King Charles III continues as Patron of the Salisbury Cathedral Trust
Salisbury Cathedral is delighted to announce that King Charles III has agreed to remain Patron of the Salisbury Cathedral Trust. The recent announcement from Buckingham Palace coincided with the first anniversary of His Majesty’s Coronation.
The Salisbury Cathedral Trust was established in 1984, initially as the Spire Appeal Trust, under the patronage of the then Prince of Wales, to manage fundraising to support necessary repairs to the Spire, Tower and West Front. Since then, the Trust has continued to provide funds for the ongoing repair and maintenance of the Cathedral building.
Work on the Spire began in 1987, with the initial Spire Appeal raising more than £7 million towards the project. Fundraising events included a major concert in 1991, supported by the Prince of Wales and featuring performances from Phil Collins, Placido Domingo, Charlton Heston and Kenneth Branagh. The event took place on the west lawn in front of the Cathedral, to an audience of more than ten thousand.
Work on the Spire was completed in 1992 and was followed by conservation and repairs to the Tower and West Front, which were completed in 2001. The roofs subsequently received repair work in 2005.
Since then, the Cathedral’s Works team have painstakingly made their way around the exterior of the building, concluding last year with the completion of the last large area of repair, the East End. This means that the exterior of the Cathedral is free from scaffolding for the first time since work began 38 years ago – a similar length of time that it took to build the Cathedral in 1220.
The Dean of Salisbury, the Very Revd Nicholas Papadopulos, DL, said:
“We are delighted that His Majesty has kindly agreed to continue his patronage of the Cathedral Trust. We are very grateful for his support of the original appeal at its outset in the 1980s, and for his ongoing interest in the restoration work. He most recently visited the Cathedral in 2020 and gave an address in celebration of the 800th anniversary of its foundation. With His Majesty’s support we look forward to continuing the good work begun by those who started the Trust forty years ago.”
The Cathedral’s Works team continues to work on other important projects, including maintenance of the North Cloister, where there has been significant weather damage to the stonework, and restoring the impressive Edward Burne-Jones window in the south aisle.