Peterborough Cathedral

Hello Everyone,

I know it’s been a little while since I last wrote, but let me try to catch you all up. The weekend was the most exciting and it also happens to come first chronologically, so I’ll start there (shocking, I know).

This past Saturday, dad had a trip to London, so we agreed to meet up there Saturday afternoon. Knowing that I wouldn’t be very productive Saturday morning and wanting to seize the day, I decided to see if I could do any exploring before meeting dad. So, I got out my handy-dandy guidebook and saw that the city of Peterborough was roughly half way between me and London. More importantly, Peterborough was home to the awesome and historically significant Peterborough Cathedral.

The Cathedral has had a long and troubled history. King Peada founded a small church named “Medeshamstede” on the site in 655 AD, but the Danes burned it in 870 (as the Vikings were prone to do).

The Heda Stone, an 8^th century carving from the old church.

Rebuilt in 972 as a Benedictine Abbey, it accidently burned in the 1100s. The present building was built shortly after that, giving it the distinct Norman and Early Gothic architectural features. Old Henry the VIII shut the cathedral down in 1539 during his tantrum with the Catholic Church, but it reopened shortly thereafter. It was severely damaged by gunfire from Oliver Cromwell’s troops. What was left was rebuilt, but it again accidently caught fire in 2001. The building was, of course, restored.

So, other than a lot of fires, it does have some interesting architectural aspects. The three huge arches on the Western Front have been called “the most magnificent portico in Europe.” The wooden ceiling in the Nave is hand painted and unique in England. Unfortunately, my pictures of the ceiling did not turn out, but it is covered with paintings of devils, saints, and Greek figures (like Lady Rhetoric holding the Law and a olive branch).

The Western Front actually leans out 22 inches, like the Tower of Pizza.

The Cathedral is the resting place of Katherine of Aragon, King Henry the VIII’s first wife. It was Katherine’s inability to bear a son (so they thought) that prompted King Henry to divorce her. When the Catholic Church disapproved, he simply created his own Church of England to approve the divorce. The divorce and the split form the Catholic Church were not pretty, and Katherine’s own daughter was not allowed to attend the funeral. Less than three years later, he closed the entire cathedral.

Forty years later, Mary Queen of Scotts (aka: Bloody Mary) was buried here after her execution, but her body was later moved to Westminster Abbey by order of King James I, her son (and King during the Guy Fawkes fiasco).

During the period that the Cathedral was shut down, its relics went missing, the most important being St. Oswald’s arm, and items from Becket’s murder. Oswald was a generous and benevolent king of Northumbria in the early 600’s. His right arm was blessed, and after he died, it was cut off and kept as a relic. A special tower was erected within the church for on-guard monks to keep tabs on the arm.

The arm's guard tower, lest it grow legs and run off.

Thomas Becket was once the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest clerical post in England. He was so powerful, in fact, that King Edward II saw him as a threat. In 1170, four knights brutally murdered Becket in the Canterbury Cathedral. A piece of his blood soaked shirt was brought to Peterborough for safe keeping until it mysteriously disappeared nearly four hundred years later…

Anyway, other than the Cathedral, there is not much in Peterborough to see. I happened to be there during a football match, so police were lining all the pubs and were patrolling the streets. On the 7:00 am train ride over to Peterborough, the four folks sitting across the aisle drank three beers a piece in anticipation of the game. There is a lot to get used to over here…

Well, in the afternoon, I met dad in London and we went out for a play. We saw 39 Steps, a comedy themed like an old Hitchcock film. It was pretty good. The best part was just getting to spend the afternoon with dad. I’m not sure when I’ll get to do that again. Dad brought over my guitar, which is great to have back. I was really missing it.

I came back to Sheffield on Sunday and made it the evening service of Wycliffe Independent Church, which I thought was excellent. The rest of the week, I’ve mostly been reading conference papers on avionics. I’ve caught a cold and that’s slowed me down a bit, but it’s not bad.

Also, I heard from the Air Force that the boat with my baggage arrived on Friday. The boat was supposed to arrive on the 21^st. Two weeks late makes airline delays seem like nothing!

That’s all for now!

Sincerely,

Will

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