ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL-IN CHRIST ALONE {WITH SUBTITLES}

604AD

Saxon cathedral built on land donated by King Ethelbert. The Saxon historian Bede tells us that Justus, first Bishop of Rochester, was consecrated here by St Augustine


1082

The Benedictine Priory of St Andrew was established by Gundulf (the first Norman Bishop) and remained until the dissolution of the monastery in 1540


1083

The building of the present Nave was begun by Bishop Gundulf, a Benedictine monk from Bec in France


1130

The Norman Cathedral was consecrated on Ascension Day. Henry I attended the ceremony


1137c

Fires destroyed the wooden roof of the Nave and damaged the Quire


1180

Work began on re-building in the Gothic style, starting with the Quire


1201

William of Perth was murdered nearby. Pilgrims visiting his shrine brought in money to help the monks re-build the cathedral


1200c

The Presbytery was begun, and roofed in by 1214


1215

The cathedral was plundered when King John held it against the rebel barons. It was later desecrated by Simon de Montfort’s troops when they captured the city


1227

The new Quire was consecrated


1240c

The North Transept was built. The South Transept, originally used as a Lady Chapel, was built a few decades later


1340c

Hamo de Hythe vaulted the Transepts, raised the central tower and spire, and re-decorated the Quire. The Chapter Library door depicts his soul rising to heaven


1440c

The present Nave clerestory replaced a smaller Romanesque one, and the Great West window was put in place


1490c

The present Lady Chapel, the latest part of the cathedral, was enlarged as a Quire for the new-style polyphonic choirs who sang at the Lady Chapel altar in the South Transept


1542

A new foundation of a Dean and six Canons was established and the cathedral dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary

1642

Cathedral was damaged by Cromwell’s soldiers.  One note on the rebels.

"On Wednesday, being Bartholomew Day, we marched forth, some of our souldiers ... went to the Cathedrall about 9 or 10 of the clock, in the midst of their superstitious worship, with their singing men and boyes; they ... went about the work they came for. First they removed the table to its place apointed, and then tooke the seat which it stood upon, ... and brake that all to pieces; ...they pluckt down the rails and left them for the poore to kindle their fires; and so left the organs to be pluckt down when we came back again, but it appeared before we came back they took them downe themselves.  Post restoration, the relative lack of damage was noted, in particular the "monuments of the dead" were not defaced, although one John Wyld (a shoemaker of the city) was accused of taking down and selling iron and brass from some tombs. Fairfax's troops stabled there horses in the quire as in other cathedrals. Although no structural damage seems to have occurred, several saw pits were dug in the nave floor."

1825

The South Quire Transept was strengthened by L N Cottingham


1872

Major restoration work was carried out by George Gilbert Scott


1904

The present tower and spire were dedicated


2004

1400th anniversary of the cathedral and the diocese of Rochester. Dedication of the Fresco