Issue 41 Spring web - Flipbook - Page 26
The Restoration of
the Medieval Shrine of
St Amphibalus, St Albans Cathedral
St Albans Cathedral’s Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Alban, Britain’s First Saint’, included the
fascinating challenge of reconstructing of the medieval shrine base of St Amphibalus.
Both the shrine of St Alban and St Amphibalus were
broken up at the Reformation and the masonry fragments
of the shrine bases were hidden as rubblecore fill until
1872. Both shrine bases were reconstructed by Scott,
St Alban’s with rather more success than that of St
Amphibalus, since far less remained of the latter. This was
initially placed in its medieval location, between Alban’s
shrine chapel and the Lady chapel, but it was soon moved
to the presbytery north aisle, probably due to its poor and
unsightly condition, where it stayed until this project
began.
Amphibalus is inseparable from the story of Alban, and
the Dean and Chapter of St Albans wished for the
two shrines to again share the focus of devotion in the
Cathedral. They envisaged a restoration of the shrine base
to its pre-Dissolution state, as far as possible. Pilgrimages
to the Alban shrine greatly increased since its restoration
in 1991−93, especially since the reinstatement of the relic
in 2002 and the introduction in 2005 of the new form of
the Annual Pilgrimage at Albantide. The shrine chapel
is felt to be the spiritual centre and raison d’être of the
