Exeter Cathedral plays a significant role in Plague of a Green Man, the second of my Lady Apollonia West Country Mysteries, set in 1380. The Lady, my heroine, is given a tour of the cathedral as part of the story. Although they are not mentioned in my story, the bishop’s throne and the east window of the cathedral were there in 1380 and have survived to the present, even after the German bombing of Exeter in World War II.
The bishop’s throne was carved in oak in the early 14th century, and at 59 feet high, is the largest in England. In the 1989 photo on the left, I am shown sitting next to the bishop’s seat, within the throne with one of the cathedral vergers sitting on it. The oak timber from which the throne is carved came from the estates of the Dean and Chapter in the parish of Newton St Cyres in Devon and was immersed in the mill-ponds there for three to four weeks to help season it before bringing it to Exeter. Today the throne lacks the brilliant colours with which it would have been painted in medieval times. Much of the carving depicts the flora of Devon, but there are two human heads carved on the southern arch-cusp at the back of the throne which may well represent the carver and his wife, a fitting signature for a true artist who was probably illiterate.
The bishop’s throne would have been destroyed by the high explosive bomb which struck the nearby Saint James Chapel during a German raid in 1942 but the cathedra staff had taken precautions before the war. The throne had been taken apart like a three-dimensional puzzle, and each piece was carefully labelled before being removed to Dartmoor for safe keeping. After the war, the parts of the throne were retrieved from their hiding place and returned to Exeter. Unfortunately, all the labels had been eaten away, probably by rodents, so there were no instructions to reassemble it. Fortunately, the workman discovered that the original medieval carver had cut Roman numerals into facing pieces to match them up and enabled the throne to be reassembled to its original state as we see it today.
Much of the east window of the cathedral contains surviving medieval stained glass dating to the 14th century or earlier. All of the stained glass would have been destroyed in the German air raid had not the same precautions been taken to remove it and store it in safety. Much of the Victorian stained glass, installed in the 19th century restoration of the cathedral, was destroyed in that raid.
The medieval glazing of the east window is in pot-metal which is tinctured with metal oxides and coloured throughout, not just on the surface. Details were then drawn on the glass with dark brown paint and brown wash. There are nine lights containing figures in the lowest tier of the east window, seven in the next tier, and three in the top tier. Some of the figures are from the early 14th century but also include Biblical figures from the Old Testament.
Tags: Chaucer's England, historical fiction, medieval mysteries