Gloucester Cathedral

A few weeks ago my friend Sue went to see 'Crucible', an exhibition of sculptures at Gloucester Cathedral. Her post, here, inspired us to get up to Gloucester to see it, something we finally managed yesterday on a warm, sunny, beautiful autumn day. Her photos do it better justice than mine so I will not inflict too many of my efforts on you here. Suffice to say it was a fabulous exhibition in a magnificent setting. We arrived early to avoid any half term crowds but the cathedral was packed by about 11.00. Not surprisingly the exhibition has been extended because of huge visitor numbers and will now end on November 7th. If you live in the vicinity I urge you to go. There are 76 sculptures in situ inside and outside of the cathedral. Some you'll love and some you'll be ambivalent about but all of them provoke you to think about them.

This is Close V by Antony Gormley lying prostrate in a small chamber of its own. Very atmospheric. When I went back later I found a young man also lying prostrate nose to nose with it. How amazing to want to connect with something as much as that. No-one entered the little chamber while he was there. It was if we were all giving him the space he wanted... alternatively it could have been that great British reserve and not wanting to intrude... or plain embarassment that he could do such a thing in such a place....

...but the place was truly magical and somewhere I am ashamed to say I have never been before despite living 'just down the road' for most of my life until my mid 40's. As the sculptures are dotted all over the building you explore most of it whilst searching for them. I got lost in the delight of the tombs, the medieval floor tiles and the nooks and crannies, most of my photos being of the floor and oddities that I came across.

This early 17th century memorial was so detailed but what thrilled me most was the scratching and etching it had been subjected to by years of visitors. It was covered in little marks of graffiti as were walls everywhere. Names and dates were carved into the walls. I found some from 1705, 1763, 1841.... proof that Banksy was not the first graffiti artist in the West Country.

They began building this cathedral in 1089 although it was originally a Benedictine monastery as long ago as 700AD. When Henry VIII started to abolish the monasteries it was saved purely because his ancestor Edward II is interred there so you have an unbroken timeline of worship here for 1300 years. I know Sue is going to visit it again and I will be going back too, maybe before the end of the exhibition as there are many things I want to see again. My photographs have shown me things that I just didn't look at well enough first time round!