Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, is a Grade I cathedral on Minster Yard. It is the seat of the Bishop of Lincoln and the mother church of the diocese.
- Location
- Lincoln, Lincolnshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Lincolnshire
- City / town
- Lincoln
- Address
- Minster Yard, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 1PX
- Postcode
- LN2 1PX
- Built
- Begun 1072; consecrated 1092; Gothic rebuild after 1185, largely 1192-1311
- Consecrated
- 11 May 1092
- Architect
- Successive medieval master masons; Wren Library by Sir Christopher Wren
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Diocese
- Lincoln
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Romanesque west front; Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic
- Materials
- Lincoln limestone
- Grid reference
- SK 978 718
- Opening hours
- Open every day (exceptions advertised on the website).
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas. Non-accessible toilets in church. Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Bishop Remigius de Fecamp moved his seat from Dorchester-on-Thames and began the present site in 1072. The first cathedral was consecrated on 11 May 1092, two days after Remigius died. Fire in 1124 and a major earthquake on 15 April 1185 destroyed most of that building; only the lower west front and its towers remain from before the earthquake. St Hugh of Lincoln began the Gothic rebuild from 1192. Historic England lists the cathedral, cloisters, chapter house and libraries together as list entry 1388680. The fabric is Lincoln limestone.
Surviving work spans Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular. St Hugh's Choir and the eastern transepts date from about 1192-1210; the Angel Choir followed in the later thirteenth century. The central tower was raised to its present 271 feet in 1307-11; a leaded timber spire, reputed to have made it the world's tallest building, blew down in 1548. The Dean's Eye rose window in the north transept belongs to the late twelfth- and early thirteenth-century rebuild; the Bishop's Eye in the south transept was reconstructed in the fourteenth century. The Wren Library was begun in 1674 to designs by Sir Christopher Wren. The listing notes thirteenth-century glass, the shrine of St Hugh, and tombs including Katharine Swynford. One of the four original 1215 Magna Carta exemplars associated with the cathedral is now displayed in Lincoln Castle.