Carlisle Cathedral has been struck with a series of disasters. In around 860 the church was devasted by the Danes and remained a ruin until 1090 when William Rufus arranged for its reconstruction. In 1292 a fire did a lot of damage and in the Civil War soldiers butchered the nave for fortification building material. The original collegiate church was founded by secular canons in 1092 and were replaced by Augustinian canons in 1123. Henry I made the church a Cathedral in 1133 and Adelulf became the first bishop. Out of the original seven bays of the Norman church's nave only two now survive. The eastern sections of the church were rebuilt in the early thirteenth century and then again starting in 1292 after a fire that started in a near-by house. The fire destroyed the wooden ceiling and the Early English columns. The columns were rebuilt in the Decorated style. The eastern section when rebuilt was built on different central axis to the nave.
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