Salisbury Cathedral

It's been way too long since I've written about our last day spent in England celebrating our Golden Anniversary.  Maybe I've secretly not wanted our anniversary trip to end. Some of you may remember me writing about this trip.  If you wish to read all about it, I have been posting in order under the tab above labeled Great Britain.  This month we will be celebrating our 54th anniversary.  Though that gives me pause, I feel the strong desire to finally put this last day we spent for our 50th together and end this trip--well kind of.  Thank goodness my travel journal and photos keep this trip alive in our minds and certainly it is alive in our hearts.

Visiting cathedrals are so special to Grayden and I when we travel.  So we ended our time on our Golden Celebration in Salisbury Cathedral.  We had just a short walk in the early morning to visit this wonderful house of worship.  In a few hours we need to be traveling down to Southampton to board the Queen Mary II for our transatlantic trip back home.

Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a magnificent living house of worship.  Its spire is the tallest in the UK at 404 feet tall.  The early English Gothic architecture was completed in 1258.  The spire was built in 1320.  Spires on churches add enormous weight to the structures.  The spire here added 6397 tons to the cathedral and created problems as you can imagine.  Anchor irons and buttresses had to be added or the spire would have certainly fallen under the weight!  Additional beams were added in 1668 when Christopher Wren had tie beams added above the crossing.  Then a false ceiling was added to hide those beams below the lantern stage of the tower.

Salisbury Cathedral also houses one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta!  So much to learn and see in this beautiful place!  My journal tells me that upon entering a morning service was being held.  The children's orchestra was playing along with the magnificent organ.

Lift up your hearts!

We felt priviledged to be visiting at such a time.  Listening to the sermon of the parable of the Good Samaritan being delivered along with the music brought tears. 

 The cathedral is quite large and so lovely.  There truly is a sacred feeling of reverence as we walked around.

The narrow Nave has the lovely Chilmark stone for the walls and Purbeck marble for the columns.

"The windows of a building are its eyes, within those eyes is a character gained over many years.  Take them away and replace them with new and a lifetime of history is lost."  The Salisbury Cathedral stained glass workshop.

It's wonderful to learn that these lovely windows are being taken care of so intently.

In the north Nave aisle the world's oldest working clock stands.  While we were in Cotehele we were told about the clock there is like the one here at Salisbury Cathedral.  If you would like to see this one you can visit my link Here .

You may want to read about it here.

An unusual Baptismal font was installed in 2008.  The work of William Pye is quite modern and unique in its cruciform shape brimming with water overflowing into the cathedral stone floor.

Stepping outside into the Cloister garden we make our way to the Chapter House that houses one of the copies of the Magna Carta which is Latin for "Great Charter."  This great document clearly was a great influence on the United States Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and other countries constitutions.  The Magna Carta though written in 1215 is quite  extraordinary!

Inside the octagonal Chapter House we await the privilege of viewing the Magna Carta!  Since the sun and lights would damage this incredible document, it is housed in a small white enclosure.  No photos of the document were permitted on our visit.

On the stone seats there is a copy (not one of the originals) that I did photograph.

I can hardly believe the things we have done during this incredible four week visit to Great Britain.  It's so emotional to reflect on our amazing time there!  Our Golden Celebration meant the world to both of us.  Walking hand in hand back to our hotel to retrieve our car we feel incredibly blessed to experience all of this with each other.

This afternoon we will be onboard the Queen Mary II for our journey back home.  I've said it before, she certainly takes the sting out of leaving a place that feels like home.