6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 • RSVP by Oct. 14

We talk about our churches, whether it be St. Johns, St. Lukes or another church, being over100 years old. When is the last time you got a virtual tour through a cathedral more than a thousand years old?

That’s what’s in store Oct. 17 when the English Speaking Union meets at Salisbury Country Club, and George Hillard presents “English Churches and Cathedrals.”

Hillard, a 39-year army veteran, while at an Army logistics symposium at the University of London, found the book that changed his life, a history of English architecture. Since that time, his travels throughout the United Kingdom have taken him into many Saxon churches and Norman and Gothic cathedrals. His writings and photography have been extensive.

Walk with him through Durham Cathedral, where the cornerstone was laid in the Norman period in 1093 as a place of worship and as a defensive fortress against Scotland, regarded as one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Europe.

Or try Canterbury Cathedral, constructed 500 years earlier in 597 AD at the collapse of Roman rule. It is now the Mother church of world-wide Anglican communion.
If your tastes are more homey, there is St. Peters On-the-Wall, in Bradford, Essex, built on the foundation of a Roman fort. This was converted to a barn for the storage of grain in the 16th century for a couple of hundred years then restored as a chapel in 1920. It is still in use today for religious services.

Cocktails are at 6:30, dinner at 7:00 and the presentation at 8 p.m. Tickets are $32. Come as a one-time guest to experience the caliber of our programs and consider joining.

RSVP to gwood@gerrywoodauto.com or 704-216-2660 for reservations. Deadline is Monday, Oct. 14. Visit https://www.esuus.org/Salisbury to learn more.

The Salisbury Branch of The English-Speaking Union is a non-profit, non-political membership organization whose mission is to promote scholarship and the advancement of knowledge through the effective use of English in an expanding global community.