Brecon Cathedral Pt2

 

This week the Church Explorer brings you more of the inside of Brecon Cathedral . Last week I showed photos that I took in the nave, this week you will see the north and south aisles along with the chapels in the transepts

 Brecon Cathedral north side from the path

The north aisle from near the entrance

Chapel in the north aisle

Altar in the north asile

South aisle

Choir stalls and altar

Altar with east window with rordo

The east window is quite stunning

Wilfred Seymour de Winston memorial 

From the south transept to the north through the arches

Incense burner

The north transept which is full of memorials

The stained glass window is a memorial as well

Most of the memorials around the walls are to military personnel

Walk through an arch in the east wall and it takes you to this chapel which to me is a shrine to the

 South Welsh Borderers

The altar and east window

 

The stained glass is outstanding

Memorial wall

You can read about the wreath below

The colour staff is above the plaque

In the corner is a roll of Honour to the me of the South Wales Borderers

The Roll of Honour to the men from the Zulu Campaign

The pews in the chapel have memorials to men from the Borderers

Some of the memorials you can see in the chapel

Stained glass windows in the chapel

Colours shown on the west wall

More colours hang proudly in the chapel

Two of the colours are enclosed in perspex for protection, below the staff from Battle of Isandlwana

The protected colours

Tomb effigy in the south aisle

More of the stunning stained glass in the cathedral

The chest is probably 13th century and made from a solid piece of wood

You can see floor tombs and memorials around the Cathedral

This is part of the original rood screen that would have been in the old church

If you take time to look at it you can see the original gold and red paint on the boss

Traces of paint on this one as well

The centre right item is a cresset stone

Memorials to Edward William Williamson and William Francis Parry de Winton

More memorials around the walls of the cathedral

 

I will leave you with this view of the cross over and chancel with a couple looking at the chancel

I hope I have given you some idea as to what you can see in the beautiful cathedral. I have no doubt  there is much I missed and I would like to return there again if I get a chance

Till Next time I wish you all a wonderful weekend 

Brecon Cathedral

This week the Church Explorer visits  Brecon Cathedral, This is the last of the churches I am visiting in memory of Phil Jones who listed Churches of the Builth Wells Area which he did not complete, I managed to fill in the missing Churches leaving Brecon Cathedral till last. I will leave you to read the history on the cathedral from the link above as it has it's own Wikipedia page. I have been wanting to visit here since I found out that the memorial to the Welsh Borderer's was in the church. I have held them in awe since I was a kid and watched the film Zulu. I have decided to show the Cathedral in two parts with second part next week rather than how I posted last time

The Lych gate leading to the churchyard. If you are visiting there is a carpark next door

A path runs through the cemetery with this path leading off to the church

It looks quite an imposing building

View taken with my iphone

Looking down from the north east end

From the south side, I was not sure if the area was private so did not go to get a photo from the south east, If I go back to Brecon I will rectify that

Door in the north transept with some beautiful ironwork

The tower and north transept

There is a huge entrance porch on the north side of the building

with a couple of carved Norman heads looking down on you

The cemetery looking from the path as you come in

Zoomed in look at the headstones

Walking around it the graves looked crammed in

They are all under the cover of trees forgotten for years

Some are in really good condition

 others lost in ivy and branches, it did not help a branch breaking off a tree and falling among the graves though few seemed damaged

This one stood out and I was excited to see the person won the VC

Poppy wreath on the tomb

Major Charles Henry Lumley VC

These are the tombs of the past Bishops of the Cathedral

 

As you walk in the porch these stained glass windows are the fist thing you see.

 

Nave along with north and south aisles

 

Choir which is in the crossover

 

 The choir stalls

 

 Paintings are on the crossover arch

 

Chancel which looks empty

Looking back, the couple give you an idea as to the size of the building

Inside looking down the nave from the back

One of the most impressive candelabras I have seen

The crossover towards the chancel

 Hanging rood cross

At the end of the nave are a couple of doors high on the walls either side, above then you can see corbels that would have supported a rood loft. If you look at the first photo of the nave the last arch on the right has a door that is the entrance to the stairs leading to the rood loft

 

The altar and amazing reredo

 

The  reredo is stunning with the carvings on it

 

Above the stained glass east window

 

Old carving beside a squint in the chancel 

 

The Sedilia in the chancel

The organ is played remotely

Rather nice eagle lectern

 

The pulpit is no less stunning with the carvings on it

 

the pulpit gives a beautiful view of the nave

 

 

Carvings of the last supper and heads on the pulpit

The pulpit was worth the visit in itself, it is quite stunning

It is amazing to think that this was carved back in Norman times with the green man and tree of life

I will leave you with this view of the altar and reredo, next week I will show the north and south aisles with chapels.

Till next time I wish you all a wonderful weekend