Ancient Library Tour - Heritage Open Days 2025

We would like to invite you to a 30-minute session in our Ancient Library where you will be able to see some of the books in our collection and learn a little more about them with our Library Guides. The Ancient Library was founded by Dr Miles Mosse in 1595 as a resource for clergy training. There are over 550 books in the Library, mainly printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Library is in a room above the north-west porch, which was designed by Stephen Dykes Bower in 1960, the architect who oversaw the extension of the Cathedral in the twentieth century.

Unfortunately, the Ancient Library is accessed up a small spiral staircase and is therefore not accessible to those in wheelchairs, or with prams/pushchairs. Dogs welcome on the Cathedral site but not in the Ancient Library.