Famous Wonders

Inside Salisbury Cathedral
Photo by: Andrew®, Creative Commons

Salisbury cathedral is an Anglican cathedral found in Salisbury, England. Salisbury cathedral is also known as Cathedral of Saint Mary. Back in 2008, the cathedral celebrated its 750th anniversary. It was in the same year when they decided to do some relighting works in the cathedral and the cathedral won the Lighting Design award in the heritage level or category. The new statue of Canon Ezra was also installed in the west front of the cathedral. The cathedral is known to posses the world’s oldest working clock from 1386 AD. The clock has no face because all clock way back then rang on an hourly basis. The clock was originally placed in a bell tower that was demolished way back in 1972 and they had already forgotten about the clock until the year 1929. It is said that the clock was found sitting in the attic. They decided to restore the clock to order in 1956 and some remedial work was done in 2007.

The cathedral also holds one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. Magna Carta is also known as the Great Charter. One part of this charter gives the right to allow appeals against any unlawful imprisonment. This charter indeed created much controversy back then.

The cathedral is mainly the subject for John Constable’s famous paintings. Back in 1825, as a gesture of appreciation for the Bishop of Salibury known as John Fisher, John Constable decided to include the bishop and his wife in the painting or canvass. After two centuries, the paintings only had minor changes or discoloration. William Golding also used the cathedral as subject for his novel known as The Spire. In the famous Sarum novel of Edward Rutherfurd, he used the cathedral as a human settlement. Indeed the cathedral played a vital role in many occasions.