St Peter’s Cathedral

A truly magnificent building. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable on the history of this beautiful building. It was a busy place when we arrived, there were numerous ladies doing enormous floral arrangements for a funeral that was being held the next day. The pews in the cathedral have only been in existence since the 1960’s as prior to that they had cane chairs! I thought all churches had pews as a standard, so that was news to me. We had a look at a lovely display of embroidered items that the ladies guild have done, such detail, if I lived closer I would join this group as I too love doing the fine embroidery. We then made our way down to the front of the altar, it is so far from the seating. The choir area has tapestry cushions that have to be in the correct order as there is stitched into them a musical piece.

Hidden behind the altar is the Lady chapel, a quiet place to pray at anytime. It has the most wonderful stained glass windows. Down the passageway leading to the chapel are all the embroidered banners from various groups, Deidre was excited when she saw the Mother’s Union one as her mother stitched a panel and Deidre had done a few stitches herself. There is a mix of old stained glass windows and modern leadlight in the Cathedral. The tour lady told us the wonderful story the modern leadlight windows have, the story starts from settlement through to now. Unfortunately the bell tower wasn’t in the tour, so I must go back when there is one in the future. Oh, and the tour was free!