Salisbury Cathedral

From the cathedral tea-rooms.


What's 'oops' in Latin? Note, the missed 'h' in Cathedralis.

This is a shot straight up one of the columns beneath the spire. I'm not sure how well you can see it but these columns are bowing alarmingly. I seems that the original design for the cathedral did not include a tower and spire so the adding of an extra 6,500 tons of rock to the roof caused some alarming bends and cracks to appear below. There have been various buttresses and supports added since. (It was built 1220 - 1258).

And have no fear, Christopher Wren looked at it when the spire was 20" of the vertical and said it should be OK. And it hasn't moved since.

Remarkably the foundations of the cathedral are only four foot deep. It is apparently built on a thick layer of gravel.
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