Llandaff Cathedral is the seat of the
Church in Wales Bishop of Llandaff, situated in the suburb of
Llandaff in the city of
Cardiff, the capital of
Wales. It is dedicated to
Saint Peter and
Saint Paul, and also to three
Welsh saints:
Dyfrig,
Teilo and
Euddogwy, and is one of two cathedrals in Cardiff, the other being the
Roman Catholic cathedral in the city centre.
Medieval history
There is evidence for
Celtic Christian worship on the site the
cathedral from the 6th century
and the original church is said to have been built by Saint Teilo on the bank of the
River Taff in 560. After his death, his shrine became a place of
pilgrimage. The monastic settlement survived for many centuries before the establishment of the
diocese of Llandaff at some point shortly after 1020.
thumb|left|Inside Llandaff Cathedral The
Normans occupied
Glamorgan early, and appointed
Urban their first bishop in 1107. He began construction of the cathedral in 1120 and had the remains of Saint
Dyfrig transferred from
Bardsey, but the work was not completed until 1290. The west front dates from 1220, and contains a statue of Teilo. Bishop
Henry de Abergavenny gave the cathedral its statutes. The Lady Chapel was built by
William de Braose, who was bishop from 1266 to 1287. Damage was done to the church in 1400, during the rebellion of
Owain Glyndŵr, and his forces destroyed the Bishop's Palace at Llandaff. However, most of the other damage was repaired notably by
Bishop Marshall whose reredos partly survives, and the north-west tower (the one without a spire) was added by
Jasper Tudor, and is now named after him. He assumed the lordship of Cardiff after the accession to the throne of his nephew, King
Henry VII of England. Late medieval tombs include that of Sir David Mathew.
During the
English Civil War, the cathedral was overrun by Parliamentarian troops, and by 1720 the southwest tower was in a state of collapse. In 1734, work began on a new cathedral, nicknamed the "Italian Temple", which was used for a hundred years but never completed and of which only a few stones remain.
Victorian and modern history
During the 19th century, when the Bishop of Llandaff began, for the first time for centuries, to reside in Llandaff, the cathedral was extensively restored, the tower rebuilt and a spire added. Much of the restoration work was completed by local architect
John Prichard between 1843 and 1869. A
triptych by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was designed for use as a
reredos, and new
stained glass windows were designed by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones and
Ford Madox Brown. The office of
Dean was separated from that of the
Archdeacon of Llandaff in November 1843. The
cathedral school which existed from the time of the Elizabethan
Bishop Blethyn until about 1700 was re-established by Dean Vaughan in 1880.
thumb|left|Sir Jacob Epstein's "Christ in Majesty"
On the evening of 2 January 1941 during
World War II the cathedral was severely damaged when a
landmine was dropped near it during the
Cardiff Blitz, blowing the roof off the
nave, south aisle and chapter house. The top of the spire also had to be reconstructed and there was also damage to the
organ. Of British cathedrals, only
Coventry Cathedral was damaged more, during the infamous
Coventry Blitz.
Major restorations and reconfigurations were carried out under architect
George Pace of York, and the building was back in use in June 1958. The
Queen attended a service celebrating the completion of the restoration on
6 August 1960. The
Welch Regiment memorial chapel was constructed, and Sir
Jacob Epstein created the figure of Christ in Majesty which is suspended above the nave on a concrete arch designed by
George Pace.
In February 2007 the cathedral suffered a severe
lightning strike. Particular damage was caused to the electrics of the
organ, which was already in poor condition. This prompted the launch, on 13 July 2007 (the 50th anniversary of the re-
hallowing of the nave following the wartime damage), of an appeal to raise
£1.5 million for the construction of an entirely new organ.
Music
The cathedral has the traditional Anglican
choir of boys and men, and more recently a girls' choir, with the only dedicated choir school in the Church in Wales,
The Cathedral School, Llandaff.
[ The Roman Catholic Cardiff Cathedral also has a choir school] In addition, the parish choir sings at the weekly Parish
Eucharist, and is a mixed choir of boys, girls, men and women. Women were only allowed to sing in the choir from 2005 onwards.
The most recent organ was installed after the wartime damage, and was never entirely satisfactory, even before the lightning damage. Originally it had been planned to install a new organ at that time, but the costs of about 1 million pounds were deemed to be too high in the austere climate of post-war Britain. Work on installing the new organ, by the Nicholson's of Malvern firm of organ builders, was scheduled to start in Autumn 2008 and be completed in 18 months. This is believed to be the largest entirely new organ for a British cathedral since that for Coventry.
A specification can be seen
here.
The cathedral has a
ring of twelve bells (with an additional "flat sixth", to make thirteen in total) hung for
change-ringing, located in the Jasper tower. The current bells were installed in 1992, replacing a previous ring of ten.
List of organists
- 1876 Charles Lee Williams
- 1894 George Galloway Beale
- 1946 Albert Vernon Butcher
- 1950 Eric Arthur Coningsby
- 1955 Charles Kenneth Turner
- 1957 Eric Howard Fletcher
Assistant organists
