English Heritage announced in January 2005 £1 million of grants for repairs to cathedrals (January 2005). The article states that England has 61 cathedrals.

Is there a list of the historic cathedrals of England?

The English Heritage article lists these cathedrals which will get grants for repair work:
Bristol Cathedral
Coventry Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral
Guildford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral
Liverpool Church of England Cathedral
Newcastle Roman Catholic Cathedral
Newcastle Church of England Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Sheffield Church of England Cathedral
Southwark Roman Catholic Cathedral
Southwark Church of England Cathedral
Wakefield Cathedral
Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral
St George’s Chapel, Windsor
Worcester Cathedral

I found a book on Amazon called "Walking England's Cathedral Cities," by Rowland Mead, NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company, 2000. It lists these 14 Cathedrals:

St. Paul's Cathedral (London)
Westminster Abbey (London)
Southwark Cathedral (London)
Canterbury Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral
St. Albans Cathedral
Bury St. Edmonds Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral
Southwell Minster
Lincoln Cathedral
York Minster
Durham Cathedral

I thought it would be interesting to put together a list of all the great cathedrals in England. We visited the Tewkesbury Abbey last fall.

Here is a list of the cathedrals in England (and Wales?) It looks as if the English Heritage list includes Roman Catholic cathedrals, while most people, architecturally speaking, mean the great gothic cathedrals that are now C. of E. I guess Ely is my favorite, closely followed by Salisbury, but they are all extraordinary.
Yrs, Robert

Thanks Robert! I tried searching, but did not come up with that.

I also wrote to English Heritage and they sent me this list of 63 cathedrals:

Arundel
Birmingham CE
Birmingham RC
Blackburn
Bradford
Bristol
Canterbury
Carlisle
Chelmsford
Chester
Chichester
Clifton RC
Coventry
Derby
Durham
Ely
Exeter
Gloucester
Guildford
Hereford
Lancaster RC
Leeds RC
Leicester
Lichfield
Lincoln
Liverpool CE
Liverpool RC
Manchester
Middlesbrough
Newcastle CE
Newcastle RC
Northampton RC
Norwich CE
Norwich RC
Nottingham RC
Oxford
Peterborough
Plymouth RC
Portsmouth CE
Portsmouth RC
Ripon
Rochester
St Albans
St Edmundsbury
St Paul’s
Salford RC
Salisbury
Sheffield CE
Sheffield RC
Shrewsbury RC
Southwark CE
Southwark RC
Southwell
Truro
Wakefield
Wells
Westminster Abbey
Westminster RC
Winchester
Windsor, St George’s Chapel
Worcester
York

Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cathedrals_in_the_United_Kingdom and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cathedrals_in_Ireland

(St. George's Chapel is a Royal Peculiar and has never been a cathedral. Westminster Abbey was only a cathedral for 10 years in the reign of Henry VIII)

Rgds,

One of the best books on the subject is still Alec Clifton-Taylor's The Cathedrals of England, in Thames & Hudson's World of Art series: Amazon uk link. I bought mine in 1974, when I was studying under the shadow of Durham Cathedral, pictured on the cover of my copy: superb b&w photos by Martin Hürlimann.

As Robert has implied, the ones really worth visiting are all medieval in origin (I might quibble about his Gothic label, since my favourite, Durham, is decidedly pre-Gothic in style!).

Clifton-Taylor sums it up nicely: 'Leaving aside the parish-church cathedrals, the four modern Anglican buildings discussed in the last chapter [Truro, Liverpool, Guildford, Coventry] and all those erected since the 1830s by the Roman Catholics, England has twenty-six cathedrals, of which, very conveniently, exactly half are of the first rank. These are: (1) three in the South-East and South: Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury; (2) three in the West and South-West: Gloucester, Wells and Exeter; (3) three in or close to East Anglia: Norwich, Ely and Peterborough; (4) three in the North-East: Lincoln, York and Durham; (5) London [St Paul's].'

One of the pleasures of being in my line of work is the opportunity to perform music in these wonderful buildings. Next week, it's Elgar's 1st Symphony (and John Adams' The Chairman Dances) in Gloucester Cathedral.

Jonathan

Thanks!! I will add these references to my page on Cathedrals. I am also going to divide up my list by region of the country.

I had planned to visit many cathedrals on this trip - but we only got to two: Salisbury and Winchester. We did not even get into Exeter, but we were staying nearby! Next time ...

Thanks for the list! We love the cathedrals of England and try to see as many as possible. I thought we'd seen most of them until I saw your list. We've done 24 -- guess we'll have to go back and try again!

Libbie

Libbie- If you want to see all of the Anglican Cathedrals, you can go to the Church of England site for a list of the 43 dioceses in England (They include the whole of Europe as the 44th). My wife and I particularly love Exeter, and the Royal Clarence Hotel, on the close, overlooking the Cathedral.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/

If that's not enough Wales has 6 more Anglican dioceses and Scotland 7.

If your appetite for Cathedrals still isn't sated, then there are an additional 30 Roman Catholic dioceses to sample in England, Scotland & Wales. (You might particularly enjoy Arundel in West Sussex).

http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/

So, according to my calculations, you only have 62 Cathedrals to go!

There are also the cathedrals of the Church of Scotland such as St Giles in Edinburgh.

quote:

Originally posted by Jonathan:
England has twenty-six cathedrals, of which, very conveniently, exactly half are of the first rank. These are: (1) three in the South-East and South: Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury; (2) three in the West and South-West: Gloucester, Wells and Exeter; (3) three in or close to East Anglia: Norwich, Ely and Peterborough; (4) three in the North-East: Lincoln, York and Durham; (5) London [St Paul's].'

Well despite the exclusion I still find Southwark Cathedral an incredibly spiritual place. Even if it isn't counted in the "first rank". I guess I understand why it's not included in the list, but architectural purity isn't everything.

Just a reminder, Doug resurrected a thread that's a year old.

And if 61 or 63 or 70 (whatever the final number you've arrived at!) cathedrals is not enough for you - Simon Jenkins' book "England's Thousand Best Churches" is a terrific resource. It's a personal list of his thousand "best" non-cathedral churches in England, and we found it a great asset in our wanderings. (And apologies for the slightly OT post, since it's not cathedrals!)

If you get to Lincoln Cathedral, do by all means book yourself into the "rooftop" tour (as long as you're not too afraid of heights). It'll give you a very different view of the cathedral and the surrounding city. Best to book ahead the same day, or perhaps even earlier in high season, but well worth it.