Peterborough Cathedral
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Wednesday 30 November 2022
(12.45pm for 1pm start - Meet inside the West Door) - Lecturer: John McNeill
The former abbey of St Peter at Medeshamstede (Peterborough) one of six monasteries saved from demolition by having been granted cathedral status by Henry VIII in 1542, hence the survival of parts of the cloister, infirmary and outer court. The medieval church survives almost complete, with a largely twelfth-century nave, choir and presbytery book-ended by an unparalleled thirteenth-century western porch and a fan-vaulted retrochoir. Notwithstanding the loss of most of Peterborough’s medieval furnishings, the ceilings over the transepts and nave survive – the latter one of a handful of fully painted ceilings remaining in Europe. Celebrated for its adherence to a Romanesque proportional system as construction continued through the second half of the twelfth century, the western bays of Peterborough’s nave were subject to a series of subtle changes which can be associated with the arrival of a former intimate (and biographer) of Thomas Becket from Canterbury – Abbot Benedict (1177-94) – ultimately paving the way for that most astonishing of designs – Peterborough’s mighty western porch.
Lecturer
John McNeill is an architectural historian. He took degrees in art history at the University of East Anglia and Courtauld Institute, and went on to specialise in medieval architectural history, lecturing at Camberwell School of Art, London University’s Extra-Mural department, Birkbeck College and the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. He lectures regularly to the Society and leads tours for Martin Randall Travel. He was appointed Secretary of the British Archaeological Association in 2000, for whom he also subsequently convened and edited conferences on Medieval Anjou, cloisters, medieval chantries, and King’s Lynn and the Fens. He founded the BAA’s biennial series of International Conferences on Romanesque, and is both a member of its steering committee and a co-editor of its transactions. His most recent effort in this field, Romanesque and the Year 1000 is due to be published at the end of 2024. Besides the BAA Conference Transactions, John has published numerous articles and is author of the Blue Guides to both Normandy and the Loire Valley. He is a Vice-President of the London Art History Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
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