3-052-659 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The new Cathedral of Truro (the architect's design): entrance to the South Transept, 1880. 'Mr. John L. Pearson, the well-known ecclesiastical architect, was selected as architect, and his plans were adopted...We believe this is the first English edifice of the kind that has been commenced since some centuries before the Reformation. The new building will be Early English in style, with characteristics of the early part of the thirteenth century. It will consist of choir, nave, north and south transepts, and crypt. The essentially English arrangement of a central and two western towers will be adhered to. The space at the disposal of the architect is somewhat small, but the entire length from east to west will be 300 feet...Mr. Pearson has worked into his designs the existing south aisle of St. Mary's, which is richly carved, though in such a dilapidated state that the desirability of retaining it is an open question. Mr. Pearson estimates that the choir division, with its aisles and with the old aisle referred to, will seat about 700 people on chairs, and with the transepts added 1300 or 1400...£90,000 is needed to complete the shell of the cathedral'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.