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Fibonacci provides the clues here, turning chaos into order with balance, beauty, grace, and proportion. The organ staircase at St. Mary’s, Studley Royal, designed by William Burges, echoes this harmony in the golden section.
“Offering sanctuary is a revolutionary act; it expresses love, when others offer scorn or hate. It recognizes humanity, when others deny and seek to debase it. Sanctuary says ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. It is belonging—the building block of community.”
― Diane Kalen-Sukra
A Place Apart: Finding Sanctuary in Ely
I’ve just arrived at Ely and managed to find a safe spot to park Woody. Ely is a place apart - quite literally - having been built upon an island that, before the slow encroachment of land reclamation, shimmered like a mirage in the Fens. Ely was the fabled refuge of Hereward the Wake, a stronghold for the Anglo-Saxon resistance against their Norman overlords.
As I walk around the west front and watch the rising sun dent the Romanesque, I can’t help but feel that Ely still holds that sense of sanctuary - bounded by walls that seem to melt into the geology beneath them.
I enter the cathedral precinct via Steeple Gate and, once inside, realise I’ve stepped into a larger curtilage - a vast footprint of the former Benedictine Monastery, one of the few places where the ghosts of the past still whisper through the historic fabric. So much survives here - traces of a once-thriving complex of buildings that shape the very heart of Ely.
Walking through the cathedral and monastery precincts is a wonderfully absorbing experience, akin to wandering through Pompeii or Herculaneum. But unlike those cities, frozen in time, these medieval monastic buildings have adapted, taken on new guises - each reinvention still tethered to its origins, their purpose shifting but never entirely severed.
Instead of Vesuvius imploding upon these hallowed lanes, history’s upheavals have reshaped them - the explosive force of the Reformation and the tremors of the English Civil War. Instead of pumice raining down on the statuary, we have the hammer of opposition pounding the niches, their figures smashed by decree rather than disaster.
It might be said that these were times that declared ‘we can’t’ instead of ‘we can’ - times that sought to erase rather than create, to diminish rather than uplift. Eras of division, where power was wielded on all sides—not to build, but to break; not to include, but to silence.
But what is so comforting is that, out of all that turmoil and turbulence - when people must have thought the world was at its end - echoes of continuity were woven into the fabric.
The stones remember, but they do not take sides. Over centuries, what was once built to contain belief has instead absorbed the aspirations and fears of all who have passed through. They embody endurance and hope, filtered through the collective passage of time. These places survive not just because of the power that once raised them, but also because of the human instinct to preserve, to repurpose, to make room for new meanings.
Experiencing these places and knowing their stories brings a clarity that cuts through the noise - an irony, perhaps, that the past offers a truer algorithm for understanding than the shifting fictions of the present. These walls have withstood erasure, their survival a quiet defiance against those who sought to rewrite, rename, or remove them. And, I think, it’s that very fact that makes this priceless survival of buildings such a sanctuary for me - not because of what they once stood for, but because they hold the weight of all who have stood within them - their hopes, their fears, their future.
Every now and then, I see a scrap of wall or a fragment of carving that defies the overwhelming conventions of its time - and it speaks to me. It says,We made our mark. We survived. We thrived.
And even though we have much to work through right now, the walls of Ely remind us that the freedoms we experience today are no accident—they have been shaped, stone by stone, carving by carving, by those who refused to be erased. Their presence is a quiet assurance that what endures is not only written in history but held in the spaces we move through, the connections we make, and the values we choose to pass on—so that they, too, may stand against the trials of their time.
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Ely Cathedral - The Exterior
I walked from the car park at the back of the cathedral (free parking), up Fore Hill and onto High Street, then—after a brief visit to the west front—through Steeple Gate into the cathedral grounds. From there, I took a stroll around the east end of the cathedral and through the remains of the Benedictine Monastery, passing Priory House and the Common before heading through the Porta Gate. After a quick sojourn in Silver Street, I walked up The Gallery towards the west end once again.
