Group visits all Anglican cathedrals in country
A group of friends from Shrewsbury have completed their challenge of visiting all the Anglican cathedrals in the country.
Brian Newman, Jonathan Hislop, Ashley Fraser and Nigel O'Connor set themselves the task at the end of 2013 and finished the 42 visits with a tour of Hereford Cathedral earlier this month.
Mr O'Connor, an archivist, said the group now plans to start on Simon Jenkins's England's Thousand Best Churches - starting with his 20 "five stars".
He said: "The motivation for this endeavour was curiosity about the history, and the buildings but also because to misquote a mountaineer or three 'because they were there'.
"It also gave us the opportunity to trek round our rail network and enjoy good lunches in distant towns.
"Our medieval cathedrals are amazing architectural achievements which took decades to build and are impressive in themselves but they also reflect the nation’s history. "Christianity may have declining congregations but in the middle ages it was central to English life at every level."
He added: "A few of my favourite examples include the murder of Thomas A’Becket at Canterbury, the effect of the plague in 14th Century – when the drop in stonemasons led to the columns in Worcester being crudely carved on one side of the nave compared to the other when the columns had been carved earlier.
"Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and the Civil War, led to 'traditional' religion being proscribed and cathedrals were often used to house troops and men and many were desecrated.
"Then during the war St Paul’s suffered huge damage but was kept going by fire-watchers. Each of us had a personal favourite: Salisbury, St Paul’s, Lincoln and Ely but we did love all the medieval cathedrals but were often less impressed by many of the later ones.
"We were very lucky to have amazing guides who would fill us in on the local events which shaped the cathedrals and since Jonathan is an expert on geology and Brian on organs and organists there was often lively interchange.
"So it was uplifting and I have kept a history of each trip but no it is not going into a book because many excellent books have already been written, and some of the notes might be considered light-hearted – if not actually scurrilous."
