Ely Cathedral

In the way-back-before years, I think we had seen Canterbury, Westminster, Salisbury, and the York Minster. In 2009, on our first post-retirement campaign in Britain, Ely, in Cambridgeshire, was the first new (to us) cathedral we saw, and it made an immediate impression...the monumental Romanesque structure, the painted wooden ceiling, and especially the octagonal lantern tower. We were eager to see it again this time, so much so that we inadvertently got in the building with the opening of the 7:30 mass doors, well before visiting hours, and had the whole cathedral to ourselves. (The mass was off in some little chapel). We did leave a small offering in gratitude.

Another great big one that fills the lens and more

Love the entwined arches

All the ingredients of Norman/Romanesque

Elevation, with the giant gallery so typical of the age

A bit of the painted wooden ceiling

Closer up

Looking back from the crossing

The original central tower crashed down in 1322, and rather than risk a repeat
of that disaster, the builders elected to go with the wooden octagonal lantern tower
that is now in place

It is Ely's most distinctive and beautiful feature

Also at the crossing...the cathedral has very old origins

With the choir and chancel and then the Lady Hall, fashions changed, from
Romanesque to Decorated

Hovering angels, just like we're seeing now in the parish
churches of the area

Thus

Beginning stages of fan vaulting and some incredibly intricate carving

Also some nice windows

In the Lady Hall, full-tilt Decorated (ignore the despicable
contemporary statue of Mary)

It was in the Lady Hall that Cromwell's troops did their greatest damage to this
church (and many others) in the Civil War, lopping off heads of anything that
smacked of Roman Catholicism, smashing windows, even scraping off paint

Outside: I developed my interest in funny faces--grotesques--sometime after Ely,
probably not until we saw Kilpeck months later; but now I noted that, like any
decent Romanesque church, Ely is fairly covered in funny faces

Scores, maybe hundreds of them, two lines here on aisle and nave

Alas, some appear to have been redone

Not sure we like this---wondering what it might have meant to a 12th century
craftsman versus looking at a 21st century caricature

I would leave you, kind reader, with this final image, but...

In Ely, Cromwell's home town, his family's house is now the Tourist Information
Center

Hard to think of anyone who did less for British tourism!