Nelson Cathedral

Nelson Cathedral was designed in a good old Victorian Gothic style using an expensive grey marble stone. If completed, it would have stood comparison with the other South Island cathedrals at Christchurch and Dunedin. But the building cost escalated, a better understanding of earthquakes developed, and it became clear the plan had to change. In the end quite a lot of it is a mid-20th century job, built in concrete covered with a grey cement render incorporating a lot of crushed-up marble which looks like the original stone. I reckon they’ve done a decent job – in fact even in its truncated form I like it much more than some others hereabouts.

Unfortunately the acoustic in the building seems rather ‘dead’, and as for the bells… well, I don’t know what they sound like, but hung the way they are it’s a bit disappointing. They’re hung ‘dead’ and are rung by hammers pulled from an apparatus called an Ellacombe Frame. Basically this involves 8 ropes pulled to clank the clappers against the bells… but Ellacombe Frames are despised among ‘proper’ ringers! Still, the locals are very fond of them and like to hear them rung.

Complaints aside, the Cathedral is pleasantly cosy and serious at the same time, with everything carefully matched and made to look as if it was meant to be this way. There’s none of the histrionics of ... well, best not say. I could settle here very happily.

The stained glass here is particularly good, so it gets its own page at Nelson Cathedral Windows