Salisbury Cathedral: Early English Gothic and the Tallest Spire

Salisbury Cathedral, in Wiltshire in southern England, is one of the finest examples of Early English Gothic architecture. Its foundation stones were laid on 28 April 1220 on a new site beside the River Avon, and the main building was finished in only about 38 years. Its spire, about 123 metres high, is the tallest in Britain, and the cathedral also keeps one of the four surviving originals of Magna Carta.

Background: leaving Old Sarum

The first cathedral of the diocese stood at Old Sarum, an Iron Age hillfort about 3 kilometres north of the present city, which the Normans turned into a royal castle. By the early thirteenth century the clergy were unhappy there. They complained of quarrels with the castle garrison, of wind, glare and shortage of water, and of being shut out of their own church by the soldiers.

Bishop Richard Poore pressed for a move, and in 1219 Pope Honorius III gave permission. The new site, in meadows where the Avon meets other rivers, was laid out as a planned town, New Sarum, which grew into the city of Salisbury. The old cathedral was later demolished and much of its stone reused.

Building the cathedral

Foundation stones were laid on 28 April 1220. Tradition holds that Bishop Poore laid three, for the pope, for the archbishop of Canterbury and for himself. The canon Elias of Dereham, a skilled organiser of building works, is often credited with a leading role, and Nicholas of Ely is recorded as the master mason.

Work began at the east end, with the Trinity Chapel completed by 1225. The choir, transepts and nave followed. The cathedral was consecrated in 1258, and the west front was completed around 1265. The cloisters, the largest of any English cathedral, and the octagonal Chapter House followed in the later thirteenth century.

Early English Gothic style

Because the building went up so quickly, Salisbury is unusually uniform. It shows the Early English style, the first phase of English Gothic, with tall pointed lancet windows, pointed arches and rib vaults. Dark polished Purbeck marble shafts contrast with pale limestone from Chilmark in Wiltshire.

Unlike French cathedrals such as Chartres, Salisbury is long and relatively low, with a double set of transepts and a square east end. The style grew out of the new Gothic manner first seen at Saint-Denis near Paris, but English builders gave it a horizontal, calmer character.

The tower and spire

The original design probably ended with a low lantern tower. Roughly between 1310 and 1330, the builders raised the tower and added the stone spire, bringing the total height to about 123 metres (404 feet). The extra load, estimated in thousands of tonnes, rested on piers and foundations never designed for it.

The piers bent and the spire began to lean. Inner buttresses and strainer arches were added in the Middle Ages, and in 1668 Christopher Wren surveyed the tower and recommended iron ties. The spire today leans by roughly 70 centimetres, but it has been monitored and repaired many times and remains stable.

The clock and Magna Carta

In the north aisle of the nave stands a medieval mechanical clock with no face, which struck the hours on a bell. It is usually dated to about 1386 and is often called the oldest working clock in the world, though that claim is debated. It was rediscovered in 1929 and restored in 1956.

The Chapter House displays one of the four surviving 1215 exemplars of Magna Carta, generally considered the best preserved. It probably came to Salisbury through Elias of Dereham, who was involved in distributing copies of the charter.

Key people

• Richard Poore (died 1237): bishop of Salisbury who moved the cathedral and laid out the new city; he was later bishop of Durham.
• Elias of Dereham (died 1245): canon and building administrator, closely associated with Magna Carta and the new cathedral.
• Nicholas of Ely: master mason recorded at Salisbury in the early building years.

Later history

The cathedral survived the Reformation largely intact but lost much of its medieval glass and imagery. Between 1789 and 1792 the architect James Wyatt carried out a controversial restoration, removing chapels, screens and the detached bell tower. George Gilbert Scott undertook a further restoration in the nineteenth century.

John Constable’s paintings of the 1820s, including views from the bishop’s grounds and from the meadows, made the cathedral one of England’s most famous buildings. Its close, about 80 acres (32 hectares), is the largest in Britain.

Timeline

• 1219: Pope Honorius III approves moving the cathedral from Old Sarum.
• 1220, 28 April: Foundation stones are laid.
• 1225: The Trinity Chapel at the east end is completed.
• 1258: The cathedral is consecrated.
• c. 1265: The west front is finished.
• c. 1310–1330: The tower is heightened and the spire built.
• c. 1386: Approximate date of the mechanical clock.
• 1668: Christopher Wren surveys the leaning spire.
• 1789–1792: James Wyatt’s restoration.

Why it matters

Salisbury shows what medieval builders could achieve with money, planning and a single vision. Built in one campaign, it offers the clearest picture of Early English Gothic, while its later spire stands as a daring feat of medieval engineering.