Bibliography

Books and articles about Rochester cathedral.

• The north tower drawn by Francis Grose in 1781

  Grose’s drawing of ‘Gundulph’s Tower’, engraved by Edward Williams and published by Samuel Hooper. The plate is dated 1 May 1783. It was included in volume 1 of the Supplement to The antiquities of England and Wales (1777–87), and in volume 3 of the second edition of The antiquities of England and Wales (1783–7). The index in the Supplement names Williams as the engraver. (Little is known about him; his son the landscape painter Edward Williams (1781–1855) made more of a mark.)

• Samuel Denne, Memorials of the cathedral church of Rochester

  Denne’s account of the history of Rochester cathedral, published in John Thorpe, Custumale Roffense (London, 1788), pp. 153–242.

• Stalls in the choir of Rochester cathedral

  The sedilia in the presbytery drawn by John Carter for the Society of Antiquaries (Vetusta monumenta, vol. 3, plate 5, no. 2). The plate is dated 23 April 1790.

• Christopher Etherington (publ.), The history and antiquities of Rochester cathedral (Rochester, 1796)

  The first-ever guidebook to Rochester cathedral, produced by a Rochester printer. Scissors-and-paste throughout, except perhaps the last three pages.

• Reports on the first phase of Cottingham’s restoration and one unexpected result of it – the rediscovery of the tomb of John de Sheppey

  Reports from the Gentleman’s Magazine, Jan. and Sep. 1825.

• Effigy of John de Sheppey, bishop of Rochester (d. 1360), drawn by John Barak Swaine in 1831

  Drawn for A. J. Kempe, exhibited by him at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, and published in Archaeologia, vol. 25, part 1 (1833), pl. 8.

• Henry Winkles and Benjamin Winkles, Architectural and picturesque illustrations of the cathedral churches of England and Wales, 3 vols. (London, 1835–42) – plates

  Six views and a plan of Rochester cathedral, published in 1836.

• Henry Winkles and Benjamin Winkles, Architectural and picturesque illustrations of the cathedral churches of England and Wales, 3 vols. (London, 1835–42) – letterpress

  The description of Rochester cathedral supplied by Thomas Moule.

• Charles Spence, A walk through Rochester Cathedral (London, 1840)

  Full text. The author’s name does not appear, but there was never any mystery about it.

• A. Ashpitel, Rochester Cathedral

  Published in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 9 (1853–4), 271–85. The written-up version of a lecture delivered by the architect Arthur Ashpitel at the BAA congress in Rochester, 26 July 1853.

• R. J. King, A handbook for travellers in Kent and Sussex (London, 1858)

  The description given here is of very little value in itself – but it formed the basis for two subsequent descriptions (King 1861, 1876) of rather greater interest.

• R. J. King, Handbook to the cathedrals of England – Southern division – part II (London, 1861)
• R. J. King, Handbook to the cathedrals of England – Southern division – part II (London, 1861) – illustrations

  King’s description of Rochester cathedral. The second file contains the illustrations, eight views and a schematic plan.

  • R. J. King, Handbook to the cathedrals of England – Southern division – part II, rev. ed. (London, 1876)

    A revised version of King’s description of Rochester cathedral, incorporating a mass of new information, much of it supplied by Irvine. When Hope arrived in Rochester in 1881, this would have been the best available description of the cathedral, and I assume that he would have bought himself a copy.

• Robert Willis’s lecture on the architectural history of Rochester cathedral

  A lecture delivered in July 1863, at the Archaeological Institute’s congress in Rochester, never written up for publication.

• E. Hawkins, Notes on some monuments in Rochester Cathedral

  Published in Archaeologia Cantiana, 11 (1877), 1–9.

• W. B. Rye, Tombs of Sir William Arundel and others in Rochester Cathedral

  Published in Archaeologia Cantiana, 13 (1880), 141–5.

• W. H. St John Hope, Notes on the architectural history of Rochester cathedral church
• W. H. St John Hope, Notes on the architectural history of Rochester cathedral church – plates I–II

  Written in 1883. Published in 1884 in the Transactions of the St Paul’s Ecclesiological Society, 1 (1881–5), 217–30. The second file contains the two plates: plate II (redrawn as Flight 1997, fig. 12) is Hope’s conjectural plan of Gundulf’s church.

• W. H. St John Hope, Gundulf’s Tower at Rochester, and the first Norman cathedral church there

  Written in 1884. Published in Archaeologia, 49 (1885–6), 323–34.

• Ward, Lock and Co. (publ.), Our national cathedrals, 3 vols. (London, 1886–9)

  Letterpress from a revised and updated edition of ‘Winkles’s Cathedrals’.

• W. H. St John Hope, Chronological table of the architectural history of Rochester cathedral church

  A synopsis of the church’s architectural history produced for the KAS meeting in Rochester in 1886 and published in Archaeologia Cantiana, 17 (1887), xli–iii.

• G. M. Livett, Foundations of the Saxon cathedral church at Rochester
• G. M. Livett, Foundations of the Saxon cathedral church at Rochester – plan
• G. M. Livett, Foundations of the Saxon cathedral church at Rochester – figures

  Published in Archaeologia Cantiana, 18 (1889), 261–78. Livett made a heroic effort to record some of the archaeological evidence which was being discovered and destroyed during the underpinning of the west front in 1888–9, and this is his report. I have made a separate file for each of the plates.

• G. H. Palmer, The cathedral church of Rochester (London, 1897)

  Full text.

  George Henry Palmer was born in Rochester in 1871 and educated at the King’s School. He joined the staff of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1889, becoming keeper of the library in 1897. He retired from that post in 1931 and died in 1945 (Times, 5 Jul. 1945, p. 7). Official publications aside, this was his only book.

  • G. H. Palmer, The cathedral church of Rochester, 2nd ed. (London, 1899)

    Full text. Not very different from the first edition, but some of the changes are worth noting.

    This edition was reissued, with corrections, in 1907. Not having seen a copy, I cannot say what the corrections amount to; but I imagine that Palmer might have wanted to mention the new spire, completed in 1904.

• W. H. St John Hope, The architectural history of the cathedral church and monastery of St Andrew at Rochester – 1. The cathedral church

  Published in Archaeologia Cantiana, 23 (1898), 194–328.

• W. H. St John Hope, The architectural history of the cathedral church and monastery of St Andrew at Rochester – 2. The monastery

  Published in Archaeologia Cantiana, 24 (1900), 1–85.

• W. H. St John Hope, The architectural history of the cathedral church and monastery of St Andrew at Rochester – illustrations

  An annotated list of the illustrations for Hope’s two articles.