Lichfield Cathedral, a photo from Staffordshire, England

Photographer's Note

A delve into my archives for a series of pictures featuring Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire, United Kingdom.

Some words about the cathedral from Wikipedia:

The cathedral is dedicated to St Chad and Saint Mary. Its internal length is 113 metres (370 feet), and the breadth of the nave is 21metres (68 feet). The central spire is 77metres (252 feet) high and the western spires are about 58metres (190 feet).

The stone is sandstone and came from a quarry on the south side of Lichfield. The walls of the nave lean outwards slightly, due to the weight of stone used in the ceiling vaulting; some 200�300 tons of which was removed during renovation work to prevent the walls leaning further.

It was built on the site of a wooden Anglo Saxon church, which in its turn had been replaced by Norman cathedral built in stone. Building of the present Gothic cathedral was begun in 1195. It was completed by the building of the Lady Chapel in the 1330s. The Choir dates from 1200, the Transepts from 1220 to 1240 and the Nave was started in 1260. The octagonal Chapter House, which was completed in 1249 and is one of the most beautiful parts of the Cathedral with some charming stone carvings, houses an exhibition of the cathedral's greatest treasure, the Lichfield Gospels, an 8th-century illuminated manuscript.

Lichfield suffered severe damage during the English Civil War in which all of the stained glass was destroyed. In spite of this the windows of the Lady Chapel contain some of the finest medieval Flemish painted glass in existence. Dating from the 1530s it came from the Abbey of Herkenrode in Belgium, in 1801, having been purchased by Brooke Boothby when that abbey was dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars. It was sold on to the cathedral for the same price. There are also some fine windows by Betton and Evans (1819), and many fine late 19th century windows, particularly those by Charles Eamer Kempe.

The cathedral also suffered extensive damage to its fabric. Repairs to the damage caused by the Civil War were not fully completed until the nineteenth century.

pajaran, papagolf21, Fis2, holmertz, pierrefonds, jhm, rychem, ChrisJ, PiotrF, Cricri has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

emka (158900) 2017-11-27 0:07

hello Stephen,

The end of your Spanish trip? Splendid view of this old Gothic cathedral. Impressive tower in the middle .I lovel such cathedrals. Excellent composition.

Kind regrad s Malgo

papagolf21 (152607) 2017-11-27 0:12

Bonjour, cher Stephen,
Bravo pour ce cadrage tr鑚 r騏ssi offrant � nos yeux, un 馘ifice religieux de toute beaut�.
Je regarde avec int駻黎 le mode architectural.
Amiti駸.
Philippe

Fis2 (171991) 2017-11-27 1:26

Witaj Stephen!
Interesting fragment of cathedral, amazing tower.
Good frame and colors.
Well done.
Warm regards.
Krzysztof

holmertz (103660) 2017-11-27 1:37

Hello Stephen,
The dramatic history of this cathedral is no longer seen from here. It's a very impressive and dignified building with an elegant tower and lots of other interesting details. It was probably impossible to capture all of it in a photo b ut we get a good enough view from here. You handled the light well on what looks like having been a rather cloudy day.
Kind regards,
Gert

gervaso (28437) 2017-11-27 3:26

Hello, Stephen!

Interesting and beautiful architecture of this cathedral with dark tones of its walls that make a great contrast with the cloudy weather! The details were captured with very good sharpness! Wonderful job!

pierrefonds (115596) 2017-11-27 4:48

Hi Stephen,

The cathedral is well placed in the frame. The point of view is showing a double perspective of the achitecture of the St.Chad and St.Mary cathedral. The overcast sky does not hurt the output of the colors. Have a nice day.

Pierre

pajaran (117113) 2017-11-27 4:51

Dobar dan.
Lep pogled, interesantan i dobar tekst ...
Lepo pokazano, dobar kontrast i ostrina, lepe boje, lepo uhvacen trenutak.
Lepa arhitektura i detalji na fasadi, lepa Katedrala.
Zelim vam lep dan, sve najbolje u novoj nedelji koja je pocela, srecno.
Paja.

Good day.
Nice view, interesting and good text ...
Beautifully shown, good contrast and sharpness, nice colors, nice moment.
Beautiful architecture and details on the facade, beautiful Cathedral.
I wish you a nice day, all the best in the new week that started, happy.

jhm (211738) 2017-11-27 5:43

Hello Stephen,

You show us a part of the Cathedral in Staffordshire on a very nice way.
Sharpness and clarity are perfect done.
An excellent composition too.
Very well done, TFS.

Best regards,
John.

Sergiom (117241) 2017-11-27 6:54

Bonjour Stephen,

On se sent beaucoup plus froid. Tu nous fait quitter brutalement la douce Espagne pour nous ramener subitement en Angleterre.Mais il faut avouer que cette cath馘rale est superbe dans son ciel froid.

Amicalement

Serge

Silvio1953 (222991) 2017-11-27 6:55

Ciao Stephen, great view of fantastic cathedral, excellent clarity, fine details, wonderful colors and splendid light, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

rychem (72187) 2017-11-27 8:28

A beautiful cathedral with rich Gothic details, I like the tall tower and impressive old walls
regards Ryszard

ChrisJ (172436) 2017-11-27 10:07

Hello Stephen,

I wonder what this would look like in b&w with a sepia tint? Something to consider when strong backlight and an unfriendly white sky desaturate most of the colours. Despite the harsh light you've still gotten a great shot with good sharpness and superb shadow detail. Interesting note too. Tfs!

PiotrF (56080) 2017-11-27 16:43

Hello Stephen,
Interesting view of Lichfield Cathedral.
I like the architectural details here.
Attractive picture with nice good sharpness.
Fine presentation.
Regards
Piotr

carlo62 (81265) 2017-11-28 0:16

Ciao Stephen
la differenza con la precedente architettura � notevole, siamo passati dalla Spagna all'Inghilterra.
Bella foto e bella cattedrale.
Saluti
Carlo

Cricri (176) 2017-11-28 23:34

Hello Stephen
POV int駻essant de la cath馘rale, parfaite nettet� et luminosit� rendent bien les moindres d騁ails malgr� le temps gris
Belle journ馥
cricri

maloutim (13617) 2017-12-06 4:54

Impressive cathedral of which you took a low-angle shot. I like the sharp dretails on the pink stone work.
Apparently, it's the only 3-spired cathedral in GB ! Here you concentrated on the centre spire. We can just about see the front ones :-)
Thanks for sharing.
ML