In late April, I visited Salisbury Cathedral in the south-west of England. It’s only an hour from where I live in Bath. I’ve used the cathedral as one of the settings for my ARKANE thriller, End of Days, and revisited it as part of my research for a new project on Gothic Cathedrals.
Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest spire in the United Kingdom, standing at 404 feet (123 meters). It has had scaffolding around it for the last 38 years so I was lucky to be able to see it newly uncovered.
Unlike many medieval cathedrals built over centuries with varying styles, Salisbury Cathedral was constructed within a relatively short period (1220-1258). This gives it a consistent Early English Gothic style, which is rare as most other cathedrals blend styles as they were constructed over longer periods.
The West front includes nearly 80 statues of saints, bishops, and kings.
The nave as seen from the choir.
One of the beautiful scissor arches, which help support the cathedral spire. In the centre, you can just make out a silver figure. It’s a sculpture, ‘an angel for our modern world, GRIP (Net) by Antony Gormley.
I always love to look up in cathedrals. This is the ceiling above the choir looking towards the altar, with the Moses window at the end (more detail below).
Above the altar is a dramatic glass window portraying Moses and the brazen serpent from Numbers 21:4-9, “Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.” This unusual image is why I included it in End of Days, which is based around the emergence of the ‘great serpent’ from Revelation.
The cathedral has what is considered the oldest working mechanical clock in the world, dating from around 1386, and originally built to ring the bells for services.
Next to the clock are tattered flags, Regimental colors, alongside war memorials. According to military tradition, old colors are retired in a special ceremony and left to hang until they fall apart, then buried in an unmarked grave in sacred ground.
There were some art works hanging on the walls in one wing. I liked The Eye of the Storm by John Maine (2022), which is made from fragments of tiles from the cathedral floor.
Salisbury Cathedral is home to one of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta, dating back to 1215. You can see it in the cathedral’s circular Chapter House, which also has a glorious ceiling.
It’s always lovely to walk around Cloisters in a cathedral, and on the day I visited, there was birdsong from around the world piped into the corridors.
There is a small garden in the centre which you can see through the decorative arches.
As part of my research, I went on a tour of the Mason’s Yard, which is available to book on the cathedral’s website. The main work of the masons is repairing and replacing blocks of stone, gargoyles, carvings, and elements of architecture over time.
Each piece is recorded in detail. Here’s a close up of one of the records.
Salisbury Cathedral is primarily constructed from Chilmark stone, a type of limestone quarried locally in Chilmark, Wiltshire. This stone has been used because it is relatively easy to carve yet durable, making it suitable for the elaborate architectural details seen throughout the cathedral. The cathedral also features Purbeck marble, used for the finer details in the interior columns and decorations. Purbeck ‘marble’ isn’t a true marble in the geological sense; it is actually a hard, dense variety of limestone.
It was interesting to see the blocks of stone ready for carving in the yard. In the photo below, you can see a mason’s mark, and a block of stone with its reference number, corresponding to a place in the cathedral where it will fit later.
The cutting and carving is done in a workshop with huge extractor fans for the health and safety of the masons. The photo below also shows some of the tools used.
One area in the masons’ building included an inspiration wall for the more elaborate carvings.
It was a cold spring day, but I really enjoyed my visit. You can find out more and book tours on the Salisbury Cathedral website. The cathedral is a short walk from Salisbury train station.
