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Page Dr Philip Marshall ..................................................... 4 Life in Squares ......................................................... 4 From the Chapter Clerk ........................................... 5 Treats to Come ........................................................ 6 Forthcoming Events ................................................. 6

The Association of Friends of Lincoln Cathedral Exchequergate House.

18a Minster Yard Lincoln

LN2 1PX

01522 561648 Email: friends@lincolncathedral.com Web: www.friendsoflincolncathedral.co.uk

In This Issue: Page

North West Transept East Elevation Roofing Work 1 West Front Scaffolding ............................................ 2 Adam Wilcockson ................................................... 3 Friends’ Choral Scholar .......................................... 3 The Organ ............................................................... 4

Newsletter - Autumn 2015

`What is Happening in the Cathedral North West Transept East Elevation Roofing Work The roofing work on the North West Transept East Elevation is a three year project, in three phases. The current, second, phase of work has brought complex challenges, not least because this area houses the organ pipes, which run directly under the roof, only inches from the proposed working area.

Over the last 18 months there has been extensive consultation with the Precentor, the Music Department and Harrison and Harrison, (Organ Builders), about how best to proceed. The proposed scheme was referred to the Fabric Advisory Council, and final approval was given by the Cathedral’s Fabric Commission for England. The result was that in August 2015 a team from Harrison and Harrison spent a week removing the swell box which is due to be reinstalled by Christmas 2017. The pipes have been stored in the adjacent and recently completed first phase of roof work. The first two phases of work were split because the first phase had to be completed to provide the storage space for organ pipes.

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While this project is in progress the Music Department has taken the opportunity to carry out some necessary repairs to the organ. These repairs have been kindly financed by the Friends. The roof works, excluding the cost of dismantling and reinstalling the organ, have been awarded a major grant under the Government’s First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund. So, where are we now? With the organ pipes out, the lead workers and joiners have prepared the site and made it watertight. The next stage has been to create an internal hoarding at Triforium level to keep pigeons and dust out of the Cathedral. By the end of October the team will have stripped the lead and the roof boarding. Then comes the crucial conference between the Architect and the roofing team. The Architect has of course, already inspected the area and estimated the repairs, but it is only at this stage, when the roof has been opened, and any previously hidden areas have been revealed, that he can confirm the full extent of the repair work. Old roofs can hide nasty surprises. By the end of the year we hope to begin making repairs to the wall plate and rafters. The lead workers should be able to begin refitting the lead from late February 2016 onwards. For the third and final phase of this project the team will be moving round the corner to the North Choir Aisle. The whole project is scheduled to be complete by December 2017. The West Front Scaffolding The restoration of the southern run of the Romanesque Frieze on the West Front is part of Lincoln Cathedral Connected. For the next three months this area will be scaffolded. This will give access to allow us to examine it more closely, so that we can determine what is needed for the restoration work. The work will be subject to a rigorous consent process; we do not yet have a start date.

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The Friends’ Mason Adam Wilcockson continues to develop his skills; he has worked the large carved stone which is one of three to be fixed on the north west turret Carol M Heidschuster Works Manager

The Friends’ Choral Scholar Our Choral Scholar this year is Nic Beemster who is 27 and from the Netherlands. From the age of 8 he was a chorister in Utrecht Cathedral where his father is Director of Music. At 16 he joined the back row as a baritone. Whist studying physiotherapy at Utrecht University he belonged to the student choir and orchestra. Although a qualified physiotherapist it had been his childhood dream to sing in an English cathedral choir and so he applied to various cathedrals and was invited to an audition at Lincoln. He loves the city, the people and the cathedral and says he feels as if he “has fallen into a warm bath” because the people are so kind. He is enjoying his experience of singing works by English choral composers and his favourite is Herbert Howells.

