Salisbury Cathedral (England’s Most Beautiful Building?)
American writer Bill Bryson once wrote that he believed Salisbury Cathedral to be England’s most beautiful building (he also is an avid campaigner against litter, saying he cannot believe that people drop sweet wrappers and crisp packets on our green and pleasant land).
The cathedral took 38 years to build, and is a striking example of English Gothic style, with the world’s oldest working mechanical clock, stunning stained glass and peaceful cloisters. The Chapter House displays one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta.
Outside, the lush close is ringed with trees and lawn, and as popular as the cathedral itself.
Bradford-on-Avon (an old weaving town near Bath)
The historic town of Bradford-on-Avon takes its name from its ‘broad ford’. With a strong link to the weaving industry, it still has remains of a large Roman village, and a 13th century arched stone bridge.
The small building on the bridge was a chapel, that also used to lock up prisoners, in the 17th century.
Just 12 minutes by train from the beautiful city of Bath, the town sits on the Bristol Avon River (a 75-mile river which begins in the hills near Acton Turville in southwest England. Before flowing to Bristol, and out to the sea at the Severn Estuary.
