A few years ago I was watching "The Worst Jobs in History," a series I highly recommend, wherein the host, Tony Robinson, mentioned that there are 24 medieval cathedrals in Britain. Being given a number immediately translated into having a new goal: I will visit all 24 of these cathedrals. Since that time, I've been to one of them (the last on the list), so I'm that much closer to achieving my goal.
The following list is based on what I've been able to glean from different websites (like this one and this one), because I haven't found an "official" list of these medieval cathedrals. A few of them have remarkable features, upon which I shall indeed remark.
23 More-or-Less Medieval Cathedrals of England (I Guess the 24 Either Counts Westminster Abbey, Which Was a Cathedral for 10 Years, or the St Paul's that Burned in the London Fire of 1666)
Bath
Canterbury: Canterbury Cathedral is the site of the murder and consequent shrine of St Thomas à Becket. Because of this, it's the place to which Chaucer and the pilgrims are traveling in "The Canterbury Tales." It's also where the Black Prince is buried.
Carlisle
Chelmsford
Chichester
Christ Church Oxford
Durham: The Venerable Bede is buried here.
Ely
Exeter
Gloucester
Hereford: The cathedral is home to the Hereford Mappamundi, the best extant example of medieval English cartography.
Lichfield
Lincoln
Norwich
Peterborough: Catherine of Aragon is buried in the churchyard.
Rochester
Salisbury: Home to an original (1215) copy of the Magna Carta.
Southwark: Shakespeare attended services at this cathedral, which now has a memorial to him and a special service each year on his birthday. John Harvard, who would later found a college in Massachusetts, was baptized here.
St Albans
Wells: Wells Cathedral features scissor arches, and according to my cursory Google search, it may be the only place in the whole wide world with Gothic scissor arches. Furthermore, Hot Fuzz was filmed in Wells, director Edgar Wright's hometown, and the cathedral towers were painted out of many scenes.
Winchester: Jane Austen is buried here.
Worcester
York
(In regards to the title of the list, Westminster Abbey currently isn't a cathedral [bishop's seat]. There is a Westminster Cathedral in London, but it was built in the 19th century, and who cares about the 19th century.)
Related Sites But Also Not Technically Cathedrals
Canterbury: Canterbury Cathedral is the site of the murder and consequent shrine of St Thomas à Becket. Because of this, it's the place to which Chaucer and the pilgrims are traveling in "The Canterbury Tales." It's also where the Black Prince is buried.
Carlisle
Chelmsford
Chichester
Christ Church Oxford
Durham: The Venerable Bede is buried here.
Ely
Exeter
Gloucester
Hereford: The cathedral is home to the Hereford Mappamundi, the best extant example of medieval English cartography.
Lichfield
Lincoln
Norwich
Peterborough: Catherine of Aragon is buried in the churchyard.
Rochester
Salisbury: Home to an original (1215) copy of the Magna Carta.
Southwark: Shakespeare attended services at this cathedral, which now has a memorial to him and a special service each year on his birthday. John Harvard, who would later found a college in Massachusetts, was baptized here.
St Albans
Wells: Wells Cathedral features scissor arches, and according to my cursory Google search, it may be the only place in the whole wide world with Gothic scissor arches. Furthermore, Hot Fuzz was filmed in Wells, director Edgar Wright's hometown, and the cathedral towers were painted out of many scenes.
Winchester: Jane Austen is buried here.
Worcester
York
(In regards to the title of the list, Westminster Abbey currently isn't a cathedral [bishop's seat]. There is a Westminster Cathedral in London, but it was built in the 19th century, and who cares about the 19th century.)
Related Sites But Also Not Technically Cathedrals
Battle
Abbey: Founded by William the Conqueror in 1070 on the site of the Battle of Hastings.
Fountains Abbey: The gorgeous ruins of a monastery in Yorkshire, once again brought low by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII's plundering and sale of Catholic sites during the English Reformation. I could get quite upset with Henry if I thought about the Dissolution too much; same goes for Cromwell after the Civil War.
Fountains Abbey: The gorgeous ruins of a monastery in Yorkshire, once again brought low by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII's plundering and sale of Catholic sites during the English Reformation. I could get quite upset with Henry if I thought about the Dissolution too much; same goes for Cromwell after the Civil War.
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