3-003-726 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Archaeological Institute of Great Britain at Peterborough: entrance to the nave of the cathedral, by S. Read, 1861. 'The cathedral is a regular cruciform structure of Norman or Early English character...the nave [was built] by Abbot Benedict (a.d. 1177-1193)...The nave has its piers composed of shafts of good proportions and fine appearance, without that overwhelming heaviness which appears in buildings where the great circular piers are used...Though the general character of the architecture is Norman or Early English, great alterations have been made in later styles...The ceiling or inner roof of the nave and of the great transepts is painted wood...There are few monuments, shrines, or chantry chapels, the devastations of the Parliamentary troops having deprived the church of many of its ornaments of this class...The nave - the entrance to which forms the subject of our Engraving - is 81 ft. high, 78ft. broad, and 266 ft. long; the extreme length of the cathedral being about 479 ft., and its breadth 203 ft'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.