Chelmsford Cathedral, Chelmsford, Essex

End point of a one-day pilgrimage route starting at either Pleshey (nine miles) or GreatWaltham (6.5 miles), following the winding route of the river Chelmer to the cathedral

Highlights

• Artworks icons honouring East Anglian traditions
• Norman building

Little says ‘East Anglia’ more than the collection of patron saints honoured by Chelmsford’s fine cathedral, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd – at least it does for those of us who colour the world with medieval spirituality. These three saints are certainly well represented in the region’s devotional heritage, with very long connections to sites at Little Walsingham and Bradwell-on-Sea.

Chelmsford’s welcoming and thoughtfully presented cathedral is a fine place for quiet reflection about the witness of these and the other saints. It has chapels dedicated to St Peter and St Cedd, the latter illuminated by a window depicting the Celtic saint at Bradwell. An exquisite altar frontal depicts this same place with detail so fine the weaving looks like a photograph. Surprisingly this covers an altar in a different part of the building, the Mildmay Chapel, though it would make a perfect addition to St Cedd’s own chapel.

In the chancel, high up on the left as you face the altar, are four perfectly executed Orthodox icons, commissioned to fill blank windows. They illustrate in traditional style the three patron saints of the cathedral plus Jesus Christ, who also appear on the other side of that same wall. The cathedral points out that the nuns who painted these icons seek no personal glory, although my wife Anna, a classically trained icon painter herself, immediately identified their skilful work, which graces several other churches in England.

Back in the nave, a sculpture of Christ in Glory, by Peter Eugene Ball, hangs above the chancel arch depicting a surprisingly well-dressed figure of Christ on the cross, clad in red robes.

Elevated to cathedral status in 1914, the church is at heart a Norman building, substantially reworked in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although not built with a bishop in mind, the building is easily large and ancient enough to justify its place at the heart of the diocese of Chelmsford. It was originally dedicated to St Mary the Virgin alone.

Chelmsford has much to thank its cathedral for; its recent elevation to city status in 2012 might well have been helped by its metropolitan credentials as the heart of a large diocese. The cathedral also celebrates connections to America, both ancient and relatively modern. Thomas Hooker, a 17th-century preacher in this very building, joined the Pilgrim Fathers and helped to found the state of Connecticut. More recently, the south porch was refurbished with windows commemorating the role of US servicemen stationed in the area during the Second World War.

Lovers of tradition and Orthodox art might want to visit the church of an Orthodox monastery 16 miles east of Chelmsford, at Tolleshunt Knights.

Directions

Chelmsford Cathedral, Duke Street, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1EH

www.chelmsfordcathedral.org.uk

W3W: acute.begin.longer

GPS: 51.7352N 0.4720E

Chelmsford’s cathedral sits just outside the city’s shopping centre, surrounded by a green. It is open Monday to Saturday 7:45 am–6 pm and Sundays 7:30 am–5 pm, with no charge other than by donation. For details of the Orthodox monastery see: www.thyateira.org.uk