Mighty Cathedrals Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain

Britain is full of magnificent examples of architectural and engineering genius

that stand testament to the men who constructed it all

and, of course, the architects and engineers who designed it.

From great Norman cathedrals,

like Ely and Peterborough, right through to the Houses of Parliament,

we're going to be looking at mighty symbols of the progress made in construction and engineering.

What all these buildings have in common is the great range of craft skills

that went into designing, building and decorating them.

If it wasn't for their workmanship, graft and ingenuity,

we wouldn't have the glorious buildings we still have today.

This is the story of the craftsmen and their ingenious methods,

who spent all their working lives through the last 1,000 years

dedicated to the building of Britain.

Believe it or not, this is a cathedral.

This is the Saxon cathedral of St Peter's in Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex.

It was built 1,300 years ago, using stones from an old Roman fort

that had stood on this spot.

It's the only Saxon cathedral that still survives intact.

It isn't very big, is it?

It must be all of 50 foot long by 25 foot wide.

In fact, it's so small, it'd fit in my back garden.

Before the Norman Conquest, most Saxon churches were small like this.

But then, in 1066, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings

and everything changed.

After the Conquest, the Normans began to build on a scale that had never been seen before.

They erected stone castles to assert their power and authority,

and work began on a whole series of massive cathedrals around the country.

These cathedrals weren't just a tribute to God -

the Normans didn't want to leave anybody in any doubt about who was in charge down here on Earth!

What distinguishes these great Norman cathedrals from the Saxon buildings they replaced

is the great size and scale of them.

The Normans brought with them from France all the building techniques we see here today,

these magnificent, beautiful pillars and fine arches.

It needed a massive labour force to construct buildings of this size,

and the Normans more or less press-ganged the Anglo-Saxons into doing all the labouring.

It was bad enough being conquered, never mind doing the donkey work!

And the work was on such a different scale than anything they'd done before.

These were the largest buildings in England at the time.

Strength and simplicity are the main features of this style of building.

It's based on thick walls which give the whole thing a chunky look.

This huge expansion in the building trade

led to the building of some of our most magnificent cathedrals.

One or two haven't changed since they were built,

but the majority have been added to or messed about with over the years.

This is Peterborough and it's a good example of what I mean.

This wonderful west front was added at the beginning of the 13th century,

nearly 150 years after the Norman Conquest.

But once you get inside Peterborough,

you can see it's one of the finest and purest Norman cathedrals in all of England.

And here, in the main crossing, with its three tiers of Norman arches, with chevrons and fancy bits,

you get a real feeling of what Norman cathedrals are all about.

It's nearly 500 feet long and just slightly over 200 feet wide,

and to the top of the tower it's 143 feet.

The whole place gives you a feeling of something permanent and solid,

these three tiers of rounded arches, resting on magnificent stone pillars.

The great columns that support all the arches are not built of solid masonry,

but as tubes filled with rubble. A tube has more rigidity and it's lighter than a solid pillar

and it's quicker, cheaper and easier to build.

When you look at the surface of some of the stones,

there's these interesting masons' marks, and modern masons use them to this day.

In a way, it's a signature of the man who made that stone.

Any rough workmanship and they could nail him!

When the place were built, you wouldn't have been able to see any of these marks,

because the place were limewashed and painted, an example of which can be seen just up there.

The Normans built with semicircular or round arches, like the Romans used to do.

That's why sometimes they're called Norman and sometimes Romanesque.

The arch really is the main thing about all these cathedrals.

It did, basically, three things.

It saved material, it also looked very attractive

and it let lots of light flood in from the sides.

Of course, lots of people wonder how they built arches -

very simple, really.

You make a wooden framework, then build round it.

Take the frame away. If it's been built right, the arch will stay in place.

Success!

The more courses of brick or stone you build on top of this and the more weight that goes on it,

the more solid the whole thing becomes.

At least, that's the theory.

I'm going to sit on top of it and see what happens.

