Cathedral sights in The Marches
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Hereford Cathedral
After Welsh marauders torched the original Saxon cathedral, the Norman rulers of Hereford erected a larger, grander cathedral on the same site, which was subsequently remodelled in a succession of medieval architectural styles.
The signature highlight is the magnificent Mappa Mundi (see p000), a single piece of calfskin vellum intricately painted with some rather fantastical assumptions about the layout of the globe in around 1290. The same wing contains the world's largest surviving chained library of rare manuscripts manacled to the shelves, kept in a moisture and temperature controlled room. The collection includes a first edition of Dr Johnson's A Dictionary of the…
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Worcester Cathedral
Rising beautifully above the River Severn, Worcester's majestic cathedral is best known as the final resting place of Magna Carta signatory King John.
With its colossal Gothic arches, stained glass creating a kaleidoscope of colour and the exquisitely painted vaulted ceiling of the choir, the cathedral interior is magnificent. John's tomb is just one of many grand memorials dotted around, from the ostentatious mausoleums of bishops and earls to the worn graves of forgotten Crusader knights. Beneath it all is an atmospheric Norman crypt, constructed in 1084 by St Wulfstan, the only Saxon bishop to hang on to his seat after the Norman invasion. Other highlights include a…
reviewed