Salisbury Cathedral

Superlatives abound in the monument at Salisbury’s heart. It has the largest medieval cloisters in Britain, and within its early English Gothic core – a lofty light-filled space which, uniquely, remains unaltered since it was built (1220-1258). It boasts the earliest choir stalls in Britain (circa 1236) and the world’s oldest mechanical clock (1386) and that’s not all. Through the cloisters, the octagonal Chapter House, decorated with a lively medieval frieze of the books of Genesis and Exodus, is not just the ritziest meeting room ever built, but is also the repository for the finest of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta.