Salisbury | Salisbury Cathedral
As a day trip out of London, Salisbury is wonderful. Although its near Stonehenge, for a really magical experience, skip the crowded tourist trap and visit the cathedral instead. Salisbury cathedral is the most staggeringly beautiful medieval building in England. It was started in 1220, finished in the same century and not touched since then which makes it completely unique. It also houses a copy of the Magna Carta and glorious medieval friezes. But you can read all about that on their web site!
The unique thing about the cathedral is the Tower Tour. The cathedral stone mason will take a small group up into the cathedral roof and give a tour showing all of the beam work, close up views of the lovely stained glass and then up into the huge spire itself.
As its the actual stonemason, the commentary is very knowledgeable and fascinating. We saw carvings dating back to the 1400’s by previous stone masons and sad testiments to workers who had fallen to their death! The tour ends as you emerge from the spire to look over all of Salisbury.
Sometimes the Cathedral will be trying to raise funds and you can buy a small piece of glass to go into one of the windows being repaired. You can write something on it yourself and add a little personal history to this wonderful building. It’s rare that they do this but you never know, you might be lucky!