Saturday, December 18, 2010

Saint John the Baptist's Church, Bollington, Cheshire

A beautiful picture of this Commissioner's Church of 1832-34 by Hayley and Brown. It is sad to hear that St Johns is to be declared redundant and sold.
It is built of Hammer-dressed buff sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof. The church has a 5-bay nave, short chancel, west tower and small vestry at the east. Bays of nave, divided by set-back buttresses, have tall splayed 2-light windows with Y-tracery, under a continuous label mould. Embattled parapets. Nave ends in octagonal buttresses with pointed finials. Similar buttresses to chancel which has a triple lancet window. The four-staged tower has similar corner buttresses and on flanking walls. Rebated pointed west doorcase has a 3-light window with intersecting tracery above. 3rd stage has a clock and 4th stage louvred bell openings similar to nave windows. Embattled top.

The interior has galleries on three sides, erected in 1854, which have lancet moulded panels, and are supported on clusters of 4 thin iron columns.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand


Roman Catholic Cathedral
Originally uploaded by d.jones
Following news of the earthquake this week, I was checking pictures of the cathedrals in Christchurch. I found this picture of the astonishing interior of the Blessed Sacrament Basilica. It was built 1901-5 to the designs of Francis Petre. Early reports say that the building has not been damaged to any great extent.

POSTSCRIPT The cathedral was shut after the September earthquake as a precaution , but the huge quake of 22 February 2011 brought down the two west towers, and cracks have appeared in the central dome. It was feared the cathedral was in imminent danger of collapse but hopefully now (April 2011) careful dismantling of the most dangerous sections which is likely to include the dome will mean stabilisation and reconstruction can be done and much of the cathedral can be saved.
Of course the Anglican cathedral, Christchurch, was also severely damaged and its landmark steeple collapsed. It is hoped the main church can be saved in any restoration and the city has vowed to rebuild the spire.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Jolo Cathedral, Philippines


CATHOLICISM
Originally uploaded by PINOY PHOTOGRAPHER
What an odd looking building, discovered on a flickr search today because of news that this cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of the Mount Carmel was damaged yet again in a grenade explosion earlier today (10th January 2010) which damaged window panes. this is the fourth attack in under a year.

On 31st December 2009, a grenade also exploded in front of the Cathedral, wounding one government soldier guarding it. On October 27, a grenade was lobbed by an unidentified man at the back of the cathedral and the explosion damaged several windows and a homemade bomb was detonated in front of the cathedral in June 2009, killing six people.

For years, soldiers and policemen have been guarding the cathedral because of threats of attacks against priests and nuns. In 1997, Abu Sayyaf militants shot dead Sulu Bishop Benjamin de Jesus as he was walking in front of the cathedral.