Photo: Travel: England: Gloucester

Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, Gloucester, Gloucestershire

This being the day before my return to the US, and neither me nor Tini wanting to spend it brooding about that, we decided to head to another cathedral. This time it was Gloucester on account of its famous fan vaulted cloister (not the Harry Potter films). This is one of the six former abbey churches re-founded by Henry VIII as cathedrals (the New Foundation).

We arrived somewhat late and as a result I could not take many pictures of the exterior. However, with the exception of the beautiful tower and the intricate south porch, which is now the main entrance, the building is unremarkable. Inside, the Romanesque nave is dominated by the vast Norman columns with rather small triforium and negligible clerestory, much restored in a perpendicular style. The West window is rather beautfil Victorian work but it cannot compare with the famous East Window said to comemmorate the Battle of Crecy. I was not enamored of the overly ornate reredos by George Gilbert Scott in the presbytery and much preferred the modern, if somewhat dark and distrubing, paintings by Ian McKillop in the Lady Chapel. The tomb (sometime shrine) of King Edward II could not be seen as it was wholly encased for the ongoing restoration. We did not go to the crypt but spend much time wandering about the cloister. The magnificent fan vaulting is worth seeing over and over again, especially when there is nobody around. The chapter house was closed because of a wedding, so we did not see it either. The Scala guidebook is pathetically brief and cursory.

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