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St Catherine's Chapel, Ely Cathedral
[for attribution see below]
1848
Ely, Cambridgeshire
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Photograph, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee
This calm and elegant apsidal chapel was one of George Gilbert Scott's bigger projects in the cathedral: it had to be completely rebuilt from its ruins (Pevsner 344). The south-west transept in which it is located is used for baptisms (the font which Scott designed stands just outside the chapel). It is appropriate, therefore, that the chapel's east window, which is colourful and rather contemporary-looking, shows the baptism of Christ. It is by the stained glass craftsman Thomas Wilmshurst (1806-1880), after a picture by one of the Venetian artists of the Bassan family (Handbook 35).
To whom should we attribute the restoration — George Gilbert Scott or Robert Willis?
Dr Alexandrina Buchanan, Lecturer in Archive Studies at the University of Liverpool, writes to dispute the attribution to Scott here, explaining: "The restoration of the chapel was announced in 1846 (Gentleman's Magazine, CXVI (1846): II, 405-6), to take place as soon as funds became available. This happened in June 1848 when J.C. Sharpe offered £100 for the work." Apparently, it was indeed "believed by some at the time that the restoration was Scott's," but Dr Buchanan makes a strong case for its having been largely the work of the architectural historian and Jacksonian Professor of Applied Mechanics at Cambridge Robert Willis (1800-1875), whose Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially of Italy Ruskin praised. Willis had been much involved with the whole restoration project before Scott was appointed. She adds, "I'd suggest that the economy of the project also speaks of Willis rather than Scott — it uses modern yellow brick on the interior and the roof was built from reused timber from a windmill used for draining the Fens." Moreover, in a report on the restorations, the Dean and Chapter themselves expressed their appreciation to Willis both for his assistance and for providing the drawings required in order to carry through the work. Finally, because Scott was never slow to take credit for his own work, Dr. Buchanan suggests that the clincher comes from his own Personal and Professional Recollections:
The actual restoration of the fabric of the choir had been commenced before my appointment, and was managed up to that time by the Dean and Professor Willis. The internal work of the western tower had already been completed by them, and the reconstruction of the apse of the south-western transept went on only partially under my direction. Indeed, coming in as I did, in the midst of these works, my connexion with them generally was but partial, though it increased as they went on. [283]
We are grateful to Dr Buchanan for sharing her research with us; it usefully illustrates both the difficulty and interest involved in making definite attributions in long-running collaborative restoration work like the restoration of a cathedral.
Sources
Handbook to the Cathedral Church, with Some Account of the Monastic Buildings, &c. at Ely. Ely: T. A. Hills and Son, 11th ed. 1880. Available here.
Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2nd ed. 1970.
Last modified 29 July 2008