How's that?

That were an arch at ground level, bit of a disaster, really.

At least you get the basic idea of the principle of the arch.

If I'd used a bit more cement in the mortar, it would've stayed up.

Just behind me, up there, how did they go about building them three tiers of arches?

People sometimes think these builders had no machines, but that's not so.

Peterborough has a great windlass, or winding engine,

which was left in place inside the roof.

I've got someone who can tell us about this piece of machinery.

This is Zachary who is an expert in medieval engines and winching machines.

-Tell us all about this beautiful model that you've made of this particular thing behind us.

-Thanks.

It's known as a windlass.

I might suggest that it's really a hoist.

-A windlass has a vertical spindle...

-Like a horse gin?

-Exactly.

Whereas, this is a hoist,

but we can call it a windlass and oblige the people in the past.

My idea was that, as the wheel rotates,

the wheel being 10 feet in diameter, approximately, and the shaft is about a foot in diameter,

which means you have a 10-1 ratio.

That means that a 12-stone man would effectively be able to raise 15 hundredweights,

and, because of the principle of the rope going through the block and tackle

over the weight, and then back up to what I think was used -

the ring anchor - then that would double again the efficiency,

which means the 12-stone man could lift 30 hundredweights - 1½ tons.

Such a person, I've calculated, could lift that weight to 100 feet

in about a quarter of an hour. And then he would need a rest.

-Crack a bottle of wine open or summat like that!

-Indeed!

I suppose, when you look at the real thing, it's obvious, like you said,

-you'd pull it apart pretty quick.

-You could, because all of the joints were dowelled and nailed,

so it would've been easy to dismantle and move elsewhere.

Three chaps could take that apart in 15 minutes and take it to another part of the wall.

-They won't want to move these when they're up - they're too far horizontal.

-They'd be hard to move.

-They'd be getting them sat on the mortar pretty quick.

-Absolutely.

By the time the great Norman cathedrals were being built,

it was also a time of great change in the building industry -

new methods and ways of doing things.

The ribbed vaulting were quite a new invention.

It's very strong and here at Peterborough were one of the first places they actually used it.

It's basically a couple of arches that come together in the centre,

like the half-completed one I've got here in my garden.

In order to build a groined ceiling or a groined roof out of stone,

first of all you needed the centring, that's what this is here.

The centring is two wooden arches, one leaning on the other one.

When you started to lay the masonry around the bottom,

it was important that you kept it the same height all the way round,

so the weight on the centring stayed basically the same, as you might say.

The next bit is the exciting bit.

I'm going to knock this block of wood from underneath the centring

and, hopefully, the centring will fall out or fall down,

and, hopefully, the arch will stay where it should do, stood up. Here goes.

There it is! Almost half a perfect groined roof.

But just to prove how strong it really is, this is a 56lb weight,

which I'm gonna stick on the top.

How's that?

It's only 2 inches thick, but it's holding that.

In real terms, it'd be a few hundred tons, I should imagine.

Groining like this would take the weight of the walls above and give them added support.

If you study the stonework, there's all sorts of interesting things you can see.

I found this unbelievable mistake!

Up about 4 or 5 feet from the edge of the parapet,

is this series of five stones with semicircular notches in,

which, if you study a bit below the arches with the pillars below -

obviously, these stones were cut to have something to do with that,

and yet weren't needed, so they put D-shaped filling-in pieces in and worked them into the wall above.

It's quite obvious that economy were at the top of their list

and they didn't waste a lot.

The huge scale and solidity of a cathedral like Peterborough

is a symbol of the Norman idea that the Church was a powerful agent of state control,

so it's no surprise that they built some of their greatest cathedrals in centres of Anglo-Saxon resistance.

In the years immediately after the Conquest,

some parts of the country held out longer than others.

The East Anglian fenlands was one of these and, here, Saxon rebels waged a guerilla war against the Normans.

Once they were defeated, the Normans wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again,

so what they built here was a massive demonstration of their power and authority.

