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However it is pronounced, Gloucester Cathedral would make a great Harry Potter
location, as well as a model for a LEGO Cathedral. My "British Cathedrals" book (Paul
Johnson, 1980, ISBN 0-688-03672-4) just raves over it:
".... the dominating feature of the nave is the seven-bay Norman section, with its
gigantic round columns, thirty-one feet high, capped by little more than a narrow and
primitive triforium level, from which the Early English vault springs. The effect is
heavy, daunting and inhibiting: we are back in the world of the early Middle Ages,
where enormous mass and effort is required to hold a building aloft, and horizons are
low and lowering. Then, in a few brief steps, we march out of the vault into the
crossing, and receive another shock. In a few seconds we have travelled centuries;
it is a Gothic church after all. There is no more exhilarating sensation in the whole
of English architecture that the sudden emergence from the Gloucester nave-tunnel into
late-medieval space and light. (Here) the shock is on all sides, like walking into a
gigantic green-house, the direct ancestor of the Crystal Palace. Even at nighttime
the sense of space remains, as though in a vast observatory with a star-canopy. In
full sunlight the airiness is almost palpable; one feels the sunbeams on the cheek
and smells hot dust and warm stone; the eyes blink and are disorientated; it takes a
few seconds to adjust the focus on definite objects in this blinding world of glass
and wafery stone."
Gee, sounds like a great location for the movie doesn't it? The great Crécy Window
(named after the great 14th century battle in the Hundred Years War between the
English and the French) in the east end (38 feet wide x 72 feet tall) is the largest
stained glass window in England, and possibly the world.
Gary Istok
Gary Istok wrote:
> Yeah, I've heard it pronounced both ways. I stayed in Oxford for a while, and
> Gloucester Green is the name of the bus station there. Perhaps its pronounced
> differently in Oxfordshire.
>
> Gary Istok
>
> Kevin Wilson wrote:
>
> > Gary Istok wrote:
> > > Gloucester (pronounce "glou-ster" where the "glou" rhymes with a ships "bow" )
> >
> > Funny, I always heard it pronounced "Gloster" (Glo- as in gloss) growing
> > up in the UK. Had some friends who lived there and that's how they said
> > it. Also re the kids nursery rhyme...
> >
> > Doctor Foster
> > Went to Gloucester
> > In a shower of rain
> >
> > etc
> >
> > Kevin
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Personal Lego Web page:
> > http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kwilson_tccs/lego.html
> > Open Air Market: Limited edition kit
> > http://kevc.bricksmiths.com/cat-mrkt.htm
> > Craftsman Kits & Custom Lego models: http://kevc.bricksmiths.com
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