Chester Cathedral, Cheshire, England

Like the view of Chester's town hall elsewhere in this album, here is a view of the city's cathedral from a similarly unusual angle. The amount of shadow about late on a November afternoon may have caused me to experiment a little more than usual. Sometimes this type of thing works out well, and I hope that is the case here. The fact that the subject is photogenic helps too.

It seems that a church has existed on the site of the cathedral since Anglo-Saxon times. Under the Normans, it became a Benedictine abbey before Henry VIII ordered dissolution of all monasteries, perhaps as part of a land grab to bolster his poorly exchequer. Luckily for us, the church became the headquarters for the Church of England Diocese of Chester. That wasn't enough to ensure preservation though since the cathedral became in need of attention towards the end of the eighteenth century. However, it took the Victorians to restore the building to a state like that which you see today in the middle of the nineteenth century. Since then, scaffolding has reappeared from time to time and I seem to remember it stymieing photographic ambitions of mine too. To support these efforts, there is an entrance charge for any visitors not engaging in service attendance or private prayer (£5.00 for one adult when I last checked; you need to speak with staff if you're coming on a religious errand) and they cater for group tours too.