SALISBURY CATHEDRAL
Magna Carta and Tallest Medieval Spire
In the middle ages, the town of New Salisbury was the seventh largest city in England. It had grown with a burst around the market and the new cathedral under Henry III and expanded for two centuries. Salis is the old English word for the Catholic “Sarum Rite” from which the town and its cathedral took its name. The foundation stones of the church were laid in 1220 and main part of the cathedral completed by 1266, a very rapid construction which allowed it to be in a single early Gothic architectural style. The Bishop’s church at Salisbury was not associated with a monastery, but like Oxford and Cambridge, became a center of learning with the founding of the De Vaux College in 1261 and the St Edmund’s College. The “new” cathedral included many chapels and altars, with a large western gallery for chorale singers and very wide aisle and cloisters to allow for great processions.
Tower Spire
Between 1300 and 1320 the cathedral spire was added raising the building to great height. The spire at Salisbury at 404 ft. has been the tallest in England since the 16th Century, since the competing tower at Lincoln collapsed. The spire of Salisbury also suffered damage which might have brought it down, but was saved with the use of scaffolding which still remains today. Climbing the cathedral spire at Salisbury is one of the main attractions for tours.
In 1450, the then Bishop of Salisbury, William Ayscough, was murdered during the peasant revolt at Edington, mostly for his having performed the marriage ceremony of the unpopular Henry VI to the French Margaret of Anjou, at the beginnings of the War of the Roses. The unlucky bishop was replaced by the resourceful Richard Beauchamp. In the face of the rising tensions of the time, the new bishop lobbied Rome to canonize the cathedral’s founding father, Bishop Osmond, succeeding to having him named a saint in 1457. The bishop erected a shrine as the centerpiece of the Trinity Chapel, hoping to attract pilgrims to fill the coffers and the town’s vibrant market, but the shrine only lasted until 1538, when it was demolished in the reformation under Henry VIII.
Following the English Civil War, the properties of the remaining Anglican Bishops were turned over to the town of Salisbury. The cathedral’s clock tower was destroyed during this time, but its clock was saved and remains at the church, and is possibly the oldest working clock in still existence, with its iron mechanisms dating from around 1386. A series of architectural changes and additions to the cathedral were made over the next century and half by some of England’s most prominent architects, each with their own personal visons. Sir Christopher Wren, designer of the dome of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral performed a survey for reconstruction in the 18th Century, James Wyatt made some radical changes to the interior in the early 19th, and Sir George Gilbert Scott, proponent of the Gothic Revival in the Victorian late 19th Century, best known for his design of the St Pancras Terminal and its Midland Grand Hotel (see St Pancras Renaissance Hotel), added his own voice.
Cathedral Close
Unlike many other of the great churches in England, crowded in cities over, the cathedral of Salisbury is surrounded by open space. The Cathedral Close, or designated land around the church surrounded by a protective wall, still remaining on the north and east side, is the largest of its kind in the country. King Edward III granted permission for the crenellations of the wall in 1327 shortly after succeeding to the throne after the deposing and later gruesome murder of his father at Berkeley Castle (see Edward II Cell Berkeley Castle) and burial at Gloucester (see Gloucester Cathedral Edward II Tomb). Within the grounds of the close are the Salisbury Museum, the Arundells, former home of Prime Minister Edward Heath, and the Rifles Regimental Museum (see Rifles Berkshire and Wiltshire Regimental Museum).
Magna Carta
The other main attraction of visitors at Salisbury Cathedral is it’s repository of one of the best preserved surviving copies of the Magna Carta from 1215. It is thought that Elias Dereham, a priest and steward of the Bishop of Canterbury, obtained a copy at Runnymede and brought it to the church at Old Sarum. During 2015, the 800th Anniversary of the signing of the Great Charter by King John, a special exhibition is being offered to tell the story of the Magna Carta and connection to Salisbury, told through and interactive animation which presents the document’s creation in response to the rebellion of the barons against the powers of the king, and foundations of the English parliament and western democracy. The exhibition also offers manuscript treasures from the archive not publicly displayed before, as well as interpreting the medieval frieze painting surrounding the Chapter House.
Visiting Salisbury Cathedral and Magna Carta
The cathedral is open every day. The opening times for the Magna Carta exhibit are Monday to Saturday from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and 12 noon to 4:30 om on Sundays. Admission to the church is officially free but a donation is suggested, £7.50 for adults, £6.50 for seniors and £4.50 for students. Tower tours need to be reserved and cost £12.50 for adults, £8.00 for children and £30.00 for a family (2 adults + 3 children). Scheduled tours run at least once a day for 12 months of the year and last about 90 minutes. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Salisbury Cathedral
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