Norwich Cathedral, Norwich (must see)

Norwich Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral featuring primarily a Norman style.

They say the first bishop of Norwich, Herbert de Losinga, was not without a sin (vanity, most likely). He bought his job from the king, no less, in 1094, for 1,900 pounds. Ensconced in his new see, the bishop wasted no time in building a cathedral for himself, which started in 1096. To make room for the nascent structure, an Anglo-Saxon settlement and two churches were demolished, plus a canal was specially dug to allow access for the boats bringing the stone and construction materials up the River Wensum.

Herbert had barely parked his throne in the nave when he died in 1119, upon which the construction was carried on by his successor, Bishop Eborard, in 1121. It was finally completed in 1145 when Eborard's successor, Bishop William de Turbe, installed the cathedral tower. The entire building was put together with flint and mortar, and faced with white limestone from Caen, France.

Norwich Cathedral boasts a really long nave with 14 bays, and has the second largest cloister in England, exceeded only by that at Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral's stone spire, measuring at 315 ft (96 m), is the second-tallest in England (also second to Salisbury) was added in 1169. Measuring 461 ft (141 m) and 177 ft (54 m) wide at completion, Norwich Cathedral was once the largest building in East Anglia.

The bosses of Norwich Cathedral in the cloisters – hundreds of carved and ornately painted images of kings, peasants, musicians, soldiers, acrobats, and ladies – are among the world's greatest medieval sculptural treasures that survived the iconoclasm of the Tudor and English Civil War periods.

Before the high altar is the tomb of Bishop Herbert de Losinga. Close by there is a bas relief marking the 900th anniversary of the cathedral. Indeed, Norwich Cathedral has a long and storied history, judging by which it is not surprising there have been several interesting ghost sightings here, including those of a bishop, a local hero, a Catholic priest and a mysterious woman, and not just at night!

The main ghost story related to the Cathedral is a photograph of a ghostly figure, which many identified as one of the bishops buried within the cathedral grounds, taken in 2015. Another ghost story comes from 1736 where a man reportedly saw the ghost of a martyred priest walking around Erpingham Gate (one of the entrances into the Norwich Cathedral grounds). Its description sounded like the Rev. Thomas Tunstall, a Catholic martyr, who was hanged, drawn and quartered just outside what was likely Magdalen Gates; his body parts were displayed afterwards throughout the city.

Lastly, during some renovations of one of the cathedral’s buildings, tools and other items were seen moving of their own accord. It all stopped, though, as soon as church officials arrived at the scene.