CRASH IN THE ABBEY

Evening Star, Issue 21232, 13 October 1932, Page 7

CRASH IN THE ABBEY

STONE FALLS FROM ROOF HENRY THE SEVENTH’S CHAPEL. Afternoon service had just concluded at Westminster Abbey on August 29 when a loud crash resounded through the building from the direction of tbe Henry the Seventh Chapel. Startled people rushed to the spot and found that a block of stone weighing more than a hundredweight had fallen to the floor from the magnificent groined roof. No one was in the chapel at the time, and no damage was done to its interior, hut tho area was at once closed to the public, and a careful examination of the roof was made. “ There is no need for alarm,” it was stated at the office of the clerk of works of the abbey, “ though the cause of the stone becoming displaced is not yet definitely known.”

Dr Doanner, the canon in residence, said that the stone was known as a cusp, and formed part of the foliation scheme of the roof, which was admitted to be the finest in Europe. “ There is

no doubt,” lie said, “ that had the stone hit anyone ho would have been instantly killed, for, though it appears quite small in the roof, in reality it would take two men to move it. “ The damage which caused the cusp to fall may have originated many centuries ago, hut there is no injury easily discernible to the eye caused by its absence. Workmen may have been engaged on the exterior of the chapel, but undoubtedly what has caused the damage is vibration.” The Henry the Seventh Chapel, or Lady Chapel, of the abbey is regarded as one of the finest architectural masterpieces in England.