Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is called the Ship of the Fens, and on the flat land of Cambridgeshire you understand why: its towers are visible for miles across the drained fields, riding above the little city like a hull on water. It began as an abbey founded in 672 by St Etheldreda, an East Anglian princess, whose shrine drew pilgrims for centuries. The Norman church was started in 1083, it became a cathedral in 1109, and its nave — one of the longest in Britain — is still pure Romanesque, a long march of round arches in three tiers.

The reason to come, though, is a disaster turned into a masterpiece. On the night of 12–13 February 1322 the Norman central tower collapsed. Instead of rebuilding it, the monks, led by the sacrist Alan of Walsingham, opened the crossing into a great stone octagon and crowned it with a timber lantern that seems to float above the vault. Stand directly beneath it and look up: the lantern's panels are painted with angel musicians, and the whole thing is carried by a hidden timber frame that could not be built the same way today, because trees that big no longer exist.

Next door, the free-standing Lady Chapel, begun in 1321 in the richly carved Decorated style, has held since 2000 a life-size statue of the Virgin by David Wynne. The Victorian painted ceiling of the nave, started by Henry Styleman Le Strange and finished by Thomas Gambier Parry, shows scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Up in the south triforium is the Stained Glass Museum, a national collection of windows from the thirteenth century to the present, many rescued from redundant churches.

Getting there

The cathedral is in the centre of Ely, about 0.2 km from the heart of the city. Ely railway station is a busy junction with trains to London, Birmingham and the north. London Stansted Airport (STN) is about 57 km away, with direct trains between the airport and Ely.