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The Old English Cathedrals
Medieval English Cathedrals, Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s and the resulting old and "new" cathedrals.
Kings and Queens of England
Magna Carta
British Cistercian Abbeys
Lots of Books and Guides relating to Cathedrals, Abbeys, Churches and Abbeys in Britain.
Links to pages about the Medieval Christian Church in Europe.
Paradoxplace pages relating to the Architecture, Art , Personalities and History of the Medieval Christian Church in Europe.
Early English Saints, Kings and Queens
Limoge Reliquary Châsses for Saint Thomas (Becket)
Eleanor Crosses
The English Greater Churches Group
Maps Showing Religious Houses of England
Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church (external site)
This interesting site was created by Anne Marshall and contains a treasure trove of well structured knowledge, information and photos.
Cistercian Abbeys below are marked with an * (asterisk)
Saint Albans
Waltham Abbey
Burial place of last Anglo Saxon English King Harold II (or someone else dismembered at the Battle of Hastings), and 500 years later the last English Abbey to hand over its keys forces of Henry VIII. The magnificent Norman nave of the original Abbey (the only one to compare with Durham) survives as a parish church.
Waltham Cross
One of the three remaining much restored Eleanor Crosses in England.
Waverley Abbey *
Sparse ruins of England's first Cistercian Abbey in a meadow bounded by a river bend.
Westminster Abbey
Packed with the tombs and memorials of most of the medieval English Kings and Queens and many many other notable (or rich) people.
Rochester Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Medieval masterpiece dating back to Lanfranc, the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, and including the memorial chapel for Saint Thomas (Becket), the tombs of The Black Prince and King Henry IV, and a magnificent Chapter House and Cloisters.
Saint Augustine's Church, Brookland
1100s lead font wound about with zodiac signs and labours of the month illustrations.
Salisbury Cathedral
With the spire made famous in Constable's painting.
Winchester Cathedral
Chichester Cathedral
Beaulieu Abbey *
Founded in 1204 by King John
Christchurch Priory
One of the biggest churches in England, with a great (and visible) collection of misericords and other stuff which unusually escaped the wreckers of Henry 8 and Oliver C. A most attractive friendly place.
Wimborne Minster
Full of light - part Norman, part several other medieval things church.
Sherborne Abbey
The Abbey which produced the early Cistercian leader Saint Stephen Harding
Wells Cathedral
Secular foundation set in beautiful grounds - see the sun set on the west facade and rise on the apse.
Bath Abbey
Made from beautiful white Somerset stone and the last major perpendicular style building to be completed before Henry VIII hit the church scene. Go there to see the fan vaulted ceilings if not the second largest tomb collection outside Westminster Abbey.
Exeter Cathedral
Another white stoned masterpiece complete with two unaltered Norman towers and some attractive roof bosses.
Buckfast Abbey (*)
A small group of French and German monks rebuild a Cistercian abbey and monastery in Devon over the first thirty years of the 1900s.
Buildwas Abbey *
Small Romanesque (never gothiced) Cistercian Abbey in Shropshire, daughter of Savigny and now a ruin
Wenlock Priory
Large Clunaic priory in Shropshire, now a ruin
Saint Laurence, Ludlow
A Greater English Church serving the rich Welsh border country. Lots of Misericords.
Hereford Cathedral
Home of an early 1200s Mappa Mundi and an invisible Becket Reliquary Châsse.
Worcester Cathedral
Another medieval riverside abbey, this time with intact monastic ensemble and containing the tomb of King John (1167-1199-1216 (49)) and one of the most impressive peals of (12) bells in the world.
Tewkesbury Abbey
Now a large beautifully proportioned old church.
Gloucester Cathedral
Old abbey church with the earliest surviving English fan vaulting in its cloisters, and the tombs of King Edward II and Robert Curthose - eldest son of William the Conqueror.
Malmesbury Abbey
Only the nave of the Abbey of one of England's most powerful abbeys survives (as a parish church), along with the earliest extant royal tomb in England.
Tintern Abbey *
Large Gothic Cistercian abbey in south Wales, now a ruin
Lichfield Cathedral
Secular foundation with three big spires.
Lincoln Cathedral
Magnificently placed and architected large medieval (secular foundation) cathedral at the centre of England's largest and richest diocese. A photographer's dream and one of Dom P's favourites.
Peterborough Cathedral
Another beautiful old abbey church with a ciborium and other unusual Italian elements, but no monastic buildings left after a visit by Oliver Cromwell's men.
Norwich Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Geddington - Eleanor Cross
The only Eleanor cross worth a visit - sit in its shadow and enjoy a pub lunch!
Carlisle Cathedral
Saint Bridget's Church, Kirkbride
Mint condition stone font from the mid-1100s in a pleasant secluded Victorian country church.
Saint Cuthbert's Church, Bewcastle
The Bewcastle Cross, dating from the six hundreds, is in the churchyard of Saint Cuthbert's Church. Measuring over 14ft it is actually a beautifully sculptured sandstone shaft, upon which there once was a cross. Nothing is known about its origin, or where the cross itself got to.
Melrose Abbey *
Glorious ruins of a glorious Scottish Border Cistercian Abbey.
Jedburgh Abbey
Augustinian Border Abbey.
Dryburgh Abbey
Another Border Abbey founded around 1138 for the Premonstratensian Order by Hugh de Moreville.
Hexham Abbey
Pre-Norman Cathedral turned Augustinian Priory turned (large) Parish Church.
Lindisfarne Priory
Birthplace of Irish / Northumbrian Christianity, and Holy Island associated with the names of Saints Aidan and Cuthbert.
Durham Cathedral
Norman Romanesque cathedral with the first known rib vaulted stone roofed nave (that stayed up!), supported by magnificent stone columns and concealed flying buttresses. Many of Durham's monastic buildings are still there also. The cathedral contains the Tombs of Saint Cuthbert and The Venerable Bede - prior to the murder of Thomas Becket, Durham's Shrine of Saint Cuthbert was the most pilgrimaged shrine in England.
York Minster
A secular foundation which was never in fact a "Minster" (monastery), but it is the largest medieval cathedral in Britain.
Rievaulx Abbey *
Ruins of the first of the large Yorkshire Cistercian abbeys (1131), dramatically nestled into a secluded hillside - Dom P's favourite Yorkshire abbey.
Fountains Abbey *
Ruins of the second of the large Yorkshire Cistercian abbeys (1132), this one a World Heritage site.
Byland Abbey *
Less well preserved ruins of a later (1177) equally large Yorkshire Cistercian abbey on an undramatic site.
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