Nave and Scissor Arches, Wells Cathedral, England, 1950s

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Nave and Scissor Arches, Wells Cathedral, England, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Wells Cathedral, Somerset, England

Nave and Scissor Arches, Wells Cathedral, England, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-EFE1E4

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Someone stood dead center in the nave and pointed the camera straight down the aisle, which is what every visitor to an English Gothic cathedral has done since cameras were invented, on the theory that symmetry photographs itself. The clustered piers march off in perfect Purbeck-marble rows, built by masons who had never seen a photograph and would not have cared if they had, because the geometry was aimed at God, not Kodak.

Far off, where the nave gives way to the crossing, the famous scissor arches interrupt the view, two inverted stone Xs wedged in during the fourteenth century as an emergency brace after the central tower started leaning on its foundations. It was considered a drastic, faintly embarrassing fix at the time. Six hundred years on, tourists assume it was always meant to look that dramatic.

The visitor with the camera has caught the cathedral at its quietest, empty enough that the small electric lamps along the piers actually register as points of light rather than being swallowed by a crowd. That kind of solitude in the nave was still ordinary in the 1950s, before coach parties and rope barriers made it a managed experience rather than a private one.

The historian's note

Wells Cathedral in Somerset, England, was built primarily between 1175 and 1490 and is regarded as one of the purest examples of Early English Gothic architecture. The nave, with its ranks of clustered piers and stiff-leaf carved capitals, was largely complete by the early thirteenth century.

The distinctive scissor, or strainer, arches at the crossing were inserted around 1338 by master mason William Joy after subsidence in the foundations of the central tower threatened structural collapse. The inverted arch design, unusual in English cathedral architecture, redistributed the load and has held for nearly seven centuries.

By the 1950s Wells Cathedral remained an active seat of the Diocese of Bath and Wells and a significant stop on the postwar revival of British domestic and overseas tourism, its uncrowded interior typical of the period before mass coach tourism transformed access to the site.

Subjects & keywords — each links to a search

cathedral nave·Gothic architecture·symmetrical composition·vanishing point perspective·vaulted ceiling·Wells Cathedral·Somerset England·1950s Britain·architectural photography wall print·scissor arches·stone columns·interior light·medieval engineering·religious heritage research·quiet solitude

Wells Cathedralstructure · depicts

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Particulars

Creator: Unattributed
Date: 1950–1959
Place: Wells Cathedral, Somerset, England — view down the nave toward the crossing and its scissor (strainer) arches
Subject: Nave of Wells Cathedral with scissor arches
Original format: jpg
Original held: Yes, by the archive
Rights: Open