Jeel Scholarship Fund
Building a Better Future
LINCOLN CATHEDRAL
Dorothy and I decided that we needed to try and get to a service at each Cathedral that we visited so as we both had evening commitments awoke with the larks and drove to Lincoln to get to morning prayer for 8am. Lincoln, first thing on a Saturday morning, is very easy to park. We were so early that, in the quest for coffee, we walked past the Roman arch, famous for the oldest arch in the UK to allow traffic through it and a pub named Duke William. I decided that Lincoln was my sort of town as I said to Dorothy, “Who was Duke William?” and there on the wall was an explanation. Oh, dear turns out that he was “Butcher” Cumberland, and a Scottish education tells me that is not good.
Caffeinated we arrived at Lincoln Cathedral to find architectural students drawing it outside at 8am. We passed through the doors and attended morning prayer and then chatted to Canon Rowena about Jeel.
The Cathedral has a memorial to Little St Hugh who stood up against antisemitism in the 13th century.
A notice states:
All too often, in too many places, communities identify themselves as who they are not, rather than who they are. It is but a short step from this to distrust, dislike and even to hatred of the “other”- frequently neighbours, who happen to be people of different faith or race.
I wrote this before the riots in towns across the UK and did not realise how salient to current thinking this was.
Lincoln has three towers, cloisters and a tiny but incredibly famous carving, the Lincoln Imp. The latter so small that we had to ask for it to be pointed out to us. I regretted not having my binoculars with me.
After morning prayer, we needed sustenance so visited the Lincoln Cathedral Cafe for breakfast. This is obviously an immensely popular place as at first, we thought that all the tables were reserved. They were, for lunch. I was impressed with my smoked salmon and scrambled egg bagel but fell short of photographing it for this blog! Cafe is a bit disingenuous a name!
We visited the shop which was huge and well stocked. Gifts from me this year will all have a cathedral theme, and it is still possible to buy postcards at all.
Returning to the Cathedral we admired the 13-metre-long table made from 5000-year-old fossilised oak. It is known as the “Table for the Nation” and will be at Lincoln until April 2025. It is black and very tactile. The Cloisters are also beautiful.
We then took the dogs for a three mile walk around Lincoln City. The Cathedral stands at the top. We walked down a road aptly named “Steep Hill” and noted how different the environs were from our previous cathedral cities.
Lincoln is another beautiful cathedral, and it was good to worship there. Dogs are welcome, there are toilets and a cafe. It costs £14 to enter except if one attends a Service.
