Wells Cathedral

Ron, Julie, the girls, and I went to the town of Wells on Sunday afternoon. Wells is an old town in southwest England. The name came from the 3 wells that are located within the town---one in the market place and two on the grounds of the Bishops' Palace and cathedral.
The cathedral in Wells is well-known. In fact, it is the site of one of the scenes in the new movie "Elizabeth".

There was a church on the site of the present cathedral in the 700's. A baptismal font is the oldest surviving part of that church. Foundations of a 900 a.d. cathedral still exist, but the oldest part of the cathedral that you can see today dates from the 1200's. The bishop responsible for construction in 1200 was one of the bishops at the signing of the Magna Carta.













There is a 1392 clock that still has its medieval face depicting the earth as the center of the universe. When the clock strikes the quarter hour, jousting knights move around the clock. You can't really see the knights in the following photo, but the information beside the clock says that the same knight has fallen off his horse for over 600 years!


For centuries Cathedral Swans have been trained to ring bells, using strings attached to the bells, to beg for food. There are currently two swans that ring for their lunch, but we did not see them. We only saw a "cathedral cat" named Louis!

When we were leaving Wells Cathedral, it was about 4:50 p.m., and it was dark already.