DAYTRIP: ELY CATHEDRAL

Our friend Warren (he of Elphinstone Secondary past and teaching in Scotland Hell present) was visiting us in Cambridge this week and we took the opportunity to take a daytrip to the neighbouring village of Ely. Ely has the distinction of being one of the only settlements on any sort of a hill in the entire fen area of East Anglia (in which Cambridge is located); it also has a cool name and a famous cathedral. More on the cathedral in a moment, first let's talk about the name.

I may have mentioned in the past how nifty I think British names are: how can anyone dislike Smithy's Fen, Ducksford, or Diss? Like most settlements on this island, Ely came by its name honestly - derived from "Island of Eels" because the higher ground on which the village was built used to be an island (pre-1000 AD), and the surrounding waters (which were eventually drained to created the fens) were full of eels. Apparently fried eels are still a local delicacy, although we declined to taste this morsel.

Back to the cathedral. Ely Cathedral is the seat of the Ely Diocese (which inlcudes Cambridge) and it has been a religious site since 673 AD. Originally a Benedictine monastery, the cathedral and surrounding grounds have a fascinating history that is far too complex for me to go into here - the hour and a half tour we took of the building barely touched on all the details - but the most interesting information, to me, was what happened to the cathedral and its sculptures during the Dissolution (1500s at the behest of Henry VIII and the formation of the Church of England, if I recall correctly). So much history destroyed during that period and they've been trying to recover it ever since.

It's impossible to capture the magnificance of the building on (digital!) film, but here's a few shots to give you an idea of what it was like:


Outside the cathedral


The cathedral from the side


Leading up to the altar, as seen from the transept


The altar


One of over a hundred stained glass windows


The organ, two stories high


The nave with painted wooden ceiling

The nave is one of the longest in England and has a very unusual painted wooden ceiling; the tower at the transept is unique and the structure is so heavy that the cathedral is unable to maintain a proper belfry because it would cause the entire section to collapse. The organ has over 5000 pipes and we heard a few notes as the boy's choir was preparing for Evensong; what an amazing sound.

The cathedral is surrounded by grounds that used to be the monastery; of prime interest to me was this field with two beautiful draft horse and their foals (took a lot of photos of the foals but I'll keep them to a minimum here!):







And no trip to Ely is complete without a trip to Oliver Cromwell's (of the English Revolution and Protectorate) house:



What a great day!