Looking Back: Keeping things nice and tidy in peaceful Cathedral grounds

Cutting the grass in the Cathedral precincts decades ago

In the light of the financial appeal and campaign to help save Peterborough Cathedral – the city’s jewel in the crown, I dug into my archives and found images from more stable times.

I took these pictures about 45 years ago and that is now making me feeling very old!

I wonder who the smartly-dressed man pushing his ATCO petrol mower cutting the newly laid turf was?

Was he a member of the clergy or maybe a volunteer (today there are about 400) and who was the owner of the Rover Coupe?

A spot of garden maintenance 45 years ago in the Cathedral grounds

Not much has changed apart from the entrance which now has automatic wooden and glass doors to keep the cold out.

What I love about walking through the Norman arch from a very busy and noisy Cathedral Square is the peaceful and sublime feeling of stepping back 1,000 years, looking up in awe and wondering how architects, skilled masons and carpenters could produce such a magnificent Gothic West Front without modern cranes and scaffolds.

I think of its turbulent history of Saxons, Vikings, Tudors, Civil War, fires, faith and humanism, how many years it took to build. I am also amazed how tons of limestone from Barnack were dragged and transported on barges towed by horses.

I am guessing the man burning the autumn leaves in front of today’s Becket’s cafe was the gardener but what was his name?

My photography books, including the latest, Streets of America and Barking 2!, are available in the fantastic Up the Garden Bath Unity crafts and gifts shop in Queensgate. Also from my website www.chrisporsz.com.