With the new year upon us, and the festive break about to come to a close we took a short break this weekend in nearby Chichester. The forecast for the weekend was good, but such promises are there to be broken.
Yesterday (Saturday) was fine. Bright skies, if something of a sharp chill in the air. We spent the day in Chichester itself, one of England's major cathedral cities. I've put a small set of photos up on Flickr, but I'll include a couple of the highlights here. The Cathedral is old. Building commenced in 1076 and was completed by 1108. As ever, there have been additions but that makes the main cathedral 900 years old. This first picture is one of two 12th century frieze panels at Chichester Cathedral, depicting the story of Lazarus and Bethany. 
The cathedral manages to pull off the trick of mixing ancient and modern extremely effectively. This is one of the most recent commissions:
Christ in Judgement by Philip Jackson
And the altar tapestries are startling in their use of colour.
As with all buildings, the cathedral hasn't avoided the (not so) modern curse of graffiti. This in one of the outside passageways:
But they do seem to cast a benevolent eye on photographers…
Unknown photographer under the watchful eyes of St Richard
Part 2 will be the wildlife entry and includes an impromptu version of swan lake on ice 😉
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens. All the interiors were taken without flash, and with moderately long (hand-held) exposures.
Dudley
4 Jan 2009"Watchful eyes of St Richard" is a great capture. :up:
gdare
5 Jan 2009Yes, the last one is excellent. Thanks for the info about cathedral 🙂
Flying Red Fox Blog
5 Jan 2009Wow you visited the next town along from me lol 😀 Nice photos Words, we must have passed each other while i was on the way to Worthing!
Words
5 Jan 2009Darko thanks!
Words
5 Jan 2009Mark, thanks. Yes, I saw the signs to Bognor as we got near Chichester. I have to say I was impressed with how easy it is to find your way around Chichester town centre. Four main streets named North, South, East and West. Nice :up:
Words
5 Jan 2009Andy, I couldn't resist that shot 😉
Flying Red Fox Blog
5 Jan 2009Yep, did you go down all the way on east Street? if you do that then you could have seen the Saturday market. 🙂
Words
5 Jan 2009We went some of the way down East Street… but not quite to the end. I did pop into Jessops and got myself a pair of small binoculars in the sales though :eyes:
cakkleberrylane
5 Jan 2009Very enjoyable series. It would be very interesting to know the story of the graffiti. People never change, do they? 😆
SittingFox
5 Jan 2009Interesting series :up: I've never really been round Chichester, although I went to the planetarium there a couple of years ago. The cathedral is magnificent and the last shot is great!
Enjoy your new binoculars :eyes:
Words
5 Jan 2009Lois, yes the ancient art of graffiti. Elegantly carved, though 😉
Words
5 Jan 2009Adele, I've driven through and to a few times, but never looked around. A nice city and the cathedral is welll worth a visit.
Words
11 Jan 2009Cynthia, I'm not familiar with that book, sorry. But 'the writing's on the wall' goes back to the Bible, so definitely not a modern problem.
Cynthia23
11 Jan 2009Lovely photos! Ummm, there is book about the need for man to write his name on wall. Oh, what is the name of this book? It was written maybe within the past 20-30 years. Oh, it talks of the alienation one feels in present society. Maybe you know this work I am talking about?
Cynthia23
11 Jan 2009Yes, of course, but I am talking about a more recent piece. I will look in my notes and tell you the title later. 🙂
Words
11 Jan 2009Thanks!