Norwich, UK
Five UK cathedrals have been given special accolades for the experience they provide to visitors by national tourist organisation, Visit England.
Lichfield, Salisbury and St Albans cathedrals gained awards for ‘Best Told Story’, Coventry Cathedral for the scale of its ‘Welcome’ and Liverpool Cathedral was given a gold award for being the best ‘All Rounder’. All are Church of England cathedrals.
Young visitors at Salisbury Cathedral. PICTURE: Tom Gregory. © Salisbury Cathedral
Set up in 2014, the Visit England award scheme involves not just cathedrals but museums, historic houses, farm attractions, gardens, art galleries and country parks. Anonymous assessors visit the attractions during the year and make their reports. The resultant accolades reflect the popularity and the welcoming experience given to thousands of visitors every year as tourism has become a major element in the overall visitor offer of cathedrals nationwide.
Visit England Director Andrew Stokes says the accolades “acknowledge the people who bring the attractions to life through their unparalleled customer service”.
“They are the ones who make an attraction the most ‘welcoming’ and give life to the ‘Best Told Story’ and the quality of the attractions is rewarded with ‘Gold’ for the best all-rounders.”
At Salisbury, the award follows a major revamp of the way the cathedral presents itself to visitors which was undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. More than 600,000 visitors come to the cathedral each year to discover the cathedral and its close.
The revamp set out to improve the experience visitors receive when they enter the cathedral making it more accessible and informative, ensuring that the cathedral and Christian stories were shared engagingly and inclusively. New signage, including videos accessed by QR codes, was introduced, and more archive materials were made introduced into the displays.
The interior of Coventry Cathedral showing its famous stained glass window. PICTURE: © Coventry Cathedral
Jane Morgan, director of external relations and visitor experience at Salisbury Cathedral, said they were “thrilled that the work by our team has been recognised by Visit England”.
“Heritage buildings like the cathedral are an important part of our region’s history, in particular here in Salisbury, where it is woven into the city’s story and has its roots in Old Sarum. The hardest thing is moulding that rich seam of information into interpretation that is concise and accessible. It has certainly been well received by our visitors.”
Work is now underway on the second phase of the project in order to revise and improve the cathedral’s exhibition based on its original copy of the 1215 Magna Carta, one of only four that survive nationwide.
Over at Coventry Cathedral, the welcome experience has always received priority along with the theme of reconciliation. Destroyed by bombers in World War II, it rose from the ashes with a dramatic modern building sited adjacent to the ruins of the medieval cathedral with its iconic cross of nails.
Carla Crowley, head of tourism and engagement at the cathedral said the award “celebrates the hard work of not only our welcome team but the wider cathedral staff and volunteer team”.
“Hospitality is one of our core values, and the way in which we most obviously demonstrate this is through a consistently warm and genuine welcome, and I’m delighted that this has been recognised with this award.”
Liverpool was equally pleased with the Dean of Liverpool, Very Revd Dr Sue Jones, saying that “being awarded a gold award is a tremendous recognition of the hard work we do to help visitors encounter a special welcome when they come to Liverpool Cathedral.”
“There are so many reasons why people want to visit and this award will spur us on to ensuring we remain a place of great encounters for many years to come.”
