York
York Minster is one of the biggest Medieval Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe and holds half of all the Medieval stained-glass in England. As the Mother Church of the Northern Province, it’s one of Britain’s most important spiritual centres and the seat not only of a bishop but an archbishop. It costs £20,000 a day to run and employs a full-time staff of 200, including thirty permanent glaziers and stonemasons, as well as 500 volunteers. Read more
Durham
Durham Cathedral was founded in 1093 when the Byzantine empire was in its heyday, the Nubian kingdom was at the peak of its power and Vikings were still roaming Europe. Today the Byzantines are gone and Vikings confined to fancy dress parties, but Durham Cathedral still stands and its soaring architecture remains, in the words of Sir Walter Scott, ‘Half church of God, half castle ‘gainst the Scot’. Read more
Ripon
Ripon cathedral may hold the body of one of the greatest early saints of England and might just have provided the inspiration for one of the best-known books in the English language. But we do know this for sure. While this is not the oldest church building in the UK, the 7th-century crypt at Ripon dates from 672 and predates every existing cathedral in the country. Read more
Wakefield
The spire of Wakefield Cathedral is the tallest in Yorkshire. At 75 metres, it dominates the skyline for miles around. But the honour of marking the area as a place of Christian worship for 1,000 years goes to a much smaller and humbler monument. So humble, in fact, it was discovered being used as a lowly doorstep in a barber’s shop in Westgate back in the 1800s. Read more
Sheffield
Political intrigue and power struggles. Royal prisoners. England’s most famous cardinal on the run. A queen in bondage. Sheffield has seen it all and the cathedral has been central to much of the action. But if you view cathedrals as remote lofty spaces, standing apart from modern times and outside contemporary culture, a visit to Sheffield may cure you. Read more
Bradford
The entry for Bradford in the Domesday Book, 1086 merely records ‘Ilbert hath it. It is waste’. But from those inauspicious beginnings, Bradford has grown from a crossing place that became a market to an important industrial town and multi-cultural city. And the city’s cathedral, which received its status in 1919, reflects this history throughout the building with its memorials, shrines and stories. Read on
St Giles, Edinburgh
A place of worship for nearly 900 years, St Giles Cathedral has played a tumultuous part in Scottish history and has been a legendary scene of revolts and reconciliations. Today, as well as being Edinburgh’s chief seat of worship and a spiritual centre for the community, it holds a special place within its walls for royalty. And dogs. Read on
St Machar’s, Aberdeen
It had an auspicious beginning but has also been the site of much destruction and dispute, attacked by wars, the Reformation and the weather. It’s thought to be the final resting place for Scotland’s famous hero William Wallace. Well, part of him at least. It’s said that in 1305 the left quarter of his body was brought to Aberdeen after his grisly execution in London by Edward I and interred within the wall of the new cathedral. Read on
Cathedrals of Britain: North of England and Scotland by Bernadette Fallon is published by Pen and Sword books, £12.99, buy online here
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Around the UK in 30 cathedrals
Cathedrals of Britain: London and the South East – Canterbury, St Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, Southwark, Westminster Cathedral, Rochester, Chichester
Cathedrals of Britain: West, South West and Wales – Winchester, Salisbury, Wells, Gloucester, Exeter, St Davids, St Asaph’s
Cathedrals of Britain: East and Central – Ely, Lichfield, Norwich, Lincoln, Peterborough, St Edmundsbury, Oxford
Image credit: York Cathedral