England Guide
East Anglia
Ely Cathedral
Opening time: Cathedral: June– Sept daily 7am–7pm; Oct– May Mon– Sat 7.30am–6pm & Sun 7.30am–5pm. Octagon Tower tours: April to Oct two to four times daily
Opening time: Stained Glass Museum: Easter– Oct Mon– Fri 10.30am–5pm, Sat 10.30am–5.30pm & Sun noon–6pm; Nov– Easter Mon– Sat 10.30am–5pm & Sun noon–4.30pm
Price: Cathedral: Mon– Sat £5.20, free on Sun; Octagon Tower tours £3.20 extra
Price: Stained Glass Museum: £3.50
Telephone: 01353/660 344
Website: www.cathedral.ely.anglican.org
Ely Cathedral is one of the most impressive churches in England, but the west facade, where visitors enter, has been an oddly lopsided affair ever since one of the transepts collapsed in a storm in 1701. Nonetheless, the remaining transept, which was completed in the 1180s, is an imposing structure, its dog-tooth windows, castellated towers and blind arcading possessing all the rough, almost brutal charm of the Normans.
The first things to strike you as you enter the nave are the vast length of the building and the lively nineteenth-century painted ceiling, largely the work of amateur volunteers. The nave's procession of plain late-Norman arches leads to the architectural feature that makes Ely so special, the octagon – the only one of its kind in England – built in 1322 to replace the collapsed central tower. Its construction, employing the largest oaks available in England to support some four hundred tons of glass and lead, remains one of the wonders of the medieval world, and the effect, as you look up into this Gothic dome, is breathtaking.
When the central tower collapsed, it fell eastwards onto the choir, the first three bays of which were rebuilt at the same time as the octagon in the Decorated style – in contrast to the plainer Early English of the choir bays beyond. The other marvel is the Lady Chapel, which lost its sculpture and its stained glass during the Reformation, but retained its fan vaulting, an exquisite example of English Gothic. The Stained Glass Museum exhibits examples that date from 1200 to the present day.