The Floor

The construction of the ‘floor’ of the cathedral is unique in that one must make the distinction between the aisles, which are stone and the floor of the pews which is wooden.  The ‘floor’ is a suspended one that rests on foundation walls made of stone cemented with a lime based mortar.  As it is on the brow of a hill, which some claim to be an extinct or ,hopefully not, a dormant volcano, the space beneath the floor is only a crawl space at best.  These areas are all under the stone aisles.  The areas between the aisles, over which the pews rest, are filled with material to within, in some places, six inches of the pew floors.  The reason for this hollow space underneath the aisles is not for the amusement and adventure of the many young boys in the past who have crawled around under there but for the purposes of ventilation. In the floor of the cathedral are several brass circular grills.  These would seem to the uninformed to be floor drains.  However what they are is part of an ingenious ventilation system.  At the eastern side of the Cathedral there appears in the outer foundation wall several grilled arched openings.  These openings are in truth entry ways for the prevailing winds to blow air into and beneath the Cathedral and up through the floor vents into the nave (the part of the church that is designed to accommodate the congregation in pews or chairs).  The stone slabs that make up the aisles are four inches thick and rest on the foundation walls.