Salisbury Cathedral: Gothic Home of the Magna Carta

You're one sentence in and I'm yelling "Salisbury is a CITY, not a TOWN!" at the screen. You know, one of those royal charter cathedral cities.

You could do an entire episode on Gothic Architecture. It was, in its time, an incredible innovation in architecture, and goodness knows - each cathedral was a 'mega-project' of its own. And the style holds up, beautifully.

I had the privilege of visiting Salisbury Cathedral and seeing their copy of the Magna Carta in August 1993. My group took the tower tour, though could not go inside the tower due to renovations. Our guide told us the cathedral was built on the only ground that could support its immense weight. Our guide told us if it would have been built a hundred feet in any direction, the foundation would not have been stable in the swampy ground and probably would not have survived to today. A beautiful building.

Salisbury native here, I went to school at Bishop Wordsworth's which is right next door to the cathedral, this video certainly brings me some nostalgia. It's a bit generous of you to say it was built to last, it's had scaffolding around it for at least the last 15 years, probably longer. Although I had school assemblies in the cathedral about 50 times and have been up to the highest observation platform a few times I'd forgotten a lot of the stuff you covered in this video. Although it might not be the most thrilling topic in the world I certainly appreciated it 🙂 thank you Simon

I wish I'd had a better appreciation for this beautiful place when I went to England for the first time ten years ago. I was SO hungover from trying to pub crawl the night before in Hammersmith that I ended up spending my time at the cathedral napping under a tree. I did get some nice photos of the outside, but didn't want to throw up inside a church, so we didn't go in... I will never forget how beautiful the town and cathedral are.

I had the fortune to visit the area in 2015. I was able to visit Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Old Sarum. Amazing places!!!

Salisbury Cathedral is magnificent. I would love to visit it in person. The stain glass windows are incredible and the light in the church with the gray stone is amazing. This architectural wonder is truly a work of art. Thanks Simon, this is my favorite mega-project as yet.

"Doctor" comes from a Latin word meaning "teacher". "Doctrine" is a cognate. The statutes of doctors at the Cathedral's west front are "Doctors of the Church", a title given to noteworthy theologians, such as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, John Chrysostom and so on.

It boggles my mind to see all that detailed stonework and realize that every inch of it was carved by skilled men with very basic tools. Think of the number of hours needed for just one piece, so a great many skilled stonemasons were required, year after year after year. All those statues had to be carved by artists, a lot of them. A major chunk of the local economy would be consumed in this project, and the population managed to support it.

Two things I remember about Salisbury; one funny, one serious. The surface of the water in the font is incredibly smooth and never shows so much as a ripple. Women touring the cathedral have been known to mistake it for a solid surface and try to set their purses on it, to hilarious effect. I visited there for a week in, if I recall correctly, 2010. My wife's church choir sang services there while the boys of the cathedral choir were on school vacation. I have visited a lot of churches, but I have never been so warmly or comprehensively welcomed anywhere. Of all the cathedrals we sang in, none has the place in our hearts that Salisbury does.

This is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. I took a trip to England, specifically to visit Salisbury for a week. Exploring the town and visiting the cathedral every day is one of my fondest memories from my pre covid days when i was an avid traveler.

Been to many cathedrals and Salisbury is definitely my favorite! Such a beautiful cathedral

38 years, long for Megaprojects, short for cathedrals.

Gotta do Lincoln cathedral, tallest structure in the world for a while. Moved to Lincoln from USA 3 years ago and it’s always a great sight to see.

Salisbury Cathedral has been on my list of places to visit when I eventually get to visit the UK. It was truly mega for its time.

As a Wiltshire resident, great to see an excellent production dedicated to this important county. One other suggestion is Buckfast abbey, built in a similar time period by 4 monks, only 1 of which was vaguely trained in masonry.

Lincoln Cathedral also has a copy of the Magna Carta. There were several that were spread about the country to publicise it.

More cathedral mega projects!!!

Pretty nice of you Simon to upload this amazing piece of Gothic architecture when my architecture history class had just finished the subject on Gothic architecture. Awesome video as always.

As a history nerd, I really enjoyed this one. Please do more episodes on historical structures and buildings.