Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

This cathedral represents multiple periods of construction and reconstruction, incorporating medieval origins with 18th-century interventions, Victorian restoration, and post-Second World War rebuilding following bomb damage in 1941.

Materials and Construction

The surviving medieval fabric is primarily built in Dundry stone brought from Somerset, supplemented with local blue lias and Sutton stone. Internally, Purbeck marble features throughout. Post-Reformation additions employed lias alongside Chipping Camden and Bath limestones, with some red Radyr sandstone used in the Chapter House. The post-Second World War reconstruction introduced concrete faced with glacial pebbles and Pennant sandstone. The roofs combine Welsh slates and lead, almost entirely replaced following wartime bomb damage.

Plan and Layout

The cathedral follows a plan comprising a nave with north and south aisles and paired west towers. The choir sits within the nave, leading to a sanctuary with ambulatory. The Lady Chapel projects partly within the main body of the church. On the south side stands the Chapter House, while on the north St. David's Chapel connects via the Processional Way to the Prebendal House.

West Front and Towers

The west front, with its gabled termination to the nave, exemplifies Early English architecture. It is flanked by the north-west (or Jasper) tower, which is almost entirely Perpendicular in character, and the south-west tower, which is predominantly Victorian in execution. This composition follows the West Country style, comparable to that seen at Llantony Priory in Monmouthshire.

The ground stage features a large central doorway positioned well above the nave floor level. This doorway has an arched head with continuous chamfered outline, colonnettes and dripmould. The door itself has a double-lobed head with a carved bishop in the key position. Above rises a triple-arched stage, higher in the centre with tight blind arches between. The gable contains a stepped arcade with central window and a trefoil-headed niche above, crowned by a cross.

To the right of the central doorway stands the south-west tower stair-turret featuring slits and a continuous mould. The north-west tower rises in three stages with full-height stepped buttresses, strings and an octagonal stair-turret. These buttresses were described in 1842 as having been "added in modern times" and may have been added by Wood around 1735 to strengthen the tower following the major collapse of 1722. A print made before the damage shows the tower without buttresses, while post-damage prints show them in place. The ground stage contains a three-light Victorian window. Above, on each face, are a two-light and then a three-light window repeating the ground stage arrangement, but these are late 15th century in date. The battlemented parapet that existed in 1842 (described then as "a mean and modern battlement") was replaced by an elaborate filigree crown of the Somerset type by John Prichard, modelled on examples at St. Stephen's, Bristol, and St. John's, Cardiff. The battlements had themselves replaced a similar crown following storm damage in 1703.

The south-west tower also has three stages but is Early English in character with gabled niches on the buttresses. Two-light windows feature in each stage, with windows on all faces at the top stage. A corbel table supports a pierced finialled parapet, above which rises a tall stone spire with corner pinnacles and lucarnes on the main faces at the base.

South Side of Nave

The south side of the nave extends for eight bays separated by stepped buttresses. The aisle windows are three-light with reticulated heads. The second bay from the left contains the Norman south door with four recessed orders featuring extensive dog-tooth ornament and zig-zag decoration. Timber lattice outer doors protect a plank door behind. The clerestorey has large paired lancets with strip pilasters between and a corbel table above, all designed by Prichard and Seddon based on limited surviving evidence.

The south door is possibly reset, though when and from where remains unknown. It stands directly opposite the north door, maintaining the proper Norman relationship, though it would be surprising if the Norman cathedral was as large as this placement suggests. Both doors were recorded in their present positions in 1842, before Victorian restoration. An 1842 account noted: "On the south side all is in ruins to the fifth compartment of the nave and its aisle--from thence to the chapter house the aisle is entire... Though the south porch is gone, the door-way which it covered is still perfect, and is a most beautiful example of the richest Norman work."

All features on this side sustained bomb blast damage in 1941 and were repaired soon after the Second World War. The nave roof has a very steep pitch, considerably steeper than before 1703. This treatment repeats on the north side of the nave, except that the second and third bays are largely covered by St. David's Chapel, while the Norman north door is now entirely an internal feature.

Sanctuary and East End

The sanctuary extends for two bays and is clearly of earlier date and character, though evidence of the Norman church survives only internally. The aisle windows continue the pattern of the north aisle windows, with two-light windows in the clerestorey above. An exception occurs in the south aisle wall next to the Chapter House, where a five-light window with segmental head and reticulated tracery appears, alongside an arched doorway into the aisle (this last is Victorian). A roundel occupies the east gable wall above the Lady Chapel roof. Gable verges and apex cross complete the composition. The roofline continues through from the nave, and the roof structure is wholly the work of Prichard and post-Second World War reconstruction, when the chancel arch was lowered and the external division of the roof removed.

