

The Wakefield Cathedral Home Page, here, provides a slide show and video of the interior.

For a 360-degree panorama: Please see the BBC's Bradford and West Yorkshire Site here.  It requires a browser plug-in.

The Wakefield 366 Page at Flickr also provides more than 250 interior views, including beautiful shots of some of the cathedral's best-known features: its medieval stained glass, the furniture of the St. Mark chapel, the high altar, a 17th-century rood-screen, the rererdos of John Oldrid Scott, and many carvings of strange figures, including mythical beasts and a green man.  

Wikipedia says the cathedral tower has a ring of 14 bells and "no more than 12 bells are usually rung at any one time."  The Wakefield cathedral choir has been featured on BBC radio's Songs of Praise and Choral Evensong programs.

From Wikipedia: The Vicar of Wakefield "is a novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762, and published in 1766, and was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians. The novel is mentioned in George Eliot's Middlemarch, Jane Austen's Emma, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sarah Grand's The Heavenly Twins, Charlotte Brontë's The Professor and Villette, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, as well as his Dichtung und Wahrheit."

Free and downloadable copies of The Vicar of Wakefield, including audio book copies, may be found at the Internet Archive website here.

From Wikipedia:

Wakefield Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Wakefield, West Yorkshire is the Anglican Cathedral for the Diocese of Wakefield and seat of the Bishop of Wakefield.

Originally the parish church, it has Anglo Saxon origins and after enlargement and rebuilding has the tallest spire in Yorkshire. It is the tallest building in the City of Wakefield.

The cathedral is built on the ruins of an ancient Saxon church  A church in Wakefield is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In 1090 William II gave the church and land in Wakefield to Lewes Priory in Sussex and shortly after that a Norman church was built.

The cathedral is situated on a hill on Kirkgate in the centre of the city. The Norman church was rebuilt in 1329, and apart from the tower and spire, rebuilt and enlarged in 1469. The church was reconstructed and altered at various times and its spire, damaged in a violent gale, was renewed in 1823. Up to the 16th century the church was known by the Anglo Saxon All Hallows and after the Reformation changed to All Saints.

The cathedral was largely rebuilt in the Perpendicular Gothic style in the early 15th century and, after years of neglect in the 18th century, owes its current late mediaeval appearance to a Victorian restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott and his son John Oldrid Scott between 1858 and 1874

The cathedral walls are clad in ashlar sandstone. On the south wall is a porch, with a wrought iron gate and a sundial over the door arch. The wall of the north aisle is the oldest part of the church dating from about 1150. The nave piers date from the 12th and 13th centuries and the arcade and chancel arches date from the 14th century. The late 15th-century chancel now serves as the choir. The nave's original stone vaulted roof has been replaced with wood. The 15th-century wooden ceilings over the nave and aisles have carved bosses

Above: A 19th-century view of Wakefield Cathedral, during the times of Jane Austen (1815)

Wells Cathedral, Somerset, England

Above: Wells Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew, Wells, Somerset, England. Diocese of Bath and Wells, District of Canterbury. See a Wikimap of the Cathedral Grounds here. The Wells Cathedral is located in southwestern England, south of Bristol and Bath.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons, Seier & Seier's Photostream, 25 July 2010

 Cloister, Wells Cathedral in City of Wells
Photographer: Noel Jenkins

The Official Wells Cathedral website, here, includes slide shows and videos.

According to Wikipedia, "Wells Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, who lives at the adjacent Bishop's Palace.

"Built between 1175 and 1490, Wells Cathedral has been described as 'the most poetic of the English Cathedrals.' Much of the structure is in the Early English style, much enriched by its sculptural aspects and the vitality of the carved capitals in a foliate style known as “stiff leaf”. The eastern end has retained much original glass, rare in England. The exterior has a fine Early English façade and a large central tower.

"The first church was established on the site in 705. Construction of the present building began in the 10th century and was largely complete at the time of its dedication in 1239. It has undergone several expansions and renovations since then and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and Scheduled Ancient Monument.

 Above: Wells Cathedral's Astronomical Clock.  Below:  The steps of the Chapter House and elaborate metal work on the undercroft door.

A Virtual Tour of the Cathedral of Wells may be found at the Re:Quest website, here.  It requires a plug-in to be downloaded for viewing, but supplies both the floorplan and a dozen different views.

Columbia University's Medieval Architecture Virtual Tour page provides an excellent 360-degree Virtual Tour of Wells Cathedral, and also requires a QuickTime7 plug-in.  Navigation on their page is a bit weird. Use the position slider on your computer's bottom toolbar to go all the way to the right-hand end of the Columbia University page, and way over there you will find links to an Exterior View of the West Facade, an Exterior View of the Cloister, an Interior View of the Chapter House, a second Interior View of the Chapter House, an Interior View of the Choir, an Interior View of the Lady Chapel, an Interior View of the Nave, an Interior View of the Main North Transept, an Interior View of the South Main Transept, an Interior View of the Stairs in the Chapter Hall, and, last but not least, an Interior View of the West Rose Window at the Tribune Level.


The Nave, Wells Cathedral in City of Wells

Above: The Wells Cathedral's Floor Plan, from Wikipedia.

