St. Houblon

Storksrock had a ladybird book of cathedrals as a kid and was fascinated by the lantern at Ely cathedral but had never seen it. So today with P & T we went to see it. The cathedral is incredible 900 years old but the Norman tower fell down 600 years ago. It damaged some of the surrounding walls when it came down. So when they rebuilt they ended up with this whole in the middle of the cross shape of the church. Their solution was the octagonal lantern which is made of wood. 8 oak trees support the weight of the 200 tons of wood and 200 tons of lead roof sit on top.

For our tour we ascended one spiral staircase to roof level then out along the church roof and into the tower. The next staircase was accessed by a 4ft high 'hobbit'door then the spiral was so tight it was not even a shoulders width wide. Not one for the claustrophobic. When we got to lantern level the guide opened a couple of the painted panels for us. It's a long way back down to ground!

Not sure who this chap is in the open panel but I don't think he's contemporary with the artwork....