Historical Builder › Cathedrals › Canterbury Cathedral
How Long Did It Take to Build Canterbury Cathedral?
Short answer: about 335 years, from 1070 to 1405. This is a rough estimate over the whole building history; the real work came in separate phases with long pauses.
Pilgrims bought flasks of St Thomas's water, said to hold Becket's blood, until the shrine was destroyed in 1538.
What the sources say about the building period
Rebuilt by Lanfranc from 1070; choir burned 1174 and rebuilt 1176–84; nave and transepts rebuilt c. 1365–1400. University of Pittsburgh, Medieval Art and Architecture Academic source
Stone and crew in numbers
- Country and type
- England, cathedral
- Stone in the walls
- 50,000 to 80,000 m³ Estimate
- For comparison
- about 26 Olympic pools of stone, or 6,500 truckloads
- Average crew
- about 23 workers (model value: the crew that would need exactly this long, working without a break)
Volume basis: 160 m long; nave 24 m high; central tower 72 m. Checked against measurements. Our estimates come from published dimensions and are shown as a range. The result is a simple model, not a measured fact.
Where the stone came from
Caen stone from Normandy has been the principal building stone since Lanfranc's rebuilding of 1070, imported across the Channel. Other stones came from further afield, such as Purbeck marble, Reigate stone and Kentish ragstone. Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society: Caen stone, Wikipedia: Caen stone Secondary source
Plan
Legend: tradition, not evidence
Water mixed with the blood of Thomas Becket, sold to pilgrims as St Thomas's water, was said to heal the sick.
What we know: Becket was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. Two monks wrote down the reported cures, and flasks of the water were sold until the shrine was destroyed in 1538.
Canterbury Cathedral: medieval pilgrimage, London Museum: pilgrim ampulla Tradition, not evidence
Build it yourself
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