The Cathedral was built in just 38 years in a single architectural style, early English Gothic using 70,000 tons of stone, 28,000 tons of oak and 420 tons of lead – the spire is Britain's tallest and weighs 6,500 tons! Salisbury also has the Britain’s largest Close (40 hectares) and largest Cloisters and its Quire stalls are the largest and earliest complete set in Britain.

It is home to the best preserved of only four surviving original Magna Carta (AD1215) which is listed on the UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ register. Magna Carta's clauses on social justice form the cornerstone of modern democracy and liberty worldwide and are as pertinent today as they were 800 years ago. It inspired the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, American Bill of Rights and the constitutions of many other democratic countries. The document is housed in our exquisite and newly restored Chapter House which also has a unique 13 century stone frieze of bible stories in it.

The world's oldest working mechanical clock (AD1386) can is also on permanent display here alongside more contemporary installations such as the spectacular flowing ‘living water’ font by William Pye (2008) and the Gabriel Loire's 'Prisoners of Conscience' stained glass window (1980).