Round the Cloisters: 49 Anglican Cathedrals in
England and Wales and the Isle of Man
Mick Escott
SilverWood £25
(978-1-906236-72-4)
Church Times Bookshop
£22.50 (Use code CT926 )
MICK ESCOTT, having visited 92 English Football League clubs for
his book Round the Turnstiles, has now completed visits to
all the Anglican cathedrals in England, Wales, and the Isle of
Man.
He did so over 19 months, in the company of a changing band of
friends, and the result is a very fat paperback written like a
diary, with much unexpected detail, and a huge cast of
ecclesiastical characters and cathedral cats.
But the former arts administrator sometimes gives the impression
that he may be more interested in the buildings than in what
happens in them. He appears to be happy visiting Truro Cathedral on
Palm Sunday while remaining quite unconcerned about missing the
palm procession. He seems pleased, however, that his inspection of
Manchester coincides with the Labour Party Conference
service.
A small new cathedral presents little problem in filling a
chapter, since other churches nearby are often included. So tiny
Birmingham is bolstered by visits to the Roman Catholic cathedral
designed by Augustus Pugin, and the Oratory where Blessed John
Henry Newman has become the new attraction. Even the Chichester
chapter embraces Arundel Cathedral, Lancing College chapel, and
Brighton's piers.
St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol is described as "the only church in
the country which might be put forward as a rival to its city's
cathedral".
The party always tests the guided tour, and this produces a fund
of uncheckable stories, such as the claim that the Pontius Pilate
figure at Truro Cathedral is based on Edward VII. Escott also
manages to secure sometimes revealing interviews with a dean
or canon.
The bibliography lists the architectural expert Nikolaus
Pevsner, and I suspect that this writer can have achieved his
own delightful accounts only by following the Pevsner discipline of
writing up notes the same day.
The sometimes obsessive detail about food, pubs, and Premier Inn
prices is slightly reminiscent of a round robin in The
Christmas Letters by Simon Hoggart. But the cathedral-café
reviews could be useful. Southwark's refectory comes top with him
for food, and stays in the top ten for "environment". Salisbury, he
says, has "com-petitive" prices. Simon Russell Beale, who features
twice in the book, has contributed the fore-word, recommending the
coffee at St Paul's Cathedral, where he was a chorister.
A 582-page book really should have had an index. But this is a
very enjoyable record of a tour that many would like to have time
to try.
Leigh Hatts is editor of In SE1, a South Bank arts
magazine.