Salisbury~ a city in the countryside

One of the websites that encourages people to visit Salisbury says that Salisbury is "a city in the countryside that retains much of it's historic past with timbered buildings, an Early English Gothic Cathedral, a thriving market, a buzzing arts scene, museums and some of England's finest historic houses waiting to be explored."  Tom and I found this to be true on a day trip to this cathedral city last May.  

Rapeseed fields create a sea of yellow from the train window

Salisbury is southwest of London about 1 1/2 hours from Waterloo Station.   Ken Follett's very popular book, The Pillars of the Earth, tells the story of the building of a beautiful medieval cathedral similar to Salisbury Cathedral.  His fictitious town, Kingsbridge, was located not far from Salisbury.  Salisbury Cathedral was built in 38 years (considered a short amount of time for a medieval cathedral) and was the inspiration for Ken Follett's book.  

Salisbury Cathedral is also known for having one of four copies of the Magna Carta 1215 that is housed in the Chapter House. 

The cathedral has Britain's tallest spire

The Cloisters are Britain's largest

A few of the old testament patriarchs and prophets statues on the West Front

You can get an idea of the height and enormity of the cathedral by looking at the people in the front.

The Salisbury Cathedral clock dates from about A.D. 1386  and is supposedly the oldest working clock in the modern world. The clock has no face because all clocks of that date rang out the hours on a bell.

the length of the nave is 230 feet!

Salisbury Cathedral has a stained glass department where the design, manufacture, repair and conservation of stained glass and leaded lights is offered as a service to organizations outside of the Cathedral.

 the side of the Cathedral looking at the Cloisters

The wisteria were in full bloom in May

Another historic, but lesser known church in Salisbury is the Church of St. Thomas and St. Edmund.   It was believed to be a place of worship for the men working on the new Cathedral.  This painting is called The Doom Painting.  Doom in Anglo-Saxon means Judgement, and medieval representations of the Last Judgement were very common in churches through few are left today.  This was painted in  about 1470.

St. Ann's Gate~ One of the five gates, built in the 14th century into the town of Salisbury.  

Look closely at the right side of this gargoyle face.  ouch!

We ended our day trip to Salisbury with a walk around the town, passing buildings and a market that are so typical of British towns.

Black pudding, anyone?   No thanks