Lincoln Cathedral Interior

So what's it like inside?

Light, airy, high, long. The eye travels to what one thinks is the nomral human length of a building, but then has to keep going, higher, further. It's quiet. People all around, not crowds, but people. Talking quietly, just above a whisper. Pointing to this or that, or reading some inscription.

We took a tour today of the roof (inside). Up multiple winding spiral staircases and out onto timber landings inside the roof cavity above the vaulted ceilings. Lots of oak. Traditional tools used still.

A slow meander around the floor of the cathedral. Stopping here and there to look at a tomb, at least one Queen buried there, and the mother of Henry VII, the first Tudor, so almost another Queen. A saint. Saint Hugh. WIlliam Byrd, the famous English Renaissance composer was chief musician here. A replica of the organ he played stands proudly in ornamental red.

A look through the Chapter House, a decadonal building that at one time was used by Knights Templar and Hospitalers, held up by one majestic pillar in the centre. We went into the roof above it to see how they did it. A maze, our guide called it a spider's web, of oak beams in the most astonishing engineering to distribute the weight evenly and down.

A wonderful and quite other wordly day.Read more