BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 32nd ANNUAL EDITION 41 CATHEDRAL OF ST BARNABAS, NOTTINGHAM When construction of the church of St Barnabas commenced in 1841, funded by John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, it was Pugin’s most ambitious Catholic commission to date. The construction of new Catholic churches in England had been enabled by the Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791 and remaining barriers to Catholicism were removed by the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. Nevertheless, anti-Catholic sentiment remained strong and few new Catholic churches were built in the early 19th century. So, when the church of St Barnabas was completed in 1844, it was celebrated as the largest Catholic church built in England since the Reformation, and its completion symbolised both spiritual and political resurgence. The building was elevated to cathedral status in 1852 and is now Grade II* listed. Externally plain in ornamentation, it is a good example of the Gothic Revival. Inside, it has a cruciform layout, with three chapels at the east end and the Blessing chapel to the south of the chancel. Initially proposed as a simpler building, Pugin convinced Talbot to approve a more elaborate version, thereby avoiding a cost-overrun. In a letter to Talbot (1841) before the project started, Pugin explains the full costings for the work, and includes: ‘Stencilling ceilings and reveals of the Little of Pugin’s original decorative scheme is visible in Nottingham’s Catholic cathedral (the church of St Barnabas as it was in 1844). Now the Restoring Pugin project is being led by Nottingham Cathedral in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, with the aim of conserving and where possible reinstating the original scheme, with the help of The National Lottery Heritage Fund. (Photo: Cliveden Conservation) end chapels: £100.’ In another letter (1842), he says, ‘I have just finished all the full-sized detail drawings and it is full of rich decoration.’ Unfortunately, these original drawings have not been found. Later, in a note in his diary in 1844, Pugin registered two receipts, each for £50, from Thomas Kearns for painting at St Barnabas’s. At the time of the consecration, the newspapers reported little about the decoration. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel was richly painted, and it is said that the other chapels would be decorated as well. According to an article in The Derby Mercury 4 September, 1844: ‘The principal rafters, the tie-beams, and other framing, are dressed and chamfered. The surfaces between the rafters are coloured blue, enriched, in unison with the spandrels, arches and walls with painting and diapering.’ Five years later, Pugin wrote a letter to his wife Jane expressing his dissatisfaction with the decoration introduced to the church. It is not clear whether he designed it and someone else was hired to execute it, or if he didn’t have any influence: ‘I have been to Nottingham and am very savage. They have got a wretched painter spoiling the Lady Chapel. It is too bad. I shall have all my buildings ruined… I have been most abominably treated in my art. They get any dirty fellow to spoil my buildings and think it is just as good.’ Uncovering and research The first part of Cliveden Conservation’s role in the Restoring Pugin Project was to find Pugin’s original decoration while understanding the decorative history of the cathedral. The research and conservation/restoration project focused on the east chapels and ambulatories. All the information was in the building itself, hidden by historical layers, which we carefully remove using scalpels and solvents. It took us eight months on site to recover as much information as possible. Complementing the historical research, scientific analysis was carried out by Amelia Suzuki from the ISAAC Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University, including cross section analysis, microRaman spectroscopy and SEM-EDS. Upon completion of the on-site work, the task was to organise and process all data, to cross-reference the information from different spaces to understand which strata corresponded to the same historical moment and establish a chronology. Our investigations confirmed that the cathedral has been redecorated six times: in 1851, 1894, 1927, the 1930s, 1962, and finally in 1993. Each corresponds to important moments in the building’s history. Some of the redecorations involved merely refreshing the paintwork, some aimed to imitate Pugin’s work, while others distanced themselves from Victorian aesthetics. The quality varies considerably, with some showing good craftsmanship. The first decorative scheme features ceilings painted in deep blue with stars, except in the Lady Chapel, where there are also flowers with the Virgin’s monogram. The rafters and beams were varnished, and some had painted decorations, such as flowers. A rich, creamy orange is the dominant colour of the walls and varies slightly to highlight architectural elements like columns, arches, or plinths, with subtle gilded accents on mouldings and edges that avoid being overly ostentatious. Painted decorations are confined to specific areas. These include friezes with Latin inscriptions or repetitive elements (monograms and floral motifs), blue floral patterns around windows and archways of the chapels, and multicoloured mouldings along with rich paintings on the panel’s reredos. Some elements, especially in the Lady Chapel dado, cannot be completely attributed to Pugin, due to the lack of historical documents. This study also highlighted aspects that are often overlooked. For instance, stencils used in different locations need to be adapted to suit the site’s architectural
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