CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
OXFORD ENGLAND
PAUL SCOTT
SATELLITE VIEW
Christ Church Cathedral is the Chapel of Christ Church College in Oxford. Many people come to visit it, so visitors join a tour which includes the College Hall and Cathedral. This means that it is not possible to follow our usual pattern and walk right around the outside of the Cathedral. Instead, the tour will take us past the red numbered points in that sequential order.
We notice that the main axis of the Cathedral is almost exactly due east – west with the sanctuary at the eastern end. Hence we shall have no difficulty in identifying our liturgical directions (for example East with a capital E) and geographical directions (for example east).
The Cathedral is basically cruciform in shape, but, as we shall see, there are so many added chapels that this basic structure is almost lost.
We approach Christ Church Cathedral by walking South down St Aldates, and past Tom Tower. Our entrance to the Cathedral is further South, leading off Broad Walk. We shall enter through the Meadows Building (1), investigate the College Hall (3), take a brief look at the large Tom Quadrangle (4), and then spend most of our time in the Cathedral itself (5).
This is a plan of the Cathedral from the Cathedral publication. Our tour of the interior of this Cathedral will start at the Ante Chapel. We then follow the red path. Our path is constrained by various barriers erected by the Cathedral for crowd control. Because the layout of this cathedral can be confusing, links back to this plan have been included throughout. There follows a list of ‘return links’ which can be used to access intermediate points in the tour.
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BRIEF HISTORY
[Wikipedia]
Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also the chapel of Christ Church at the University of Oxford. This dual role as Cathedral and College Chapel is unique in the Church of England.
The Cathedral was originally the church of St Frideswide's Priory. The site was historically presumed to be the location of the nunnery founded by St Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford, and the shrine now in the Latin Chapel, originally containing relics translated at the rebuilding in 1180, was the focus of pilgrimage from at least the 12th until the early 16th century.
In 1522, the priory was surrendered to Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, who had selected it as the site for his proposed college. However, in 1529 the foundation was taken over by Henry VIII. Work stopped, but in June 1532 the college was refounded by the King. In 1546, Henry VIII transferred to it the recently created See of Oxford from Osney. The cathedral has the name of Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxoniensis, given to it by Henry VIII's foundation charter.
There has been a choir at the cathedral since 1526, when John Taverner was the organist and also master of the choristers. The statutes of Wolsey's original college, initially called Cardinal College, mentioned 16 choristers and 30 singing priests.
Christ Church Cathedral is one of the smallest cathedrals in the Church of England. The nave, choir, main tower and transepts are late Norman. There are architectural features ranging from Norman to the Perpendicular style and a large rose window of the ten-part (i.e. botanical) type.