Exeter Cathedral

Cathedral church of St Peter in Exeter, Devon, England, around whose foundations exist remains of the Roman baths and Saxon conventual buildings. It springs from a monastic church established by Athelstan in 932 and rebuilt by Canute in 1017. From the outside the cathedral is most remarkable for its massive transeptal towers (1112-33), which leave unbroken the great roof, 90 m/295 ft long. The magnificent Gothic interior is built to one plan, unlike any other English cathedral except Salisbury.

History The see was removed to Exeter from Crediton in 1050, when Edward the Confessor and his queen personally enthroned Leofric as first bishop. The scale of the building was set out, in the nave at least, in the cathedral completed under the Normans. Rebuilding to the new plan began with the Lady Chapel (1275). The chancel was vaulted between 1300 and 1309, and the nave was then built and vaulted from 1353.

In 1942, during World War II, the chapel of St James was destroyed by a German bomb during the so-called ‘Baedeker raids’, and is now entirely rebuilt.

Features and furnishings The proportions of the church are low, which increases the effect of the ‘palm branch’ vault, which is composed of sprays of ribs almost seeming to grow from their columns.

Exeter also has notable furnishings, including a richly carved stone choir screen (1320-24), and a high wooden bishop's throne, begun in 1313, possibly the finest piece of woodwork of its period in Europe.