Dust is there from the very beginning.
Stones cut from the quarry, shipped overseas, ferried upriver, unloaded and carried to the site, worked in the workshop.
The masons hammer and chisel, carving to detail. Dust flies off, stone chips fall to the ground. Masons’ set square, plumb lines, compasses and dividers.
The vaulting cathedral rises. Many workmen fashion and shape, build, taking their inspiration from illuminated manuscripts, architects specifications and their own religious fervor.
When the building is complete, the artists and craftsmen get to work. Embellishment of statues, carvings, niches, altars, aisles, rood screens, tombs, capitals, corbels. Medieval artistic technology is developed with experience, trial and error. The object is to beautify and reflect God’s glory and munificence.
Surfaces are sealed first. Then layers of colour built up using precious materials, lapis, gold leaf, silver, many bright colours.
People throng the nave and choir. The atmosphere is godly and reverent. The stones absorb the atmosphere over centuries. Dust collects in all the niches, crevices, ledges, far out of reach. Each day, more dust collects. The colours fade, and in the Reformation many objects are smashed and destroyed, any remnant of colour removed. The only colour left is in the deepest crevices and niches and folds of the carving, only seen under the microscope and by thin section layer spectrographic analysis.
The exposed stones exfoliate over time, shedding fine particles of dust. Damp rises from the ground and penetrates the ashlar, traveling through the pores of the stone and hydraulic pressure forces off the limewashed plaster which crumbles into dust on the floor (SPALLING).
The dust accumulates and obscures what little color and decoration is left. Sharp edges are blurred. The dust itself becomes a surface and part of the fabric of the cathedral. It contributes to the smell and atmosphere of the current building.
Surfaces are worn by touching, pointing fingers, rubbing reverently, or constant walking and treading. Shoes wear away the steps. Columns are rubbed smooth by countless generations of shoulders. Wooden and stone seats are worn down. Woodworm eats into the structure of pews, lecterns, medieval coffers and chests, altars, rood screens, doors, belfry, lanterns, and joists.
Memorials are erected, the dust from the stonemasons drills and hammers disappears into the air.
In the many services each day, each week, each year, the breath from the congregation’s singing and worship, and the choir and the preaching of the clergy rise up into the vaulted ceilings. The carbon dioxide cannot escape. There is no ventilation except for the large doors when they are opened. The stained glass windows do not open. Cleaners sweep and dust the fabric every week, but they actually rub most of the dust back into the stone.
Dust accumulates over the centuries. The richly carved crockets and pinnacles over the tombs catch and retain the dust. The memorial effigies too retain the dust. Carved bellflower decorations of the Perpendicular and Gothic period are impossible to clean.
The dust of centuries.
The bells clang out. The dust blows out, wafts upwards, spreads out, drifts, settles, fans out, trickles down. Tiny motes circulate and spiral down. Dust sniffs up noses. People cough and sneeze. More dust spreads in an ever-widening arc. Tiny particles, atoms, and molecules, minuscule, but over time thick layers form grime and seal surfaces. Surface patination – darker colors over time, when scratched, lighter shades are revealed. Scraffito – people wish to be remembered. Crusader knights scratch a cross on the door jamb with their swords. More dust. Bellringers and bored choirboys, youths – all want to make a name for themselves – they do this by scratching into the nearest surface they can find, stone or wood, alabaster, plaster, marble. The dust goes everywhere. The smell – the atmosphere is redolent of ancient worship, reverence, and devotion. Candle smoke and incense. In former times the light was provided by rushes dipped in tallow – smoky and grimy. Huge candelabra were hung from the roof on long iron chains. The dust has to go somewhere – it is absorbed back into the fabric of this holy place.
C. Tim Taylor 2013