Hereford Cathedral

[poliphilo]

We left Kilpeck and carried on to Hereford- where the sky broke and the rain came bucketing down. We parked- where we had no right to park- in the quad of the cathedral school and made a dash for the south transept. There were a lot of mostly elderly people in for the lunchtime organ recital and the refectory was very busy. We bagged the last of the tuna sandwiches. There was a fussy little guy in the queue who was trying to impress his girlfriend with a conversation that went something like this, "Blah blah blah blah bishop. Blah blah bishop blah. Blah blah blah bishop's cousin."

Because of the weather my pictures of the cathedral are grim. Here's a soaring stretch of romanesque wall in the south transept.  The ratty-looking killimy things turn out to be tapestries by the usually rather splendid John Piper.



And here's the massive central tower

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Mossy rooftops are completely alien for someone who's lived most his life in the desert. The interior shots are gorgeous. Are these churches always open to the public? Is there never nayone there, or are you just adept at cutting the tourists from your shots?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's quite unusual to find village churches open. Clearly the people of Herefordshire are the trusting sort. I had St Devereux entirely to myself. While we were at Kilpeck- which is something of a pilgrimage site- I believe three other people came and mooched around.

Hereford cathedral is in a city centre and was pretty busy at lunchtime. I heard American accents among the throng.