Dame Ann Hennicker (d.1792)
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The C18th monument to Dame Henniker features statues of Truth and Old Time cast from the fascinating Coade stone, developed by notable early British businesswoman Eleanor Coade.
Read MorePaint Projection
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A tricky but exciting project ticking away by cover of night this past year is piecing together fragments of the Cathedral’s medieval painted decoration, now beginning to shine bright again for the first time in over four centuries.
Read MoreAerial exploration
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Precision recording from a quadcopter drone by Geoff Watkins of Aerial Imaging South East provides some stunning views and a wealth of new data on the Cathedral architecture.
Read MoreBlack Boy Alley, Rochester
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‘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 MoreStatue Swap
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Two statues flanking the Great West Doors are a statement of the dual patronage of the Cathedral in the mid-twelfth century. Eight-hundred years of weathering and damage have obscured their identities, so exactly who is depicted?
Read MoreDemons and Dragons
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The medieval sculpture of the Nave Crossing features a bestiary of demons, dragons, imps and grotesques. Why did the builders and patrons of the medieval Cathedral fill their place of sanctity and refuge with such nightmarish imagery?
Read MoreCottingham's Crossing bosses, 1840
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The crossing ceiling was rebuilt several times in the C19th. The crossing bosses designed by Lewis Cottingham in 1840 are based on medieval Green Men and grotesques in the Nave Transept and the North and South Quire Aisles and are painted as vividly as they would once have been.
Read MoreNorth Nave Transept haircuts and headwear
/Decorative carvings in the form of human heads became popular in church architecture around the turn of the 13th century, fossilising a record of medieval clothing, hairstyles and headwear.
Read MoreMasons' marks→
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Thousands of marks by the masons provide insights into the construction history of the Cathedral in the 12th century.
Read MoreAlphanumeric graffiti
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The diverse alphanumeric corpus comprises thousands of names, dates, initials, letters and words. How can we begin to make sense of this enormous record?
Read MoreActs of Parliament 1649 and 1650: a paradise lost?
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Randolph Jones writes about a revolutionary time when the future and soul of the country hung in the balance.
Read MorePictorial and symbolic graffiti
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Some of the most enigmatic graffiti at the Cathedral are the hundred large decorative sketches on 12th century fabric, comprised of scenes from the gospels and their writers the Evangelists.
Read MoreGravestones
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Three areas of graveyards in the vicinity of the Cathedral were used until the mid-nineteenth century.
Read MoreBook of Hours: a day in the life
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Dr Jayne Wackett explores the tiny fifteenth-century Book of Hours.
Read MoreThe Great Bible: the gospel according to Henry VIII
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Stuart Palmer, University of Kent, shares with us a mighty message.
Read MoreLife of a bookworm
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Suzy Micklewright hunts down the well-known but seldom-seen bookworms.
Read MoreMedieval tombs
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Rochester Cathedral features twelve intact medieval coffin-tombs spaced around the east end of the building in proximity to the high altar. They were the final resting place of bishops of priors.
Read MoreConservation of the Vinegar Bible
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A rare misprinted bible printed by John Baskett of Oxford in 1717, also known as the Vinegar Bible, was conserved by Lara Meredith in 2015 in advance of its exhibition in the Cathedral Crypt.
Read MoreThe monastic cemetery, 1080-1540
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The monks of Saint Andrew’s Priory were buried to the east of the Cathedral, beneath the site of the Old Deanery and Cathedral car park. Excavations during works over the past 30 years have revealed many skeletal remains from the area.
Read MoreWilliam Lambarde (1536–1601)
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In 1573, the scholar William Lambarde came to Rochester Cathedral to examine Textus Roffensis. He was amazed to find that its opening document, Æthelberht’s law-code, was one he thought no longer survived. Moved by the importance of his discovery, he added a comment in the right margin, urging others to take note.
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