England Tours
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Hi all,

    I will be in London for a conference (Med-Ren Music) in July and was wondering if anyone could recommend a short tour of cathedrals in southern England. I could just hire a car, but I think I might want to just take a short coach tour if not too pricey. It would be Thurs - Sun. I'd like to catch a good Mass on Sunday before leaving on Monday morning.

    Thanks for any tips
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Well, St Etheldreda's Church is a top recommendation from me! That's the sum total of my experience here so far, but a wonderful experience.
  • JL
    Posts: 171
    Ely is not too far from London, and has a stunningly beautiful cathedral (although the statue in the Lady Chapel is a little suspect--could use a little more Queen of Heaven and a little less Princess of Power...) Also relatively close is Canterbury, which I have never visited despite being a great fan of St. Thomas Becket. If you want to branch out from cathedrals, there are, I believe, two benedictine Abbeys (monks and nuns) on the Isle of Wight, and right in London is the shrine of the English Martyrs at Tyburn convent.

    Thinking about it makes me want to visit--the last time I was in the UK I was a chaperone for 38 high school kids. Your version sounds like more fun.
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 835
    Mike: contact me via email. I've day-tripped to almost every cathedral in the South of England on several occasions.
  • vincentuher
    Posts: 134
    The cathedral in Rochester (currently in the hands of the CofE) is one I recall with fond memories ... especially of Evensong.
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 835
    Most of the southern cathedrals are great.
    You can see Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, and Salisbury in a two-day driving trip. You could add Exeter for a third day.
    You could see Saint Alban's, Ely, Cambridge, and Oxford in a 2- to 3-day driving trip--this could also be accomplished by train.
    An arc of the southwest cathedrals could be lots of fun and would avoid some of the crush: Wells, Bristol, (Exeter), Bath, Hereford, Lichfield, etc.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Thanks everyone. Does anyone know of a service that does a short tour like this? I could hire a car, but I might prefer a tour this time around.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    Michael,

    I don't know of a firm that does coach tours specifically of cathedrals, which leaves you with a couple of options: tours that happen to include cathedrals and other churches of interest (e.g. this company's day trips include places like Canterbury, Oxford and Bath - Google and you'll find more); and scheduled coaches that go to such places. The problem is that the timetable might not coincide with choral evensong. If the latter are booked ahead online they are surprisingly cheap, and London is about the best place to take them from. I suggest you go to this site, select 'London (central)' as your departure point, and the various places you want to visit as destinations. Cambridge, Canterbury, Durham, Exeter, Oxford and York are all on the list of 'most popular destinations', and so will have direct routes. There is also a link for 'other destinations'. You can go to some places and back in a day (e.g. Canterbury, Cambridge, Oxford) . Others will require an overnight stay. Most if not all your destinations will have a tourist office, which will put you in touch with accomodation suited to your budget. You can find details of them by googling [place name] followed by 'tourist office' (I just found Durham's that way).

    I hope you're over sooner rather later in July, as the Cathedral choirs take summer breaks. They are backfilled by visiting choirs, many of which are very good (modesty forbids), but it would be better to hear the tradition of the place.

    ps if your budget stretches it's much better to go by train. Canterbury, Cambridge and Oxford are a short journey from London this way.

    pps if you're going to Cambridge for a day, try St. John's for evensong rather than King's. The sound is somewhere between Kings' and Westminster Cathedral.
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