The stonework of the south window, dating from 1336, is a the finest example of the Kent style of Decorated Gothic in the Cathedral. The original medieval stained-glass was destroyed by the Puritans in 1643, and its Victorian replacement was a casualty of German bombing in 1942 – as was much of the glass on the south side of the Cathedral.

The window that we see today was created in 1959 in the York studio of Harry Stammers (1902-69), one of the most renowned British stained glass artists of his time. Stammers’ work is highly distinctive and, some say, has an almost cartoon-like quality. St Anselm is portrayed in the central of the five panels, holding his influential treatise on the Atonement of Christ, “Cur Deus Homo?” (Why God Became Man), completed in 1099.

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The apse of this chapel, was decorated in c.1160 with medieval wall paintings of Saints Peter and Paul. However, the apse was walled up in c.1200 in an attempt to shore up the tower above, which had become unstable. This shoring-up was ultimately unsuccessful and the tower had to be dismantled in 1335.

The wall painting of St Paul and the Viper was re-discovered when the buttress wall was demolished during restoration work in 1888. The fresco shows Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, barefoot, in a white tunic against a blue ground after being shipwrecked on the shores of the Adriatic island of Melita (now Mljet). The Melitans light a fire to warm the survivors and, as Paul is feeding the fire, a viper emerges from the sticks and fastens to his arm. Paul shakes the viper into the fire and onlookers are amazed that he is unharmed by this encounter with a venomous snake. Note. When uncovered in 1888, the other fresco on the wall opposite, depicting St Peter, unfortunately was found to have been destroyed by centuries of damp penetration.

The modern altar in St Anselm’s Chapel was created by Stephen Cox from a block of green Aosta marble and consecrated by Archbishop Rowan Williams in the presence of the Bishop of Aosta in April 2006. The marble is rippled with bands of white quartzite that seem to mirror the alpine skyline of the region where Anselm was born. The altar was a gift of the people of the Italian region of Valle d’Aosta, where their saint is known as Anselmo d’Aosta.

Heading west, the first tomb is that of Simon of Sudbury (1375-1381). Archbishop Sudbury is remembered as a generous benefactor of the city and of the Cathedral, and for his brutal murder at the hands of Kentish insurgents during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

His unusually long tomb is surmounted by a stone canopy in Perpendicular style, vaulted like a miniature chantry chapel, and adorned with carvings of animals. An elegant effigy of the Archbishop in copper-gilt (the same material as used in the effigy on the tomb of the Black Prince d.1376) once lay on top of the marble cover of the tomb, until it was removed 170 years later, by order of Edward VI (1547/1553).

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The next tomb is of that of Archbishop John de Stratford. Stratford briefly held the post of Lord Treasurer in 1326, and in 1330, during the early years of the 50 year reign of Edward III (1327-1377), he became Lord Chancellor. He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1333.

The tomb is significant because it is the earliest example of Perpendicular architecture in the Cathedral, and an early example of the use of alabaster in a carved effigy. Over the tomb is a vaulted roof, with a tall, pinnacled canopy (unfortunately damaged) with two small carvings of lions’ heads at the eastern end. The tomb was probably designed by one of Edward III’s principal master masons, William Ramsay, shortly before his death in 1349, and completed by his daughter. The design had a strong influence over Henry Yevele the master mason responsible for the rebuilding the Nave – demolished in 1377 and completed, after delays, in 1411.

John Kemp (1380-1454) came from the nearby town of Wye and was archbishop for less than two years from 1452-4. His Purbeck marble tomb has no effigy, but it is topped by a remarkable carved and painted oak canopy with three spires. The canopy has been described as one of the finest surviving examples of medieval woodwork in England. The brass epitaph running around the rim of the tomb is interspersed with wheatsheaves – an emblem from the Cardinal’s coat of arms.

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The Chapel of St John the Evangelist (first on the left) contains an oval altar, designed by Stephen Dykes Bower, and dedicated in 1951 as a memorial to Archbishop William Temple (1942-1944). The early 17th century painting hanging behind the altar, also acquired in 1951, is the Adoration of the Shepherds by Bartolomeo Schedoni (1570/1615), a painter of Parma school and pupil of Correggio.

The Amnesty Candle first lit in 2010, is wrapped in barbed wire and burns as a sign of hope for prisoners of conscience throughout the world.

The east window of this Chapel was made by George Austin Jnr. in 1854. It was the forerunner of Austin’s larger Jesse Tree, installed by him in the Corona in 1861.

The Chapel of St Gregory the Great, in the southeast corner of the Transept, contains a memorial to the post-war archbishop, Geoffrey Francis Fisher (1945-1961) who officiated at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

The icon of St Gregory and St Augustine of Canterbury was presented by a visiting group of Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Chevtogne, Belgium in 1984.

The east window of the Chapel contains copies of four 13th century roundels made by George Austin Jnr. c.1852, comprising scenes from the life of Christ. The original roundels and other medieval glass that Austin had removed from the Corona were sold off in 1906, at at time when the attitude towards conservation was not what it is today. Two of the roundels found their way to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA. The other two are presumed lost.

High up in the south wall of the transept is the remarkable oculus (‘eye’) window, designed by William the Englishman in 1180.

This large window, 4.5m in diameter, was built at the same time the North Oculus window and complements that window’s Old Testament themes, by showing events based upon the life and teachings of Christ from the New Testament. The central images of the window depict Christ and the Church, alongside the four symbols of the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity and Humility. These are flanked by the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark Luke and John and then, in the outer ring, the twelve apostles.

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The stained glass in the lower gallery at the western end of the south Choir aisle, and the smaller windows in the gallery above, was shattered in the air raid of June 1942. The lower windows were themselves replacements, by Cathedral glazier Samuel Caldwell Snr. (1862-1906), of a pair of early thirteenth century Bible windows destroyed in 1643, in the early part of the English Civil War.

In 1956 the Cathedral acquired a substantial quantity of French 13^th century glass from the collection of William Randolph Hearst at St Donat’s Castle, Glamorgan, South Wales. Much, if not all, of the glass in this gallery came from that source and was installed by Cathedral glazier, George Easton between 1958 and 1962.

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