Qualla: Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francis Helminski, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the night of 12–13 February 1322, possibly disturbed by the excavation of foundations for the new Lady Chapel, the Norman central crossing tower at Ely Cathedral collapsed. The disaster might have produced a replacement tower — another square Norman structure, re-built on the same plan. Instead, the cathedral's sacrist Alan of Walsingham did something without precedent: he removed all four of the original tower piers and enlarged the crossing to an octagon. The new structure that rose in its place — a vast stone octagon topped by an enormous timber lantern — became what the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner would later call Ely's "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius." It required timber so large that it could not be replicated today, because there are no trees big enough.

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Image: Francis Helminski | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ely Cathedral: Founded in 672

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francis Helminski, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ely Cathedral traces its origins to the abbey founded here in 672 by Æthelthryth — St Etheldreda — a daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia. It was a mixed community of men and women, and the presence of Etheldreda's relics made it a significant pilgrimage destination in the early...

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Image: Francis Helminski | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ely Cathedral: What Was Built

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thorvaldsson, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cathedral's statistics are imposing. Total length: 537 feet. The nave — over 75 metres long — remains one of the longest in Britain. The West Tower stands 66 metres high. The Octagon is 23 metres wide and 52 metres high; internally, from floor to the central roof boss, the la...

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Image: Thorvaldsson | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ely Cathedral: The Destruction and After

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francis Helminski, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Reformation came to Ely in 1539, when Henry VIII's commissioners took possession of the monastery. The cathedral was refounded in 1541, and Bishop Thomas Goodrich's orders were comprehensive: the shrines to the Anglo-Saxon saints were destroyed, nearly all the stained glass w...

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Image: Francis Helminski | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ely Cathedral: The Cathedral in Culture

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cathedral appears on the horizon in the cover photograph of Pink Floyd's 1994 album *The Division Bell*, and David Gilmour recorded orchestral and choral parts for his 2024 album *Luck and Strange* in the cathedral. In 1973 Leonard Bernstein and the London Symphony Orchestra ...

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Image: Diliff | CC BY-SA 3.0