Salisbury Cathedral

In February 2016, the cathedral chapter placed Sophie Ryder's sculpture The Kiss straddling a path on the grounds where it was to remain until July. After only a few days, the work had to be moved, as pedestrians kept bumping into it while texting.[15]

On 25 October 2018, there was an attempted theft of the cathedral's copy of Magna Carta; the alarms were triggered and a 45-year-old man was later detained on suspicion of attempted theft, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon. The outer layer of a double-layered glass case containing the document was broken, but the document suffered no damage.[16] In January 2020 Mark Royden, from Kent, was found guilty of the attempted theft, which caused £14,466 of damage, and of criminal damage.[17]

From 16 January 2021, while closed to services during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cathedral was used to accommodate the vaccination programme in the United Kingdom, a day after Lichfield Cathedral became the first place of worship to become part of the immunisation plan against the pandemic in England.[18][19] A selection of music was played on the organ as people received their vaccinations.[18]

The west front is of the screen-type, clearly deriving from that at Wells. It is composed of a stair turret at each extremity, with two niched buttresses nearer the centre line supporting the large central triple window. The stair turrets are topped with spirelets, and the central section is topped by a gable which contains four lancet windows topped by two round quatrefoil windows surmounted by a mandorla containing Christ in Majesty. At ground level there is a principal door flanked by two smaller doors. The whole is highly decorated with quatrefoil motifs, columns, trefoil motifs and bands of diapering.

The west front was almost certainly constructed at the same time as the cathedral.[20] This is apparent from the way in which the windows coincide with the interior spaces. The entire facade is about 108 feet (33 m) high and wide. It lacks full-scale towers and/or spires as can be seen, for example at Wells, Lincoln, Lichfield, etc.[21] The facade was disparaged by Alec Clifton-Taylor, who considered it the least successful of the English screen facades and a travesty of its prototype (Wells). He found the composition to be uncoordinated, and the Victorian statuary "poor and insipid".[22]

The front accommodates over 130 shallow niches of varying sizes, 73 of which contain a statue. The line of niches extends round the turrets to the north, south and east faces. There are five levels of niches (not including the mandorla) which show, from the top, angels and archangels, Old Testament patriarchs, apostles and evangelists, martyrs, doctors and philosophers and, on the lower level, royalty, priests and worthy people connected with the cathedral. The majority of the statues were placed during the middle of the 19th century, however seven are from the 14th century and several have been installed within the last decade.

The nave, with William Pye's decorative font visible in the foreground

Salisbury Cathedral is unusual for its tall and narrow nave, which has visual accentuation from the use of light grey Chilmark stone for the walls and dark polished Purbeck marble for the columns. It has three levels: a tall pointed arcade, an open gallery and a small clerestory.[23] Lined up between the pillars are notable tombs such as that of William Longespée, half brother of King John and the illegitimate son of Henry II, who was the first person to be buried in the cathedral.[24]

Another unusual feature of the nave is an unconventional modern font, installed in September 2008.[25] Designed by the water sculptor William Pye, it is the largest working font in any British cathedral, and replaced an earlier portable neo-Gothic Victorian font. The font is cruciform in shape, and has a 10-foot-wide vessel filled to its brim with water, designed so that the water overflows in filaments through each corner into bronze gratings embedded in the cathedral's stone floor. The project cost £180,000 and was funded entirely by donations. Some parishioners reportedly objected to the new font, considering it 'change for change's sake', although Pye argued that the majority opinion was in favour: "I would say 90 per cent are in happy anticipation, five per cent are nervously expectant and five per cent are probably apoplectic".[26]

The medieval clock

The chapter house is notable for its octagonal shape, slender central pillar and decorative medieval frieze. It was redecorated in 1855–9 by William Burges. The frieze, which circles the interior above the stalls, depicts scenes and stories from the books of Genesis and Exodus, including Adam and Eve, Noah, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The chapter house displays the best-preserved of the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta.[27] This copy came to Salisbury because Elias of Dereham, who was present at Runnymede in 1215, was given the task of distributing some of the original copies. Elias later became a canon of Salisbury and supervised the construction of the cathedral.

The Salisbury Cathedral clock, which dates from about AD 1386, is supposedly the oldest working modern clock in the world.[28] The clock has no face; all clocks of that date rang out the hours on a bell. It was originally located in a bell tower that was demolished in 1792. Following this demolition, the clock was moved to the Cathedral Tower, where it was in operation until 1884. The clock was then placed in storage and forgotten until it was discovered in an attic of the cathedral in 1928. It was repaired and restored to working order in 1956. In 2007, remedial work and repairs were carried out.[29]

Throughout its history, there have been several organs in the cathedral. Of particular interest are the two fine four-manual instruments, the first by Renatus Harris (c. 1652–1724), which was replaced at the end of the 18th century, and the current organ, whose present fame has eclipsed the reputation of the former.[37]

The four-manual instrument by Harris had been installed in 1710. The abundance of reed stops was typical of Harris' instruments and bears witness to the influence of the classical French organ. The instrument, not only spectacular in style but also of good quality, had remained practically unaltered (beyond occasional repairs) for nearly 80 years, until it was replaced at the same time as the cathedral was "restored" by James Wyatt between 1789 and 1792: the Bishop had convinced George III to furnish the cathedral with a new instrument once the work was complete.[37]

This organ, by Samuel Green, was presented by the king in 1792[38] and was installed on top of the stone screen, which, unusually, did not divide the choir from the nave, but rather came from an unknown location in the cathedral.[39] The organ was later taken out and moved to St Thomas's Church.[40] When the new Willis organ was installed, its distinct sound from 55 powerfully-voiced stops, directly in the choir with little casework, was quite a contrast to Green's more gentle 23-stop instrument.[37]

The present-day instrument was built in 1877 by Henry Willis & Sons.[41] Walter Alcock, who was organist of the cathedral from 1916, oversaw a strictly faithful restoration of the famous Father Willis organ, completed in 1934,[42] even going to such lengths as to refuse to allow parts of the instrument to leave the cathedral in case any unauthorised tonal alterations were made without his knowledge,[43] while allowing some discrete additions in the original style of the organ (as well as modernisation of the organ's actions) by Henry Willis III, the grandson of Father Willis.[44] The instrument was extensively restored between 2019 and 2020.[37]

It is recorded that in 1463 John Kegewyn was organist of Salisbury Cathedral. Among the notable organists of more recent times have been a number of composers and well-known performers including Bertram Luard-Selby, Charles Frederick South, Walter Alcock, David Valentine Willcocks, Douglas Albert Guest, Christopher Dearnley, Richard Godfrey Seal and the BBC presenter Simon Lole.

Salisbury Cathedral Choir holds annual auditions for boys and girls aged 7–9 years old for scholarships to Salisbury Cathedral School, which housed in the former Bishop's Palace. The boys' choir and the girls' choir (each 16 strong) sing alternate daily Evensong and Sunday Matins and Eucharist services throughout the school year. There are also many additional services during the Christian year particularly during Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter. The Advent From Darkness to Light services are the best known. Choristers come from across the country and some board. Six lay vicars (adult men) comprise the rest of the choir, singing tenor, alto and bass parts. In 1993, the cathedral was the venue for the first broadcast of Choral Evensong (the long-running BBC Radio 3 programme) to be sung by a girls' cathedral choir.[45]