Salisbury Cathedral, one of the country’s most iconic medieval cathedrals and home to the tallest spire in the UK, has been undergoing major restoration work for a very, very long time. Some work or other has been taking place on the structure since all the way back in 1986 – but now, excitingly, it’s finally complete. The cathedral’s scaffolding is coming off this Thursday, September 7.
Obvs, this significant milestone won’t be without great fanfare. To mark the end of a restoration circuit, a ‘topping out’ ceremony will take place where the canon treasurer of the cathedral, Kenneth Padley, will climb to the top of the scaffold to bless the cross that sits at the east end. The scaffold, which has covered parts of the cathedral for decades, will then be removed over the next six weeks.
Stonemasonry, glazing and maintenance teams have worked their way around the cathedral, tending to everything from the stonework to the 150-year-old organ. The final phase of the project saw a total of 1,100 stones replaced at the east end of the cathedral, while glazed windows and wooden frames were also restored.
Gary Price, the clerk of works said: ‘It has been a great honour and a privilege to have been able to work on this incredible building since the start of our modern repair programme, and by mid-November all traces of the scaffolding that has made its way around the building for the last 37 years will be gone and the Cathedral will stand in glory as it did in the fourteenth century after spire was added.’
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