The roots of the complex has its origins in Ely Abbey founded by St. Ethedreda, daughter of Anna king of East Anglia. After it was destroyed by Viking raids it was re-established as a Benedectine Monastery and these are the buildings we largely see today.
As we walk around we will see survivals or remnants of the Infirmary, Refectory, Cloister, Granary, and surviving gate houses, boundary walls and domestic residences.
PURE SCROLL -ISH (FEW WORDS)
I'll leave you free to scroll through the views and vistas as I walk from Steeple Gate, around the cathedral and into the remains of the monastery proper.
Steeple Gate
Inside the precinct walking towards the east end of the cathedral.
The Sacrist's Gate
The 13th century east end is the next phase of development of architecture from the heavy, round arched, Romanesque. It is the new Gothic and lighter with its lancet windows. The 14th century Lady Chapel to the right is a later evolution of the style with complex tracery to the windows and intricate carvings. Notice the 12th century Romanesque building that still connects them. Three phases built in three separate centuries.
The phrases describing the evolution of Gothic architecture—such as Romanesque, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular—were coined by Thomas Rickman (1776–1841), an English architect and antiquarian.
In his influential book, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England (1817), Rickman categorised English medieval architecture into:
- Norman (Romanesque) (1066–c.1190)
- Early English Gothic (c.1190–c.1300)
- Decorated Gothic (c.1300–c.1400)
- Perpendicular Gothic (c.1400–c.1520)
It's fascinating to compare the Early English east end of Ely to the south transept at Beverley Minster - it seems they were on the phone to each other...
Ely:
Beverley:
Back to Ely
Moving beyond the west end, we come to the remarkable survival of the Benedictine Infirmary. The roof is gone, and an access road cuts through where the nave once stood, but the arcades survive either side - now infilled with a glorious repurposing of use.
Back out from Firmary Lane we walk into the space that once held the cloister - their dancing arcades captured in the fabric of walls and buildings.
Walking south towards the Porta Gate, one encounters one of the most rewarding parades of surviving buildings from monastic times—structures that wear their stories on their walls.
First is The Great Hall (Bishop's Residence) largely of the 13th century.
Notice how the towers of Ely cathedral rise like a citadel. Imagine seeing this from a distance in the shimmering light.
The chimney below is quite typical of an early medieval chimney - where it was built almost as a separate building - cockled onto the side of the existing house and reducing fire risk to timber framed structures.
The 14th century chapel was built as a private chapel for Prior Crauden.
Built around 1330 by Prior Crauden, the Queen's Hall (below) is believed to have been designed for hosting Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. Today, this historic structure serves as the Headmaster’s House for the King’s School.
Notice the imprint of the drying racks on the bricks.
Ely Porta was built in the late 14th century and was where the public entered the monastic grounds.
Out through the Porta and into Silver Street - a grouping of medieval buildings including a 15th century half timbered building with a divine brick gable.
Out of Silver Street and walking up The Gallery. Notice the ironstone on the gables.
Along The Gallery stands the former monastic hostelry, now repurposed as part of the school with intriguing intersections between the medieval and modernity.
The remnants of the corbel table above have striking similarities with those at Kilpeck in Herefordshire:
And now we stand before the great portal of the west end of Ely Cathedral—a threshold between earth and sky, time and eternity. Beyond these door lies an almost impossible feat of construction, an interior that does not merely catch the breath, but holds it in awe.
To be continued...
I lodged at Ferry Meadows CAMC in Peterborough which has direct access to Nene Park’s lakes, woodlands, and walking trails.
Andy Marshall
George Nelson
Mariia Tkachenko
I find a different kind of sanctuary at York Minster when I come face to face with a fox and a robin. And at Pennant Melangell in Wales a hare finds sanctuary within a woman's robe.
And if you want to read about another remarkable material act of 'not letting go' - you should visit the hobbit houses of Bury St. Edmunds.
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Photographs and words by Andy Marshall (unless otherwise stated). Most photographs are taken with Iphone 16 Pro and DJI Mini 3 Pro.
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