Hereford Cathedral

Hereford Cathedral, dedicated to St Mary and St Ethelbert, a king of East Anglia, murdered in 794. The see at Hereford, in south-west England, dates from 676 but the earliest parts of the present building date from the early 12th century. The relatively modest interior mixes robust Norman work with Gothic vaulting. The central tower is of the 1320s. The west tower collapsed in 1786, destroying part of the nave. A new west front by the architect James Wyatt was pulled down c. 1900, and the present façade was completed in 1908.

Hereford Cathedral is less notable for its architecture than for its possessions, which include a fine chained library and the Mappa Mundi, a famous 13th-century map of the world. The shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe, a 13th-century bishop, was broken up at the Reformation, but the finely carved base remains.