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26th January 2009
Browns Restore Cathedral After Bomb Damage
Manchester Cathedral is currently running an exhibition regarding the restoration of the Cathedral which was undertaken by Browns over an 11year period after the war. The exhibition is on display until mid March 2009. Below is a summary of the remarkable story
Over three days on the eve of Christmas 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed Manchester in a series of air raids that brought havoc to the city. On the early morning of 23rd December, a landmine exploded a few feet away from the east wall of Manchester Cathedral. The damage was devastating.
The Lady Chapel was completely destroyed, the Regimental Chapel was reduced to a ruin and the Choir was wrecked. With the exception of Coventry Cathedral, Manchester Cathedral had suffered the most extensive damage of all the churches in England.
However, all was not lost! The Humphrey Chetham memorial, remarkably escaped unhurt except for a large chip in his knee, the little boy lost his foot but was also otherwise undamaged. The image of them both sitting serenely amongst the rubble, a symbol of quiet determination in the face of ruin, was to be used to good effect in launching an appeal for £100,000 to fund reconstruction.
Dean Garfield Williams was adamant that only Manchester should rebuild its ruined Cathedral, if the city could demonstrate its desire to do so, writing "If she is to rise from her ruins it must be because the Manchester of today still wants her to be the centre of its life".
The monumental task of restoring the Cathedral commenced soon after the war, but would take over a decade of painstaking and delicate work.
A huge team of skilled and dedicated local artisans and craftsmen was engaged to undertake the work under the direction of the Cathedral architect, Hubert Worthington. Masons and stone-carvers, carpenters, joiners, and wood-carvers, plumbers, lead-casters and glaziers, blacksmiths, heating engineers, electricians, and organ-builders, pile-drivers, and concretors, all contributed to this remarkable project.
At one point in the reconstruction there were over 50 men engaged in the Regiment Chapel alone, and their average age was only 27. These included 17 apprentices. The Craftsmens Roll is on display in the exhibition case, its pages have been copied and are available to look through.
The restoration team was led by the building firm of L. Brown & Sons of Wilmslow, specialists in restoration and renovation since 1860. Its Chairman was James Brown, who was 80 when the bomb hit the Cathedral. For him, the catastrophe presented an opportunity. "This Blitz has given me a new lease of life; I have something to live for, to get the old place right again". James Brown was known locally as the "Oak King". His knowledge and stock of English Oak, and his wisdom and experience in all matters relating to craftsmanship in oak, were unsurpassed. He died in his 87th year, just as the restoration work had begun, but had seen the crowning work of his life on its way.
The Choir took four years to repair at a cost of £22,000. The work had to proceed by instalments as timber became available.
The oak ceiling of the Choir had had a severe shaking, its beams were cracked, and the minor ribs that subdivided the ceiling into 192 panels, together with the traceried panels themselves, were completely shattered. 192 new oak panels, each approximately three feet square, had to be fitted into the ancient beams of the choir roof. The repair of these called for the highest skill, for the roof tapers on plan, so no two panels were the same.
If you look carefully, you can see the new parts are lighter than the original. The new wood has not been darkened to match the old oak but has been left to weather gradually.
The Choir Stalls
The choir stalls leaned perilously at an angle of sixty degrees with all the solid panels blown. They were carefully pushed back into the perpendicular position, the exquisite canopies of the matchless choir-stalls, were gravely injured. Thousands of pieces of wood had to be let into the elaborate canopies of the choir stalls.
The canopies of the stalls which were shaken and splintered had to be reassembled. Thousands of small pieces were let in to these elaborate canopies so skilfully that they can hardly be detected. (The repair work was very intricate.)
The Manchester Regiment Chapel
The Chapel was among the most severely damaged parts of the Cathedral. A fine team of craftsmen got to work; pile drivers, masons, carpenters, and joiners, carvers in wood and stone, lead casters, heating engineers for the floor heating, electricians, weavers, blacksmiths and glaziers, each contributing to the final result. At one point in the reconstruction there were over 50 men engaged in the chapel alone, and their average age was only 27. These included 17 apprentices.
Not all the bomb damage was detrimental to the Cathedral. When the workmen started on the Regimental Chapel roof, they made a surprising discovery. The destroyed roof had been "rather fake" according to the Cathedral architect Hubert Worthington. It had been made of pitch-pine and plaster and had taken the place of the medieval one. Thanks to the bombing, the "fake" was able to be replaced by a brand new roof, made from the finest quality English Oak.
The work also had the added interest of reviving an ancient craft - the casting of lead on a sand table, medieval style, in the churchyard outside. This had probably not been done anywhere since the eighteenth century.
The chapel was enclosed by contemporary oak screens. They were the Chapel’s pride. They were placed there early in the 16th C by Bishop Stanley of Ely and Sir John Stanley as a thanksgiving for safe return from the Battle of Flodden Field.
"The western screens have been repaired with a skill all the more fascinating because the lines of the grafting can be clearly seen. This is due to no lack of precision in this most intricate task but because the fresh oak like that in the choir roof had not been darkened in order to tone with the old oak but left to weather gradually."
In 1984, two Rentokil employees hired to treat woodworm infestation in the Cathedral roof made an astonishing discovery. Hidden in there was a message in a bottle left by three workmen who had been working on the restoration project. The message, with the words "for information to other workmen in years to come" was written on a ‘Day or Deviation Sheet’ from the builders L Brown & Sons, Wilmslow, and dated August 29, 1947. Also on the sheet were the names T. Jones (Knutsford), R. Bancroft (Alderley Edge) and R. Acton (Wilmslow).
The document revealed why work was being carried out on the Cathedral and other facts of great interest to the workmen - such as the price of beer! The list also contained details of hourly rates of pay for building workers in 1947: a joiner was paid two shillings. It also gave details of the fuel crisis and food rationing.
The men though were disappointed the message was discovered so soon. They believed the bottle would not be discovered for at least 100 years. Roy Acton explained: "We put the bottle there for posterity so that any workmen who did repairs on the building would find a piece of history." They asked for the bottle to be put back, with the hope "it will never be touched again for a thousand years."
On 16th Nov 1951, the Queen visited Manchester Cathedral to rededicate the newly restored Regiment Chapel. The Queen, who was Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment, also met some of the local craftsmen who had worked on restoring the Chapel, after the dedication ceremony.
Ted Jones, the foreman in charge of the restoration project, was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1957 in recognition of his work. He had worked on the project for 11 years and received the honour for displaying great skill and craftsmanship during the supervision of the Cathedral restoration. Living in Knutsford at the time, he received his award from Lord Leverhulme, the Queen’s Lord Lieutenant for Cheshire.
Ted Jones, originally from Chelford, was 44 at the time and married with two children, Brian, aged 13 and Patricia, 10. He had joined the building firm of L. Brown & Sons straight from school as an apprentice. During the war he had served with the Royal Engineers as a sapper. Restoring old buildings was also a hobby for Ted, during his spare time he helped with restoration work at his own parish church
