Zero and I recently ventured out on the railway (taking advantage of the half price rail fares at the time) for a visit to Salisbury. We could have planned our visit a bit more carefully to take in Old Sarum, which is a mile or two outside of the city centre, and can be reached by a short bus journey.
We lunched at The Pheasant after arriving; it is a little off the city centre in Salt Street, so you aren't going to come across it without knowing about it. You will also need to check their times for serving food - but we did enjoy our meals there. [Or, on a nice summers day, you could probably take a picnic to eat on the grassed area within the Cathedral close.]
The site at Old Sarum is an English Heritage site, and you can read about it here and here. The first Cathedral in Salisbury was built there, before being abandoned. A result of this is that the "new" Cathedral has a consistent medieval gothic architecture, rather than it being in part a previous build with later gothic additions. It is still a living cathedral in the sense that there are modern day features in addition to the older building. At one point in its history, stained glass was removed from the nave windows with the outcome that the nave appears today very light due to the influx of natural daylight. That having been said, there is a good deal of stained glass present, reflecting the late 19th century as well as earlier influences. We did not follow the stained glass tour, which would no doubt have given much more insight. The Cathedral charge for entry, with a £1 reduction if you book ahead online.
The Chapter House is a round building off the cloister at the side of the Cathedral. It is interesting for those of a scientific or design orientation to realise how very well lit the room is from the windows around it. The Chapter House is where you can see Salisbury Cathedral's copy of the Magna Carta. Whilst there is a very informative display about the document's contents, the viewing of the actual document itself is somewhat underwhelming - the way in which it has been displayed, in subdued lighting, in order to preserve it leaves you with a feeling of "is that all there is?"
The Reformation saw the destruction of the shrine of St Osmund and the removal of statues. A visit will take you to a chantry chapel that was discontinued at this time and its statues removed. The Cathedral experienced very little damage during the Civil War, another period when Cathedrals in England typically suffered. During most of the Civil War, Salisbury was in Royalist hands, with a brief occupation by Parliamentary troops in the winter of 1644-1645, when the cloister was used as a prison.
The prisoners of conscience window was completed in the Cathedral in 1980. A brief account and a photograph can be found here. As the comment here says, we found it very difficult to make out any of the images in the window. This video clip, from 2020, gives an explanation of some of the elements in the window. Whilst prisoners of conscience, even those without religious faith, can certainly look to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus and see in it something of their own experience, I am not sure what I think of the possibility of a reverse representation in this window of Jesus as if he is himself a prisoner of conscience. It seems to me a reductive interpretation of Jesus' death for the salvation of the world.
Perhaps the most remarkable modern feature of Salisbury Cathedral is the baptismal font. My first photograph gives an idea of the position of the font in the nave; the second gives an idea of the power of the reflections that can be seen in the surface. Given the very modern concept of the font - an account by the designer can be found here - it is striking just how much at home the font appears in the Cathedral.
There are one or two museums in the Cathedral Close, but we did not have time to visit them. Perhaps the Salisbury Museum would be the best to see, as it covers the story of Salisbury itself.
Part of the genius of Anglicanism is its ability to be a Church for a wider community, reflected in the readiness for a property such as a Cathedral to be used for non-religious purposes. The nave of Salisbury Cathedral, for example, was at one point, when it was closed to visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, used as a vaccination centre. And Salisbury Cathedral can be hired for events. It is difficult to separate this from the fact that, inevitably, a Cathedral such as Salisbury is a "visitor attraction" as well as being an active place of Christian worship.
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