 

Westminster Abbey, London

Westminster Abbey in London

For more 360-degree panoramic views:

http://www.360cities.net/search/Westminster-Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English, later British and later still (and currently) monarchs of the Commonwealth realms. The abbey is a Royal Peculiar and briefly held the status of a cathedral from 1540 to 1550.

Winchester Cathedral

^{Above: Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England.  Seen from the west facade.  Credit: Wikimedia Commons.}
Winchester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and greatest overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe. Dedicated to the Holy Trinity, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Swithun, it is the seat of the Bishop of Winchester and centre of the Diocese of Winchester. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.


360-degree Panoramic views:

360Globe.net
Panoramic Earth

Worcester Cathedral, Worcestershire, England

 Above: Worcester Cathedral, a Norman and Gothic-style cathedral, was founded as a Benedictine church in 680 A.D. It was rebuilt in 1084 and 1504 and became an Anglican church in 1540.  Credit:  Wikimedia Commons


Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester. Built between 1084 and 1504, Worcester Cathedral represents every style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic. It is famous for its Norman crypt and unique chapter house, its unusual Transitional Gothic bays, its fine woodwork and its "exquisite" central tower which is of particularly fine proportion.

 Above: Worcester Cathedral, looking west at the Rood Screen, Nave and West window.  Below:  Worcester Cathedral organ

The Cathedral was founded in 680 with Bishop Bosel as its head. The first cathedral was built in this period but nothing now remains of it. The existing crypt of the cathedral dates from the 10th century and the time of St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester. The current cathedral dates from the 12th and 13th centuries.

Monks and nuns had been present at the Cathedral since the seventh century (see Bede). The monastery became Benedictine in the second half of the tenth century (one author gives the time range 974-7, another considers 969 more likely). There is an important connection to Fleury as Oswald, bishop of Worcester 961-92, being prior at the same time, was professed at Fleury and introduced the monastic rule of Fleury to Worcester. The Benedictine monks were driven out at 18 January 1540 and replaced by secular canons.

360-degree Panoramic Views:

Interior view by Abigail Phillips
BBC 360-Pano Tour by Bob Bilsland

Official Website:

Worcester Cathedral website
Worcester Cathedral on Film

Worchester Cathedral Picture Tour:

Pictures of Worchester Cathedral

Map and photos from Panoramio:

Worcester Panorama by Matthew Walters

Worcester Cathedral Crypt

The Cathedral contains the tomb of King John in its chancel. Before his death in Newark in 1216, John had requested to be buried at Worcester. He is buried between the shrines of St Wulstan and St Oswald (now destroyed).

The cathedral has a memorial, Prince Arthur's Chantry, to the young prince Arthur Tudor, who is buried here. Arthur's younger brother and next in line for the throne was Henry VIII.

Other notable burials include:

• Richard Edes (d.1604), a chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I.
• William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton (1616-1651), Scottish Royalist commander during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
• John Gauden (1605–1662), Bishop of Worcester
• Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Prime Minister

York Minster

Above: The Minster's western entrance.  Photo Credit: Wikipedia article on York Minster

York Minster is "an imposing Gothic Anglican cathedral in York, Northern England," according to the Wikimapia  page for the map of the cathedral grounds. It was once a wooden church built in 627 A.D. on the ruins of the ancient Roman Fortress of Eboracum. 

The VRYork website offers a superb 360-degree panoramic view of the cathedral's interior, with an interactive map of the surrounding city.  One may also find photo slideshows and a summary of the many relics and treasures on display at the cathedral's Official Web Page, here.

From Wikipedia:

"York Minster is a cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by a dean and chapter under the Dean of York. The formal title of York Minster is "The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York".

"The title minster is attributed to churches established in the Anglo-Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title.

Below: The cathedral's octagonal Chapter House.

"The minster has a very wide Decorated Gothic nave and chapter house, a Perpendicular Gothic choir and east end and Early English north and south transepts. The nave contains the West Window, constructed in 1338, and over the Lady Chapel in the east end is the Great East Window, (finished in 1408), the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In the north transept is the Five Sisters Window, each lancet being over 16 metres (52 ft) high. The south transept contains a famous rose window.
 
A nice array of still photos and floor plans may be found at the "York Minster" page of Gotik-Romantik.de.

The following photos are open-source stills from Wikipedia:

Above: The famous Rose Window above the west (main) entrance of the cathedral.
Below: The west entrance and its oak doors, illuminated at night (2005).

Below: York Minster's floor plan, from Wikipedia.

Epiphany

Miracle on 34th Street Christmas Display, Manger Scene, Baltimore, Maryland in USA

The Epiphany of Our Lord is a Christian holiday normally held on 6 January among Western Churches.

Eastern Churches following the Julian Calendar observe the Theophany feast on what for most countries is January 19 because of the 13-day difference today between that calendar and the generally used Gregorian calendar<sup>,

"</sup>It is an old Russian tradition - on the day of Epiphany you dip in the ice cold waters of lake or river, through a cross-shaped hole in the ice^."


Epiphany in the waters of Meschersky pond in Russia