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The Organ Important roof repairs in the North Choir Triforium are being undertaken and are likely to last for two years. Part of the Father Willis organ – the swell and the larger pedal stops – is installed there and is now moved into the Great North Transept, both to protect it and allow access to the roof. Obviously, this part of the organ is out of action, so we are adapting to a different and reduced instrument, making it effective in accompanying the choir, leading large services and playing organ voluntaries. I think we are all rising to the challenge made easier for us by the fine quality of the organ which remains. Choral services continue as usual with more or less the same repertoire and there will be the usual Messain’s “La Nativitee du Seigneur” of December 20th and organ concerts next year. Colin Walsh.. Organist Laureate

Dr Philip Marshall

“A ledger stone to the memory of Dr Philip Marshall was dedicated at Evensong on Saturday 13th June, in the

presence of many Friends and former Choristers”

Dr Marshall, who died in 2005, served as Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1966 until his retirement in 1986. He was a distinguished choir trainer as well as a brilliant organist, and his accompaniments and improvisations are fondly remembered by many. His legacy endures through his compositions, many of which are still performed in the Cathedral and beyond, and numerous recordings. The ledger stone is in the North Choir Aisle, near memorials to several of his predecessors, including that to William Byrd and was financed by The Friends.

Life in Squares

Members who watched the recent television series “Life in Squares” about the Bloomsbury Group

and Duncan Grant will be interested to know that he painted the murals in the Russell Chantry. It was

installed in 1956.

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As with many artists he used studies he had previously made of the people with whom he was

acquainted. On the west wall, to the left, is a group of three women and one child. They are

likenesses of Vanessa Bell, her and Duncan’s daughter Angelica and Anne Olivia Bell with her son,

Julian.

Vanessa herself said, “ I think they”, (the murals), “ looked lovely, most brilliant glowing colours, with

a view of Lincoln and the Italian ships with wool and Olivia, Angelica, Julian and I looking on at the

handsome young men.”

Some years later, in 1961, Paul Roche, who was the model for the painting of Christ the Good

Shepherd on the east wall, travelled again to Lincoln with Duncan Grant because he had not seen

the murals in situ. He had left England in 1954 and now returned with his wife and family.

As an old man in 1991 Paul remembered that his eye , “ by then had become very much alive to the

beautifully gentle power of his work, and the frescoes quite stunned me. The only sad thing was that

nobody was allowed into the Russell Chantry without special permission and the chapel itself

seemed to have been turned into a repository for mops and brushes. I don’t remember Duncan

being unduly depressed by this. With his amazing tolerance of all forms of human behaviour he

simply got on with living in the present and regaled me with a splendid luncheon in the White Hart

Hotel.”

Today we can all visit the Chantry and appreciate Duncan Grant’s glowing colours. His murals are indeed one of the treasures of the Cathedral Keith Jones From the Chapter Clerk. “I would like to let you know that the Dean has informed the Bishop and the members of Chapter that he will be retiring at the end of January 2016 having served nine years as Dean of this Cathedral. Lincoln Cathedral is blessed with an excellent team of staff and volunteers . To carry the work forward and hopefully the timing of this announcement will mean that a successor may be in place to lead the Cathedral into its exciting new future as Lincoln Cathedral Connected begins to take shape.” We wish the Dean and his wife, Linda, a long and happy retirement.

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Treats to come

On the evening of Saturday 18th June 2016 after our afternoon AGM, we propose to organise A

Concert for a Summer Evening in the Nave of the Cathedral.

It will largely feature the Cathedral Choir with a modest orchestra to augment our organ and soloists.

The programme will include the wonderful setting of the 23rd psalm by Philip Moore which the

Association commissioned for their 75th anniversary as well as a Handel Coronation Anthem, a

overture, two songs by Delius in the first half and Rutter’s glorious Magnificat in the second half.

Tickets will be £10. Do make a note in your diary for what promises to be a wonderful concert.

Further details will be printed in our February newsletter.

Forthcoming Events

Tuesday 17th November The Friends’ Feast for St. Hugh The Chapter Eucharist in the Cathedral 12.00 noon Lunch in the Assembly Rooms 1.15 pm (£16.50)

Wednesday16th December A Concert of Candles by Candlelight.7.30 p.m £10

(We have reserved a central block of tickets for members and recommend early booking as this is our most popular event and in the past two years has sold out two weeks before the event.)

Tea Time Talks (Tea and biscuits - 3.00 pm Talk - 3.30 p.m.)

Tuesday 3rd November Ms Linda Linda Tilbury The Eventful Life of Katherine Willoughby ‘This ancestor of the Friends' Patron, Lady Jane Willoughby, was first married to Henry Vlll's best friend, but her devotion to the Protestant Cause in the time of Queen Mary had dramatic consequences’ Tuesday 10th November Mrs Judi Jones . "Lincoln Cathedral during HenryVIII’s reign”.

Compiled by Keith Jones & Tony Ducker