Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Norwich and the mother church of the diocese of Norwich. It is administered by its dean and chapter, and there are daily Church of England services. It is a Grade I listed building. Construction of the building was begun in 1096 at the behest of the first bishop of Norwich, Herbert de Losinga. The crossing tower was the last piece of the Norman cathedral to be completed. At that time, measuring 461 ft (141 m) long and 177 ft (54 m) wide, the cathedral was the largest building in East Anglia. The cathedral close occupied a tenth of the total area of the medieval city. The present structure of Norwich Cathedral is primarily Norman, being made of flint and mortar and faced with a cream-coloured Caen limestone. The cathedral was damaged by rioters in 1272; repairs were completed in 1278. The cloisters, begun in 1297, are the fourth largest cloisters in England. The present spire—the second tallest in England at 315 ft (96 m)—is a stone structure built in 1480 that replaced one made of wood. In about 1830, the south transept was remodelled by the architect Anthony Salvin. A new hospitality and education facility by Hopkins Architects was opened by Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 2010. Norwich Cathedral once had the earliest astronomical clock in England. The cathedral's bosses are one of the world's greatest mediaeval sculptural treasures, having survived the iconoclasm of the Tudor and English Civil War periods.