Blackburn Cathedral

Today's the day ..................... to tell you about the Cathedral

This is Blackburn Cathedral - where I shall spend most of my time for the next fortnight - and a very fine place it is too. It wasn't actually designated a proper cathedral until 1926. Before that it was the parish church of St Mary the Virgin and this original church now forms the cathedral's nave.

In the early 1930s, fundraising began to enlarge the cathedral so that the building complemented its newfound importance. Although work was interrupted by the war, it was resumed afterwards and continued through the 1950s and into the early 1960s. Architect Laurence King joined the project and designed the distinctive lantern tower. The cathedral was finally completed in 1977 and what had been built over the past decades was finally consecrated as Blackburn Cathedral.

We often hold the Roadshow in a cathedral and you can imagine how cold and draughty they can be in the month of February. Blackburn, by contrast, has underfloor heating and is as warm as toast.

A real treat I can tell you ........................!