When I woke up on Saturday morning, I asked Mr C if there was a plan for the day. He replied ‘a plan is emerging’. This is code for there is no plan.

I emerged from the bathroom to get dressed ready for the day and was informed that we were going to Liverpool to visit the Anglican Cathedral. Mr C nipped out to do a couple of things and by the time he returned I was dressed and ready for our adventure.

Unlike our recent adventures by train, we travelled by car. The journey went smoothly with no delays. We arrived at the Cathedral carpark just in time for lunch in Welsford Bistro. We both chose toasties, mine was falafel and chilli jam, it was delicious.

Our first impression of the Cathedral was “WOW!” because of its immense proportions. The architecture is certainly impressive but I felt the building had a lack of soul (atmosphere). My thought was enhanced by witnessing a church service taking place in the nave at the same time that people from the Bistro were eating at tables on the edge of the nave, just behind the congregation. Some sort of portable screen would have made the service more intimate and meaningful even for those not taking part.

The Cathedral is constructed of dark sandstone and, due to the height of the building, even the amazingly large stained-glass windows were unable to cast bright light into the body of the Cathedral. We visited on a dull day so maybe I would feel differently on a bright sunny day.

The lady chapel is quite a contrast. It is bright, airy, and full of light and also peaceful with a ‘sit and rest a while’ air about it.

On our way home we detoured by Cheshire Oaks; Mr C was in search of new frying pans. I think this was Mr C’s main destination to which he added something he knew I would enjoy, a Cathedral and one I hadn’t visited before so that I could get another stamp in my Cathedral passport.

Getting my passport stamp is often an interesting experience. In Liverpool Cathedral, they weren’t really engaged with it and it was just a thing that was available. Whereas on our recent visit to Southwark Cathedral the lady who greeted visitors was interested to know if I was on a pilgrimage or if I was collecting stamps from the Anglican Cathedrals listed in the Passport. I am collecting stamps from the Cathedrals listed, that is my pilgrimage. I was able to show her the front of my passport where all the cathedrals I have visited over the years are highlighted, the ones in green are those that I have visited since I obtained my passport.

She has the passport too and asked which were my favourite Cathedrals…

PS: we got the required frying pans from Boundary Mill a few days later.

Entering the Lady Chapel you meet a gracious, light and open space. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw the rise of the cult of the Virgin Mary, and chapels in her honour were added to many churches and cathedrals, including Ely. This chapel is exceptional as it is by far the largest attached to any British cathedral. Its foundations were laid in 1321, just before the collapse of the central tower, and work continued despite the disaster. Its construction was overseen by John of Wisbech, whose memorial lies just in front of the doors.

It was completed in 1349, when it would have looked very different from today. It was highly coloured, with windows alive with stained glass and painted statues in the niches.

All this was destroyed in the sixteenth century during the Reformation, which, in keeping with Puritan convictions, rejected all forms of religious decoration. Traces of the paint can still be seen, and fragments of the glass survive in the central window on the south side. You can see the damage clearly – the exquisite figures in the lower niches have been defaced. and above these are the empty pedestals where the statues stood. It is believed that the carvings told the story of Mary’s life and miracles. Despite its beauty this is a place of brokenness; you may like to pause here and pray about the brokenness, grief or loss that you have experienced.

Above the altar is a new statue of Mary by David Wynne. It was installed in the year 2000, the third of the millennium sculptures. Most representations of Mary are passive, holding the child Jesus on her knee. Here she is expressive, exulting in the news that she is to be the mother of the Saviour. On the base of the statue are her words from St Luke’s Gospel: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord’ (Luke 1.38).

An intimate space for worship and contemplation, Gloucester Cathedral’s magnificent Lady Chapel was the last part of the church to be built during the Medieval period in the 15^th century.

Dedicated to ‘Our Lady’, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Lady Chapel is unique in its design and decoration.

It has a vaulted roof on a series of stone arches filled with stained-glass windows; these were made by the famous Arts and Crafts designer Christopher Whall in the early 1900s.

In front of the altar are the wooden rails made in 1617 on the orders of William Laud (Dean of Gloucester until 1621). Behind the high altar, the Chapel’s reredos bears the scars of the Reformation and the Civil War  – a poignant reminder to all.

Devotion to the Virgin Mary in England was demonstrated not only by the building of Lady Chapels but also through the development of a particular type of musical anthem. Whereas the monks of the medieval abbeys sand Gregorian plainsong, the songs in praise of the Virgin –  Marian antiphons’, as they are known – required a full range of voices; treble, alto, tenor and bass. This led to boys being brought in to sing in the lady chapel. By the middle of the fifteenth century adult male singers who were not monks would be employed. At Gloucester two singing galleries were constructed, one n the north and one on the south, from which two choirs could sing, calling and responding to each other – ‘antiphonally’ – across the chapel.

Dazzling to the eye heavy with incense and filled with glorious music for the Virgin, the Lady Chapel was intended to overwhelm the worshipper with devotional intensity.*

*From Gloucester Cathedral FAITH, ART AND ARCHITECTURE: 1000 YEARS by Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral 2011