LAKE BENEATH A CATHEDRAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2631, 5 August 1908, Page 8

LAKE BENEATH A CATHEDRAL.

DIVING OPERATIONS UNDER, THE • FOUNDATIONS. • Under the walls of Winchester Cathedral stands a man in tho garb of a deep-sea diver. His head is hooded — for a moment one imagines ono is looking at the ghost of some ancient visored Norman like thoso in tho pictures of Winchester's forthcoming pageant. .• Tho man steps, down into a grave-liko cavity whero the spades have thrown up a heap of gravel, and a moment later ho is gone. Deep down ono,sees a dull sheet of water disturbed by a. few bubbles.. No phantasy is this, but a daily reality at Winchester. For Beneath the greatest Gothic church in the world lies a wonderful subterranean lake soaking its very foundations. For three or four hours a day. tho:diver works in "silence steadily clearing the lake bed of its slimy deposit, and substituting solid concrete. Soon the 'cathedral will stand for tho first time in its nino centuries' story on solid rock, and then will have been completod tho most remarkable engineering achievement in British ecclesiastical history. It is no light 1 responsibility for a comparatively small town to have, as it were, a tottering cathedral on its hands. Peterborough found this out when recently it had to raiso £70,000 to ensure tho safety of its stately west front. Winchester's caso lias been still worse. The "undor-pinning," . as it is called, and other repairs will . cost ■'£87,000. It says much for Hampshire's prido in' tho glory of the old English capital that .£56,000 has already been subscribed. Tho Norman builders of Winchester Cathodral began at the west end 011 a solid bod of gravel. But as they carried the plan oastward tho gravel dipped and finally was lost under water. ' In thoso days no appliance existed for dealing with a situation which modern engineers overcome qiiito easily. Tho builders simply laid down tho trunks of beech trees in tho morass —trunks throo or four feet in diameter—and lodged their walls thoreon. And thoso Winchester Cathedral walls are heavy. They weigh 3J tons per square foot. Tho laj'ors of timber wero not thicker than tho' width of the walls, and as they gradually gavo way tho whole of tho east end of tho edifice sank precoptibly. At the north-east corner the drop was as much as twenty inches; at the south-east corner it was twenty-eight inches. Wide cracks in the walls appbared and pinnacles and gables began to totter. The water which collects under tho Cathedral lies at a level considerably bolow the level of tho modest river Ichen, flowing through tho distant meadows. Tho depth of water varies with tho season, but it is novor less than about 10ft. A powerful pump is kept going in connection with tho present operations. The ancient wood is removed and is being roplaced by concreto blocks. That the condition of tho Cathedral is critical in the extrome may be gathered from tho fact that tho south gable of tho south transept is 4ft. Bin., out of "j)lumb,"