Hereford Cathedral

• Richly illustrated with photographs taken at all times and seasons, and including a map of the cathedral.

Hereford Cathedral is a dignified and atmospheric medieval sandstone church, set in a serene close at the heart of one of England’s finest country towns, maintaining a very active community of worship. The cathedral has many memorable features including a charming 1475 cloister overlooking the River Wye and a unique chained library. It is especially famed for being the home of the Mappa Mundi, an ancient and remarkable visual encyclopedia of the world in the Middle Ages, now housed in a new exhibition space. With an authoritative and very readable text written by the Dean of Hereford, it tells the story of the building from its humble Saxon origins, via the age when medieval pilgrims flocked to the shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe, right up to the present day and, in particular, the superb restoration of the close completed in 2011.