The project Exeter Cathedral Keystones and Carvings was begun in 1976 by Professor Avril Henry, medievalist of the University of Exeter. She initiated the professional restoration by Anna Hulbert of the artwork of Exeter Cathedral. On completion of the restoration work, over 1100 images and a catalogue had been created of the Cathedral's paintings and sculptures. This catalogue was published in digital format with the help of the Visual Arts Data Service in 2001, providing an illustrated introduction to and catalogue of the figurative sculpture that is part of the original interior fabric of the medieval Exeter Cathedral.
Exeter Cathedral is built on the camp of the Roman Army's II Augustan Legion. The history of the church as a cathedral dates from 1050 when the Bishop of Crediton and St Germans moved to Exeter. The first Bishop of Exeter, Leofric, was installed by King Edward the Confessor. The Saxon minster was built into a new cathedral in the Norman Style from 1114. Used for congregational and presbyterian workshop during the Interregnum period, the cloisters were destroyed in 1655. Rebuilding of the cloister was begun in 1880 but not completed for many years. The Cathedral sustained damaged on 3 May 1942 during the Blitz, when the chapel of St James and St Thomas the Martyr was destroyed along with two bays in the south quire.
Avril Kay Henry, ATD, NDD, BA, DPhil (Oxon) trained in painting and sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art, obtained ATD with Distinction at the University of London Institute of Education, and worked initially as an art teacher and freelance illustrator. She then attended At. Hugh's College, Oxford and was awarded a Fulford Senior Scholarship. She held various posts at Oxford, Cambridge, Queen Mary College (University of London) before being appointed as a lecturer at the University of Exeter in 1970, where she later became Professor of Medieval Culture at the School of English. She held a Personal Chair in the School from 1995-2000. Her research is mainly manuscript-based, with special interests in medieval Christian iconography and the interface of text and image.
Anna Carson Hulbert took a BA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and then trained there as a conservator. She ran her own conservation business for 21 years, and worked on major projects at Exeter Cathedral and St. Helen's Church, Abingdon. She died in 2000.
From the guide to the Keystones and Carvings project on medieval interior sculpture: photographs of Exeter Cathedral, ? 1990s, (University of Exeter)
