Cleaning of the Nave
/The Friends have cleaned the Nave - their biggest undertaking yet. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1965.
Gundulph began his Cathedral at the East End about A.D. 1080, but was soon at work on the Nave. So those lovely nine bays are as old as any Norman cathedral in the country. The West Front was built early in the twelfth century in the bishopric of John of Canterbury. The West Door, with its richly sculptured tympanum, is late Norman, and one of the most beautiful in England.
The Nave is in constant use for Ordinations, Confirmations, great diocesan occasions like the three Mothers Union festivals this May, the three Diocesan Festivals in July, the Choirs Festivals, the Industrial Festival, the Cathedral Lectures, Services for the Navy, the Royal Engineers, the Hospitals and a number of Schools; Choral Society and other Concerts, Drama, and the Kings School Prizegiving.
The north nave arcade photographed in the 1930s or 1940s before the cleaning. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, glass slides collection.
The loudspeakers which the Friends installed were not entirely successful. They have now been resited on the columns and the result is quite satisfactory.
The real beauty of the Nave is seen when it is empty of chairs. This is not often possible, except for a good part of Lent and the late summer. In Lent the great Cross stands stark and alone on its bed of stone at the head of the Nave. At Christmas the Crib stands there. At other times the Nave Altar stands on a platform at the foot of the steps to the Choir. This platform is not worthy of the Cathedral and we hope to improve it with money recently subscribed for the purpose.
The cleaning operation was completed during the summer holiday period of 1964, and was a rare example of a job being finished by the promised date. We are grateful to Wallis's of Maidstone. The Nave was shut off from the rest of the Cathedral by a huge polythene curtain while the walls and columns were washed and floods of dirty water were pumped outside. Plaster was repaired and coloured to match the stone.
The south nave arcade photographed in 2020.
The shields on the corbels supporting the roof trusses were repainted with coats of arms, ecclesiastical on the south, civil on the north. They had been previously painted (rather indifferently) in the reign of Elizabeth I.
R. W. S.
Reillustrated with additional notes by Jacob Scott, Heritage Officer
3D model from 2020 of a repainted nave corbel featuring the arms of the Pilgims Trust.
List of nave angel coats of arms repainted in 1965
North side:
Saint George
County of Kent
St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Bridge Wardens
Royal Navy
Royal Engineers
Chamber of Commerce
Pilgrim Trust
South side:
Saint Andrew
Province of Canterbury
Diocese of Rochester
Bishop Walter de Merton
Bishop John Langdon
Bishop Thomas Brown
Bishop John Fisher
Bishop Nicholas Ridley
Oriel College, Oxford
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Keeping the Cathedral standing, warm, lit, beautiful and ready to receive worshippers and visitors is a never-ending task.