The first bay of the sanctuary on the south side is covered by the Chapter House. This structure is square in plan transitioning to octagonal, though the upper floor and characteristic pointed roof were entirely reconstructed around 1850 and again after bomb damage around 1950. Built of rubble stone with corner buttresses, it features lancet windows, some paired on the upper storey, and a bell-cast roof. This last feature is post-Second World War, as the entire roof structure was destroyed by the bomb.

The east end has a three-light window in each aisle, followed by the projecting three-bay Lady Chapel. This chapel has a large five-light window with Geometric tracery in the east end, the first element restored by Prichard and dating from around 1844. The side walls feature three two-light windows with trefoil heads. The 15th-century type low-pitched roof with battlemented parapets and corner pinnacles is actually a Prichard alteration made necessary by his heightening of the sanctuary.

St. David's Chapel

The final external feature is St. David's Chapel, dating from 1953 to 1956 and designed by George Pace. This covers the second and third bays of the north side of the nave and projects to an unlit apsed end for the altar. The east wall has continuous glazing at high level, descending to low level as well at the altar end. The west wall has full-height glazing. All glazing is divided into narrow lights with concrete mullions and occasional transoms. Smoothly faced parapets rise above rubble walling, concealing the roof. The chapel is reached through the Norman north door of the cathedral and forms part of the Processional Way continuing to the Prebendal House.

Interior

The west door leads immediately to a flight of six steps descending to the nave floor. Before restoration, the floor appears to have been four steps below the door. The roofed space continues for ten bays, though it is divided into nave and choir by concrete parabolic arches carrying a cylinder containing organ pipes and fronted by Sir Jacob Epstein's "Christ in Majesty" of 1957. There are four bays of larger piers followed by smaller ones which are evidently slightly earlier, though all are Early English in type. The division between them marks the position of the west front of John Wood's "temple" (see History). Most of the work at this level is medieval, but the clerestorey is almost wholly by Prichard, while the compartmented timber ceiling is by George Pace, completed in 1955. The divisions number 24 by 5 with an extra half on either side.

Most of the fine Prichard and Seddon fittings were destroyed by the bomb. Some fragments of the choir stalls were re-incorporated, but the remainder are almost all by Pace, including the 1957 pulpit. The Pre-Raphaelite glass and other decorations were not in the cathedral at the time of the bombing and thus escaped destruction. The east window over the sanctuary arch contains glass designed by John Piper and made by Patrick Reyntiens in 1959. The font dates from 1952 and was designed by Allan Durst.

The south aisle was largely reconstructed post-Second World War and has a Pace-designed plaster ceiling. The choir has Pace-designed stalls reusing parts of the Prichard and Seddon originals, though the Bishop's Throne by Prichard and Seddon survives intact.

Monuments and Memorials

Many fine monuments survive, both medieval examples such as that to Bishop Marshall (died 1496) and memorials to important late 19th-century bishops including Alfred Ollivant (died 1882) by H. H. Armstead and Richard Lewis (died 1909) by Goscombe John. The Lady Chapel contains a memorial to George Pace, cathedral architect from 1949 to 1975.

Stained Glass

Much glass in the choir aisles is by Burne-Jones and Morris and Company, all of which was removed for safety during the war. The earliest is the 1866 east window in the south aisle, given by John Prichard and his sisters in memory of their parents who are buried immediately outside, as is Prichard himself. This was the first window in the cathedral to be ordered from Morris and Company.

Special Features

The south choir aisle contains the Celtic cross discovered by Bishop Ollivant in the Palace dairy well in 1870. The Lady Chapel has a Perpendicular reredos restored in 1933 and painted stencil patterns over the walls and vaults executed by Geoffrey Webb in 1909.

The Chapter House has four quadripartite vaults carried on a central shaft with a water-holding base. The upper room was entirely reconstructed by Pace. The village school was held there during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Norman north door of the cathedral has three recessed orders of zig-zag moulding on the outer face, now situated within the Processional Way which passes through pointed side arches by St. David's Chapel to the Prebendal House. The chapel, completed in 1956, was entirely fitted and furnished by Pace and serves as the Welch Regiment Memorial Chapel.