Sarum Missal, 16th century

Sarum Missal, 16th century

Chapter Library volunteer Beverley Jacobs leafs through the 16th-century Sarum Missal, a remnant from the final days of the Priory Library.

Read More

The Rochester Bible, c.1125-1140

The Rochester Bible, c.1125-1140

The Rochester Bible is a richly decorated manuscript produced by the monks of St Andrew’s Priory, Rochester. Now part of the British Library’s Royal Collection, the manuscript is on loan to Rochester Cathedral and features in the Beauty and the Beasts exhibition in the Cathedral Crypt.

Read More

Bede, Opera (volume 2), with manuscript leaves, 1521

Bede, Opera (volume 2), with manuscript leaves, 1521

Dr Christopher Monk leaves through a volume of Bede’s second opera in the Chapter Library collection featuring two medieval manuscript paste-downs.

Read More

High Treason and A Wicked Contrivance?

High Treason and A Wicked Contrivance?

Library volunteer Myra Amor explores the stories of three successive bishops of Rochester each accused of treason.

Read More

Portrait prints, 17th-20th century

Portrait prints, 17th-20th century

The Chapter Library and Cathedral collections features a number of painted and printed portraits of former bishops, deans and Cathedral clergy.

Read More

Early photographs, 19th-20th century

Early photographs, 19th-20th century

The Cathedral architecture has featured in photographs since the mid-19th century, opening fascinating windows onto previous forms and arrangements of the building and Precinct.

Read More

Charlotte Boyd (1837-1906)

Charlotte Boyd (1837-1906)

Revd. Lindsay Llewellyn-MacDuff, author of Bertha’s Daughters, explores the life and work of Charlotte Boyd, one of the greatest benefactors to the Diocese of Rochester in modern times.

Read More

Psalter and kalendar fragments, circa 1450

Psalter and kalendar fragments, circa 1450

The fragments in this beautiful volume have been rebound and were presented to the Cathedral in 1921 as there are references to early Bishops and saints of Rochester Paulinus and Ithamar, as well as Bishop Romanus.

Read More

Archive reports, 1985-2019

Archive reports, 1985-2019

The care, conservation and investigation of Rochester Cathedral has been a project spanning decades. Follow links below to archive reports available on the Cathedral website, where available.

Read More

John Speed's atlas, 1676

John Speed's atlas, 1676

Library volunteer Myra Amor introduces John Speed and his Theatre of the empire of Great-Britain and A prospect of the most famous parts of the World published in 1676.

Read More

Investments in the South Sea Company by the Dean & Chapter of Rochester Cathedral, 1715-1720

Investments in the South Sea Company by the Dean & Chapter of Rochester Cathedral, 1715-1720

The archives of the Dean & Chapter include a collection of early 18th-century stock and dividend receipts and accounts evidencing an extensive financial legacy from investments in two of the largest slave-trading companies in history.

Read More

Baptisms, marriages and burial registers

Baptisms, marriages and burial registers

Facsimile and transcriptions of the baptism, marriage and burial registers of Rochester Cathedral.

Read More

Archaeologia Cantiana

Archaeologia Cantiana

Rochester Cathedral has featured in dozens of articles in the county archaeological journal Archaeologia Cantiana, now available on the Kent Archaeological Society website.

Read More

Isabella Gilmore and the deaconess movement

Isabella Gilmore and the deaconess movement

Bishop’s Chaplain Lindsay Llewellyn-MacDuff discusses the life and work of Isabella Gilmore and the genesis of the Deaconess Movement in the early 19th century.

Read More

Manuscript facsimile project

Manuscript facsimile project

Sarah Taylor has been working over the lockdown months to digitise the collection of handwritten medieval volumes in the Chapter Library.

Read More

Black Boy Alley, Rochester

Black Boy Alley, Rochester

‘Black Boy’ can be found in the names of many UK pubs, roads and pathways. Rochester’s Black Boy Alley has an origin back in the years after the English Civil War.

Read More

Concerning the Harmony of the Gospels by St Augustine of Hippo, c. 1103

Concerning the Harmony of the Gospels by St Augustine of Hippo, c. 1103

Beverley Jacobs leafs through the oldest volume in the Chapter Library dating to circa 1100 AD.

Read More

Acts of Parliament 1649 and 1650: a paradise lost?

Acts of Parliament 1649 and 1650: a paradise lost?

Randolph Jones writes about a revolutionary time when the future and soul of the country hung in the balance.

Read More

Book of Hours: a day in the life

Book of Hours: a day in the life

Dr Jayne Wackett explores the tiny fifteenth-century Book of Hours.

Read More

The Great Bible: the gospel according to Henry VIII

The Great Bible: the gospel according to Henry VIII

Stuart Palmer, University of Kent, shares with us a mighty message.

Read More