Southwell Minster
Southwell is a 35-40 minute bus ride from Nottingham. On my trip there, it was a day of light rain mixed with heavy showers, so I didn’t get to explore much of it. Probably Southwell’s biggest claim to fame is that Charles 1st spent his last night as a free man in the town in May 1646. His father, James 1st of England / 6th of Scotland, passed through the town on his way to London for his coronation.
Today, Southwell is a small market town and home to the magnificent Southwell Minster. Despite having a cathedral, Southwell is a town and not a city.
During the English Civil War, a lot of the Minster’s historical documents were destroyed by the roundheads, so a lot of its history is heresy rather than based on documentary evidence..
The earliest church on the site is believed to have been founded in 627 by Paulinus, the first Archbishop of York, when he visited the area while baptising believers in the nearby River Trent. This legend is commemorated in the Minster's baptistry window. This baptism was recorded in the writing of The Venerable Bede in his history of the English-speaking people.
In 956, Eadwy of England gave land in Southwell to Oskytel, Archbishop of York, which is the first dated reference to Southwell. Archbishop Ælfric Puttoc died at Southwell, which indicates that the archepiscopal residence and church might have been established by his death in 1051. The Domesday Book (1086) mentions an archepiscopal manor in Southwell.
The Norman reconstruction of the church began in 1108, probably as a rebuilding of the Anglo-Saxon church, starting at the east end so that the high altar could be used as soon as possible and the Saxon building was dismantled as work progressed. Many stones from this earlier Anglo-Saxon church were reused in the construction. The tessellated floor and late 11th century tympanum in the north transept are the only parts of the Anglo-Saxon building remaining intact. Work on the nave began after 1120, and the church was completed by c.1150.
The church was originally attached to the Archbishop of York's Palace, which stood next door and was largely destroyed during the English Civil War. It served the archbishop as a place of worship and was a collegiate body of theological learning, hence its designation as a Minster. Here are a few photos of the Palace.
The chancel was replaced with another in the Early English style in 1234–51 because it was too small. The octagonal chapter house, built starting in 1288 with a vault in the Decorated Gothic style has naturalistic carvings of foliage called the leaves of Southwell (the 13th-century stone carving includes several Green Men). The elaborately carved "pulpitum" or choir screen was built in 1320–40.
During the reformation, it was planned in August 1540, to make Southwell Minster a cathedral; it actually took until 1884, 344 years later. Then, Southwell Minster became the cathedral for Nottinghamshire and a part of Derbyshire including the city of Derby . The diocese was divided in 1927 and the Diocese of Derby was formed.
Here are some photos of the Minster, which is well worth a visit.
