Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Work on building a new east end to the Cathedral, after a disasterous fire in 1174, commenced in 1175 by William of Sens The French Mason. The whole east end was finally completed in 1220 when new windows were inserted depicting the new shrine to St. Thomas Becket in the Trinity Chapel that year.

Summary from record TR 15 NE 1201:

The Sanctuary, or Presbytery, is the part of the Cathedral reserved for the clergy beyond the choir in which the altar is placed. The Sanctuary was built after the great fire of 1174 which destroyed the choir end of the Norman Church. Work began at the west end of the choir in 1177 and finished in 1181.

Monument Types

• CATHEDRAL (Medieval - 1175 AD to 1220 AD)
• SANCTUARY (Now, Medieval to Unknown - 1177 AD)

Full description

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Work on building a new east end to the Cathedral, after a disasterous fire in 1174, commenced in 1175 by William of Sens The French Mason. In 1179 he had a serious accident, falling from scaffolding and had to return home to France before he could complete the programme. Work was then taken over in 1179 and largely structurally completed by 1185 by Mason William the Englishman. The whole east end was finally completed in 1220 when new windows were inserted depicting the new shrine to St. Thomas Becket in the Trinity Chapel that year.

Here stood the shrine of Archbishop Thomas Becket, one of the great masterpieces of medieval art, consisting of gold-plated coffin mounted on a feretory, supported by marble pillars. The coffin was covered with every kind of precious object, deposited by pilgrims between 1170 and 1528. The Saint's remains were transferred in 1220 from the tomb in the Crypt, where they had rested since 1170. Almost nothing remains of the Shrine; Henry VIII destoyed it in 1538, confiscating all its riches; eight men could scarcely lift the chest of treasures carried off. Around its site there is a long shallow depression worn by the feet and knees of thousands of pilgrims performing their devotions here over centuries.

In 1376 the funeral of the Black Prince took place in great spendour in Canterbury Cathedral. He was buried immediately to the south of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in the Trinity Chapel. In 1396 Archbishop Wiiliam Courtenay was buried in Trinity Chapel just east of the Black Prince. In 1413 King Henry IV was buried immediately to the north of the shrine of Becket and his second wife Queen Joan of Navarre was buried beside him in 1437. Also buried within the chapel are Archbishop Hubert Walter died 1205 and Odet de Coligny, Cardinal de Chastillon who died in 1571, a member of a great French Protestant family.

Between the exterior walls and outside of the new choir and Trinity Chapel and between the Trinity Chapel and the Corona the choir aisles, or north and south aisles, continued right round the east end forming an Ambulatory for the progress of Pilgrims and Religious Processions to circuit the church without crossing in front of the High Altar.

Description from record TR 15 NE 1201:
The Sanctuary, or Presbytery, is the part of the Cathedral reserved for the clergy beyond the choir in which the altar is placed. The Sanctuary was built after the great fire of 1174 which destroyed the choir end of the Norman Church. The ruins of the Norman arcades and clerestory had to be demolished and work on the construction of a new east end began.

The mason appointed, after much discussion, to carry out the work was a Frenchman, William of Sens. Work began at the west end of the choir in 1177 with all of the new work carried out in French style, progressing gradually eastwards, so that by the beginning of 1179, William was preparing to turn the high vault over the high altar in the new sanctuary when he fell from the scaffolding. He so seriously injured himself that he could no longer work and returned home to France. His successor was William the Englishman, who had to complete the work. This he did, but in English style, completing the new crypt and sanctuary by 1181, he then went on to build the Trinity Chapel and Corona completing the major structual work by 1184, which was very rapid indeed. The whole east end was not totally finished however, until 1220 when new windows were added showing the new shrine to St. Thoams Becket which was repositioned into the Trinity Chapel at that date.

Unknown, 1945, The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ, Canterbury, A Handbook for Pilgrims (Monograph). SKE30198.

Willett, C., 1960, Canterbury Cathedral A Pictorial Guide (Monograph). SKE29722.

Willett, C., 1960, Canterbury Cathedral A Pictorial Guide (Monograph). SKE29722.

John Newman, 1969, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent (Monograph). SKE7874.

John Newman, 1969, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent (Monograph). SKE7874.

Blockley, K., Sparks, M. & Tatton-Brown, T., 1997, Canterbury Cathedral Nave, Archaeology, History and Architecture (Monograph). SKE29723.

Blockley, K., Sparks, M. & Tatton-Brown, T., 1997, Canterbury Cathedral Nave, Archaeology, History and Architecture (Monograph). SKE29723.

Sources and further reading