Hi Everyone!

I need some advice planning a trip I'm taking the last week of April for 8 days. I'm a clergyman from the States who will have a car. I plan to do the "Cathedral Crawl." (Main focus of the trip is to visit some outstanding cathedrals in England)

I have visited St Paul's in London and plan to bypass the city altogether on this trip.

I will be landing at London Gatwick and will depart from Manchester.

My desire is to visit:
1. Canterbury
2. Ely
3. Cambridge - Kings's College Chapel
4. Lincoln
5. Durham
6. York

My questions are these:
1. Are there other cathedrals I might want to visit instead?
2. Is there a castle anyone could suggest I visit along the route?

I'm probably planning too much but thought I would get other opinions/suggestions.

Thanks,
Rev Fred

Ok, I'll try and get the ball rolling for you.
One of the most famous Cathedrals in England is Salisbury - would be a great shame to miss out on this one, although your itinerary so far isn't really taking you to the south/south west apart from Canterbury. Gloucester cathedral is wonderful too - you could combine trips to both these.
Whilst you are 'oop north' I recommend Ripon Cathedral which is only a short drive from York.
Also, I can't help thinking you would enjoy visiting Holy Island (Lindisfarne) when you are in the Durham area (it's further north but easily accessible by driving up the A1 road). Holy Island is a wonderfully atmospheric place, reached by driving across a causeway which goes under water when the tide comes in and out. Tide tables are posted and you need to check the times before you cross, or else you might find your stay on the island is longer that you originally planned!
www.lindisfarne.org.uk
Many cathedral cities have castles in or close to them.
Hope this helps - have a lovely trip.

M

Ditto to everything Morgana says.

Canterbury and then up the east side makes sense because you are using LGW. But if it were me I'd probably start out going to Salisbury, maybe Winchester or Wells, up to Gloucester then north into Yorkshire. Finally back through Ely/Cambs and then to Canterbury if you have time.

Canterbury is fabulous -- but I'd personnaly select Salisbury/Gloucester if I had to choose.

Does the 8 days include your travel to/from the States - or do you have 8 days "on the ground".

If it is 8 days total, your original plan is OK w/ the additions of Lindesfarne and Ripon Morgana mentions.

But if you have 8 days actually IN the UK then you have enough time for the full loop Salisbury/Gloucester/Yorkshire/Durham/Lincoln/Ely/Canterbury.

Rochester Cathedral is not far from Canterbury. A mixture of Romanesque and early English gothic architecture, perhaps not in the first rank of medieval cathedrals, but interesting nonetheless.

Since you are in the Ely/Cambridge area, I would definitely try to get to Norwich Cathedral.

Have you seen Rowland Mead's book, "Walking the Cathedral Cities of Eastern England"? As the title suggests, it covers the London cathedrals,and going from south to north, Canterbury, Rochester, Bury St Edmonds, Ely, Norwich, Peterborough, Southwell, Lincoln, York & Durham. It describes a brief tour of each cathedral, plus a walking tour from the cathedrals.

You may be interested in the book by Simon Jenkins "England's Best 1,000 Churches" (not sure that's the exact title but close)
His new book "England's 1,000 Best Houses" has just been published.

Not far from Lincoln's cathedral is a fine castle i believe.

This may be too late for RevFred, but I will second the Simon Jenkins book. It's called "England's Thousand Best Churches" and is published by Penguin. I found it in my local Borders bookstore. It is beautifully illustrated with photographs from Country Life. Among Jenkins' criteria was that the church be considered parochial, so he excluded cathedrals and private and college chapels. He gives the churches rankings from one to five stars, and describes what can be seen as well as some history.