The Cathedral itself begun sometimes around 1088 by Regimus de Fecamp, Bishop of Lincoln, possibly on the site of the old Saxon church of St. Mary Magdalene, which now occupies the area just outside Exchequer's Gate. While Regimus lived to see the completion of the original cathedral, the building itself would fail to last a century, being gutted in fire in 1141.
Being extensively rebuilt and expanded in size by Bishop Alexander, this new cathedral also met its end in a natural disaster, being destroyed (with the exemption of a small part of the west end and its towers) by an earthquake on April 15 1185-the magnitude of which has not been felt in Britain since. The rebuilding of the cathedral, under Hugh of Avalon (later St. Hugh of Lincoln, for whom the south-western tower is named) began in earnest in 1192 and completes roughly around 1235. While greatly enlarged, the structural integrity of some of the building work was questionable, and in 1237 the central tower collapsed under its own weight. This was to be rebuilt under the orders of Henry III 1255.
About 62 years later, work Begun to enlarge the central tower, and to top it and the other towers with magnificent wooden spires, capped with lead. When construction work was completed four years later, in 1311, the central spire reached a height of 525 feet. This would have made Lincoln Cathedral the tallest building in the world, and first to have surpassed the pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, which had held the title for some four millennia.
The spires themselves added significant weight to the towers of St. Mary and St. Hugh. The strain of this weight was exacerbated by the bells within the tower, particularly Great Tom, the large hour bell. By the beginning of the 18th century iron braces had to be placed upon the towers due to the force of the bells and the weight of the spires making the towers lean significantly.
By 1720, architect John Gibbs consulted with the Dean of the cathedral, and a decision was made to remove the spires and cease the ringing of the bells for the time being. Locals misunderstood this, they thought that the towers are taken down, not just the spires were to be removed, they rioted and demanded that bells should ring non stop.
Finally in 1807 the spires were removed, alleviating some of the strain upon towers, though structure repairs have continued unabated for the past 200 years and probably well into the future.
Source: http://acidadebranca.tumblr.com/post/71082798154/architecture-section-elevation-england
http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/11/when-lincoln-cathedral-was-the-tallest-building-in-the-world/
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