Norman Ely was an enormous fortress-cathedral,

over 500 feet long and 200 feet high, which took 37 years to complete.

This magnificent tower is almost like a Norman keep.

It's complete with battlements and it's over 200 feet high and it dominates the whole area.

You can see for miles from up here.

You hardly needed a castle when you'd got a cathedral like this.

Like Peterborough, Ely is one of our best-preserved Norman cathedrals,

but one of the things I find interesting here is the effect

of alterations made by later builders and on the original Norman structure,

like the tower, for instance.

The tower is even taller than when the Normans first built it.

300 years later, they erected this magnificent octagonal bell chamber.

It sits on top of the old Norman structure, dominating the landscape.

The only problem was those later engineers got their sums wrong,

because the alterations to the tower put a massive extra weight on the old Norman foundations.

They realised that the original walls weren't strong enough for the extra weight,

so they put a sort of stone skin inside the original tower.

It's quite ingenious and, if you look down, you can see how they reinforced the arches to take the strain.

The main body of Ely Cathedral was built over a period of 100 years.

You can see how the way it was built changed over this time,

as the Normans improved their techniques and moved from the round arch to the pointed, Gothic version.

Now, really, the big difference between the Norman arch and the Gothic or pointed arch

is the fact that in the Norman one

the thrust went sideways and you needed much greater weight in the abutments or the walls.

The pointed arch, of course, the weight goes straight down and very little pressure sideways.

If you go in some of the Gothic sort-of-style cathedrals

and look how slender everything is, the pillars that support the pointed arches,

and then you go in a Norman one and see how chunky everything is,

you can see it were a great advance in architecture.

When most people think of cathedrals, they think of stonemasons,

but there's more to it than that.

There were as many joiners and they'd come into various categories.

Carpenters did the rough stuff, like all the centring for the arches,

and the joiners did the finer bits, like carving the bullions,

not to mention the plumbers...

Also the lead roof and all the downspouts, all of them would be made on site, with the lead burners.

And stonemasons who did all the lovely tracery for the windows,

and the other branch would be the rough guys who infilled the walls.

Down here, on this grass, at that time, it would be a hive of industry.

There'd be quite a few wooden sheds that the craftsmen had made themselves

to protect themselves from the rain and the weather and the elements.

It'd be a castles-building season.

When the sun come out in summer, they'd all be happy up on the walls,

but, in winter, I suppose they spent most of their time underneath a roof down here,

chiselling beautiful tops for columns and things like that.

Basically, the stonemason's craft involves two types of work.

There's the geometric masonry like this,

which is very disciplined and follows definite lines.

Pieces of stone like this go straight into the building.

But if there's any embellishments to do, like faces, flowers or leaves,

then it goes into the carver's workshop.

And when you look closely, you can see that the whole building is filled with their intricate handiwork.

The reason that made all this possible was the rapid improvements being made in metalwork,

especially in blacksmithing.

They made better tools with better cutting edges,

which enabled stonemasons and joiners to do much finer work.

All the fancy tracery and everything were much easier worked with better steel in the tools,

that enabled joiners and carpenters

to make really graceful centres for building all them beautiful groined ceilings.

Now that more resistant types of stone and more durable wood could be used,

the cathedral builders could design columns that were narrower and more graceful-looking.

The sculptors and carpenters were able to do finer and more delicate designs.

It was the great age of cathedral building and it created master craftsmen

who could push the boundaries of their craft to new limits.

And this is their greatest masterpiece.

In 1322, the central tower collapsed, destroying the Norman choir.

Instead of rebuilding the tower,

the cathedral bursar Alan of Walsingham designed an octagon to replace it.

It was an amazing feat of engineering that began with the building of eight huge stone pillars

over 100 feet high.

But their biggest challenge was the fact the roof over this space needed to let in the light.

And this is the solution they came up with -

the lantern.

It was designed by William Hurley, King Edward III's master carpenter,

and it took 14 years to build.

