From Left to Right:
Ian McNeil (Hon Treasurer), Kate Beckett (Executive Secretary), John Kennerley (Membership Secretary), Tory Hirst (Assistant Secretary and Financial Assistant) and Hugh Keatinge (Chairman)

EVERYBODY NEEDS FRIENDS - EVEN CATHEDRALS!

Between about 1075 and 1092, St Bishop Osmund built the first cathedral on the ancient hilltop settlement which we call Old Sarum. The decision to resite the Cathedral and build a new City was made around 1220, to become New Sarum or Salisbury. Building of the new cathedral was begun by Bishop Richard Poore in 1220, and took only 38 years to complete, its construction at the cutting edge of technology then, working on only 4ft of foundations of gravel to keep the mighty cathedral steady enough to later support the addition of 404 feet of Spire. It is a masterpiece of a single architectural style called Early English Gothic, built reusing original stone from the old cathedral, and 70,000 tons of new stone from Chilmark, 3,000 tons of timber and 450 tons of lead for the roof, together with pillars of Purbeck marble from Dorset.

The economic depression in the 1930s, when unemployment was rife, resulted in little or no money being available to repair our great cathedrals. A letter to The Times suggested that people who cared for their local cathedral should do something about it. Salisbury was one of the first cathedrals in England to set up a group of Friends. The first members came from the great and the good who undertook to make regular contributions to their local cathedral. Gradually the concept of Friendship spread and Friends’ organisations grew, from small beginnings, into large and increasingly well-funded groups.