Southwell Minster

The outside of Southwell Minster. The picture contains an upclose image of the floral decorations on the outside stone work.

Thursday 10 July
Depart: Parkinson Steps: 12.30
Arrive: Parkinson Steps: 19.30
Price: £48.50

Southwell is a well concealed secret in the centre of Nottinghamshire. It is a very small town, with a grid of Georgian and Victorian houses and shops, surrounding the ruined former palace of the archbishops of York, the remains of a square of medieval canons houses, rebuilt at the end of the 18th century, and one of the finest English small cathedrals, Southwell Minster.

The cathedral has its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period, when, in the middle of the 10th century, a Roman villa and its associated territory were given to Oscetyl, the first West Saxon archbishop of York, to strengthen his authority at the start of the reconquest of Viking Yorkshire. He set up a community of canons beside his manor house, together with a small church. The church reached cathedral size during the 12th century: we can still see the magnificent nave and transepts from this period, demonstrating classic features of the Romanesque style. After 1234, a new choir was built in the Gothic style, taking over a number of ideas first developed at Lincoln Cathedral, but cleverly modified to work on a smaller scale. Southwell’s greatest feature, drawing visitors from around the world, is its chapter house from the end of the 13th century, which is famous for its carvings of leaves and flowers, called by Pevsner the ‘Leaves of Southwell’. Sympathetic 19th-century restoration under the architect Ewan Christian dealt with the 18th-century neglect of the building, and, at the end of the process, the church was adopted as the cathedral of the new diocese of Nottingham and Derby and part of the palace ruins was rebuilt to provide a house for the new bishop. The cathedral also has a fine series of stained glass windows by the notable 20th-century artists Christopher Whall and Patrick Reyntiens, as well as four 16th-century panels rescued from destruction in Paris at the Revolution and now housed in the choir. This excursion will trace the history of this important site from the Romans to the 19th century and will visit both the cathedral and the former archbishop’s palace.

Jenny Alexander (Department of the History of Art, University of Warwick) and Briony Wilde (Department of the History of Art, University of Warwick) will lead this excursion.

For further information, please visit http://www.southwellminster.org/