To really appreciate what keeps all this lot up here, you've got to view it from the inside.

This wonderful octagonal-shaped lantern at Ely Cathedral,

this, weighing over 200 tons of wood and lead,

and just hanging precariously over this great void...

This really is my personal idea of how they managed to get it up all them years ago.

These beams here are the main ones and the horizontal one below it.

That joint is just a half-lap joint. Must've been the first joint they made down below in the field.

They would obviously bring this great 50-foot long bulk of oak in at the bottom,

and raise it up and then stand it on the corbel or in the slot down there in the dark,

and have it leaning out at this jaunty angle.

There'd be maybe 50 or 60 blokes, you know, on the end of the rope,

that control the set of rope blocks that raise the real weight of the thing.

As it came up, it would have other guy ropes on and men pulling the bottom out and keeping the top right.

When they got it in a position where they could anchor it to the stonework,

everybody would be holding on to the ropes while some intrepid character crept out on to the stonework

and shoved in the big iron pin.

This would have to be sort of repeated 8 times all the way around the...16 times, really,

cos there's two for every corner.

The next piece would come up in the same manner with the rope blocks,

with the aid of a couple of planks chucked out on here for somebody to go out on.

It'd be pretty easy to secure the corner there

and then construct what I've called the foundation ring of the lantern.

At this point, they could lay down the cross members.

These are inserted to stop the whole thing twisting.

All these would have been marked out on terra firma down on t'floor. You can see the scribe marks

where they all slot in,

so when it arrived up here, they didn't get it the wrong way round.

Once they got the bottom part of the frame in place,

they'd be able to get the eight vertical poles for the lantern itself right in the centre,

and then secure it with another ring at the top.

They'd reached a stage of stability where they knew it couldn't collapse.

Until then, it must've been very precarious.

When you think it weighs 200 tons and it were done all them years ago,

it's a credit to them men.

A lot of them couldn't even read or write, but they had it somehow or other, for the glory of God!

In Norman times, the Church was very powerful,

and the bishops were not only builders, they were also warriors,

and there's nowhere better to see this than here in Rochester,

where the cathedral is almost built in the castle grounds.

Many of the greatest castle builders in the country were bishops,

and they helped William the Conqueror stamp his authority with God as well as the sword.

Rochester Castle was built by William de Corbeil, Archbishop of Canterbury,

and it's the largest keep in England with walls and it's 113 feet high.

If you look behind me, you'll see that Rochester Castle

has got three square towers and one round one - at this corner.

Down at the museum, they have a wonderful model that explains why.

1215 - King John held siege to Rochester Castle,

but it only lasted for five weeks - and here's the reason why.

Now, while the battle raged above,

King John's men dug a tunnel from, no doubt, a safe distance

to undermine the tower on the corner, the south tower,

a thing I've done many times -

underpinning a large tower or a chimney stack.

When I was pulling something down,

I always used to follow exactly the same procedure.

I nearly always won, as King John's men did.

Here, you can see exactly what they did.

The tunnel that they dug is only a few feet below the surface,

Hence, the excessive amount of props holding up the fields and the sods, the soil.

Once they got to the base of the tower, reputedly, they burnt the fat of 40 pigs on the pit props

to make them burn a bit better.

The order has obviously been given to retreat.

The fire's now raging, there's a man there with fire on a stick like a torch.

Exciting!

There's always that worry about will it fall down or not.

In this case, it all did come tumbling down.

Unlike my tower, the keep's walls were so strong, it stayed standing.

It was taken over by the new king Henry III after John's death,

who turned it into a royal castle and built the round tower we see today.

Sadly, the keep is an empty shell today,

but, when it was first built, it was a magnificent statement of Norman power.

The castles and cathedrals that the Normans built

transformed the face of England,

and the way the country looked changed just as fundamentally as the way it was ruled.

Buildings like this helped the Norman conquerors to establish themselves,

bringing a stability and permanence that united England under one monarchy.