Statue and helmet commemorating William Walker in Winchester Cathedral.
The cathedral sits on a high water table and in the early 1900s the wooden foundations (beech logs) were rotting away and part of the building was beginning to subside.
In 1905 a team of c150 workmen started work. William Walker, a deep-sea diver, toiled in darkness below the Cathedral walls for nearly six years to replace the foundations.
He has become a hero in Winchester folklore. There are several statues of him and the pub opposite the cathedral close has been re-named The William Walker. He was awarded the MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order) by King George V who said that he had "saved the cathedral with his own two hands". However Walker was a quiet, modest hero, cycling home 150 miles to Croydon and back, each weekend to see his family.
The crypt frequently floods. Gormley's statue contemplates the water held in cupped hands. Gormley himself spoke of the connection of memories to basic elements of the physical world:
‘How do you make memory? What is the relationship between memory and anticipation? Can you make something that is physical which at the same time evokes the process of remembering? Is it possible to do this and make something fresh, like dew or frost – something that just is, as if its form had always been like this.’
Amazing feat to replace the foundations under the cathedral while it standing.....the mind boggles to think how they would do that....little moles underground!
Yes, that's the crypt flooded in Jan 2015 - perhaps it always floods this time of year. There are even more shots to be found in my project of the crypt and Antony Gormley's statue. And that's the helmet presented to the cathedral by the MOD, similar to the one William Walker wore. I note I gave a lot more information about him, some of which I have forgotten. Now I concentrate more on the photos, I think! A heroic effort by William Walker anyway!
I did had a remind I`ve seen the story before . Is this the same ?
Yes, that's the crypt flooded in Jan 2015 - perhaps it always floods this time of year. There are even more shots to be found in my project of the crypt and Antony Gormley's statue. And that's the helmet presented to the cathedral by the MOD, similar to the one William Walker wore. I note I gave a lot more information about him, some of which I have forgotten. Now I concentrate more on the photos, I think! A heroic effort by William Walker anyway!