Gargoyle Thumbs - Ely Intro   

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• Introduction to Ely Cathedral
• Background
• Ground plan of the cathedral
• Big detailed ground plan of the cathedral
• A guided tour
• List of the areas I've divided the gargoyles pictures into

It has taken HOURS and HOURS and HOURS of work to get this far, so please be patient. There will be more soon, and I intend to go back sometime to do some more pics.

Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, UK.

This is the bee's knees for the East Anglia area, possibly the UK, a veritable panoply of gargoyles and grotesques of all sorts and ages. I have never (yet) seen so many in one place, nor such a variety.

One of the remarkable things is that old ones are being continually replaced as they become weathered beyond any kind of recognition. This means opportunities for modern day stone carvers to indulge in a huge range of sizes and several styles. This is a living place for gargoyles, not rooted in the past but changing over the ages, thankfully very tastefully in terms of style. Sometimes not so tastefully in subject matter, but definitely in keeping with the feeling of the place, witness the modern nose-picker (good variation on a medieval theme).

It is also quite an amazing cathedral in its own right. Here's a front view, and a very pretty picture of the front right to show you just some of that beauty, and keep you going before tackling the next wodge of verbiage. However, if you want to skip the (jolly interesting) wittering, click here for the ground plan or click here for the start of the guided tour or click here for the first lot of gargoyles

More Wittering

Ely was one of the few seriously major, if not THE major religious centre in medieval times in England. The Saxons started it, then the Normans continued, and by medieval times it was mega. Unlike some religious places it has a wonderful feel to the place, somehow friendly and homely despite its vastness, so my companion said. I didn't even get a chance to go inside myself, there was just so much to see outside. I did hear some pretty impressive singing echoing round, and have heard so much about the interior that I'll have to go in next time.

In architectural terms the current building(s) was big to begin with, then was added to and extended upwards. The nave and West Tower are huge, and the Octagon is a major feat of engineering in itself (wood and lead and lots of it). The inside, from what I've gleaned from pictures and a documentary is simply stunning. The documentary by the way, was dear old Fred Dibnah, the UK's most famous steeplejack and hammer-oriented engineer, waxing lyrical about columns, pressure loads and the structure of the Octagon and how it might have been built, a couple of weeks ago in Feb2002. A rare thing for a traction engine mender, I think he's getting sentimental in his old-ish age.

The outside's stunning too, I burned up 3 films in fewer hours and was cursing it being Sunday with not a replacement in sight (at least not near such an important cathedral on a Sunday). These many pictures represent maybe half or less of what's there. I have, just have, to go back with more time and lots more film. I think you'll probably have guessed I reckon it's worth a visit.
Photos Jul 2001 (mostly 200 & 500mm lens, some 70mm on a happy snapper camera)

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The Ground Plan

You really need to see a plan of the cathedral to explain where the individual gargoyles are. It's a bit confusing because the thing is not symmetrical - the left hand porch thing fell down at some point, and the Lady Chapel was tacked on one corner. A plan is below, and a rough scheme of where the gargoyles and grotesques are placed. There are some completely made up abbreviations for the broad areas they're found in (I've only listed the left side, right are the same). If I ever get time, I'll do a fancy click-on-the-map thingy to click and leap directly there, one day ("in your dreams, buddy", given the current rate of progress).

Ok, that's the basic plan but if you're interested in more information there is a better one, more detailed and accurate, complete with what looks like the ceiling vaultings and notes in the margin. It's nearly 300kb even after serious compression so you'd better have a fast modem, click here for a much bigger version of the ground plan. (Many thanks, Erin).

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The Guided Tour

The pictures are almost in the order in which I took them. So, imagine standing outside facing the front door and walking round the building clockwise... so LH (Left Hand) is the first bit you walk past (after the front of course, silly). I.e. you walk Front, LHfront, LHback, RHback, RHfront, and back to Front (especially if you're me). Since Christian churches are arranged so that the altar is East, the tower is usually West and main entrance door is at the west (but may be on the north, south or west side of the tower) depending on which is more convenient for local access to roads, pubs, horse parks, etc). In Ely, the door's on the west.

Here are the areas I divided the gargoyles into:

• Frontage Right = to right of main door on front wall facing you, no gargoyles but it has lots of masks, new and old.
• Frontage Left = to left of door on front wall facing you (most of this is missing).
• Front LH Tower = very high up on left side of West Tower i.e. to left of door
• LH Front Side = side wall to left of door at front of building.
• LH Octagon = left side of the Octagon which sits above the centre of the transept. Nasty winged demons on this bit.
• LH Transept = the sticky-out-to-the-sides blocky building that divides the front of the cathedral from the back of it, as we lay people say. The gargoyles are on the towers.
• LH Lady Chapel Turrets = a series of little towers or turrets along the length of the Lady Chapel with grotesques (no plumbing here) all up the sides and edges of them, lots of interesting modern stuff amongst the old.
• Back Lady Chapel = er, well, the back of the Lady Chapel, a few on the corners.
• Back Right Lady Chapel = the back corner of the Lady Chapel and along the right hand side of it. It's here that I realised the enormity of the task of photographing everything, and had to sit down for a while, a pleasant grassy spot.
• Back Left = Back left hand side of the main cathedral building i.e. north of the choir and altar inside. Loads of big ones on towers, walls, buttresses, everywhere. I ran out of film for the big lens.
• Back Right = Back right hand side of the main cathedral building i.e. south of the choir and altar inside. Again, loads of big ones on towers, walls, buttresses, everywhere. Happy snapper pics, some enlarged but most are inevitably poor quality as a result. Along here is the (shhhh, the kids might be listening) nose picker (tee hee).
• RH Transept = the other half of the sticky-out-to-the-sides blocky building that divides the front of the cathedral from the back of it. Poor gargoyle hunting, some very high on the towers.
• RH Front Side = side wall to right of main door at front of building, i.e. south of nave. Unfortunately I couldn't see a way to get close enough to this for pictures. There is a covered walkway along the wall, which I think would block the view from the ground unless you were in the Bishops Garden, and I hadn't been invited in there, worst luck, not that I ever will be, pity.
• Bishops Garden Gate = a couple of traditional medieval style simple gargoyles low down on the gate.
• Front RH Tower = very high up on right side of West Tower i.e. to right of main door, but no film left at all so no pictures yet.

Other bits, some surrounding buildings:

• Beyond Bishops Garden = a long detour round the Bishops Garden, some tied houses (with gargoyles), a castle-like gate house (with gargoyles), and back towards the cathedral along the road past more tied houses (with gargoyles). Most of the gargoyles were too far for the happy snapper camera.
• Beyond Lady Chapel = a few cottages / tied houses near the Lady Chapel, amazingly with gargoyles, but too far for the happy snapper camera.
• Old Palace = a building just nearby the main door but across the road. It has a couple of jolly impressive gargoyles of its own (luckily I took these first).

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