Gloucester Cathedral: Extras

Family burial: note children at lower left and right

Window depicting the coronation of Edward II

Tomb of Edward II; a long story...he was
murdered, perhaps gruesomely, after abdicating,
by henchmen of his wife, the Queen, and Roger
Mortimer (who paid for his crime, gruesomely);
Gloucester was the only cathedral that would
accept Edward's body; later it became a major
pilgrimage site: the power of revisionist
historiography?

Baptismal font, 1190, in the Lady Hall

Interesting burial of Robert, Duke of Normandy, a major
benefactor of Gloucester, and eldest son of William the
Conqueror; William had interesting ideas about his sons
and succession, preferring his youngest, who became
Henry I; Henry had the middle brother mysteriously die in
New Forest and incarcerated Robert for 34 years in Cardiff
Castle; the pose, we were told, was that of a crusader,
always ready to spring into action to save Jerusalem or
plunder Constantinople or whatever

We seldom like contemporary sculpture, but did like this
Holy Family

Some of the better stained light on the floor we have seen

In the apse, some beautiful non-perpendicular
buttressing as well as a glimpse of the
Decorated vaulting there

And finally, that which is irresistible at
Gloucester, the fan vaulting in the cloister,
said to be its earliest example

More; it is largely decorative and not
structural, I understand

Closer up

While the organ was filling the cathedral
with glorious music inside, the great tower
bells peeled outside for more than an hour;
we sat and listened for quite a while

Last look at one of the great sights