Are there any English Cathedrals, Minsters, Priories & Abbeys that aren't worth visiting? Well, I find the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool utterly charmless, much prefering the serene modernism of Paddy's Wigwam, and Coventry leaves me pretty cold too, but apart from that...

York is still revealing its secrets after a lifetime of familiarity, I can lose 2 hours each visit in the Chapter House alone. Recent encounters at Southwell and Ely have touched me very deeply - the chapter house & vestibule at Southwell haunts my dreams, and I could easily spend the rest of my life in the Lady Chapel at Ely. Chester is darkly mysterious, whilst Lincoln is filled with celestial light (as justly celebrated by the Amazing Blondel). The cloisters of Norwich had me absorbed for the full four hours of my wife & mother-in-law's shopping trip into town - I believe the rest of the cathedral is worth a look too! Hereford has some amazing woodwork & touches of the celebrated Romanesque which I'm looking forward to revisiting in the summer. The fan-vaulted cloisters at Gloucester are mind-blowing, and full marks for the pamphlet explaing that Green Men aren't pagan after all, though at most other cathedrals the custodians are only too happy to propagate the myth that they are. Talking of which, the amblutory at Tewkesbury features some of the finest Green Men anywhere - and despite the garish Victorian make-over Worcester is still worth a visit, if only for the cloister bosses. Durham has its undoubted charms; the Galilee Chapel is one of my favourite places on planet earth - it was here I once had a coversation with Christopher Lee without realising who he was. At Exeter you can see things like THIS at head height making me a very happy bunny indeed. The charms of Beverley are legion; from the spandrel musicians to the celebrated misericords (though I found those at Saint Mary's more impressive) and an hour at Leicester a few years back has left no impression other than a few foliate beasts lurking in the spandrels and something strange in an upper chapel the nature of which presently alludes me. Manchester is ill-lit, but comes alive on a sunny day; the stalls are charming, but if it's the famous (?) Green Men you're looking for be sure to bring your binoculars - though there is a fine Green Lion at head height and a Medieval Tableau reminiscent of Rainbow. Lancaster has some of the finest choir stalls in the country and those of Cartmel are worth eshewing the sticky toffee pudding for; lots of serpents at Cartmel too, and fine skull adornments on the tombs. The column capitals of Carlise are among the nation's treasures, and at Newcastle you can see the memorial of Captain Bover whose exploits inspired several Tyneside Folk Songs, one of which is eponymous. Sheffield has some of the most disturbing roof-boss imagery anywhere in the country - folksy, vernacular, primitive maybe, but hardly pagan.

That's enough for now anyway.