School children were already learning about Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men about 100 years after the reign of the evil King John. How do we know this? A school book, containing the first printed verses about the legendary Robin of Sherwood Forest is one of the treasures of the Lincoln Cathedral library.
England's cathedrals are storehouses of historical treasures and curiosities. When Henry VIII authorized the plundering of church property in the Reformation, lands, livestock, jewels and valuable metals, not just gold and silver but copper, bronze and brass, were taken.


Nobody paid much attention to the libraries. Later, when Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads raided the churches, they were more interested in smashing statues and desecrating noble burials than they were in burning books.

So cathedral libraries are amazing repositories of history and culture. Some are open to the public at specific times, other require an appointment. If you are planning a visit to one of England's cathedrals, after you marvel at the architecture, stained glass and art, find out what else you might be able to see:

• York Minster holds archives, antiquarian manuscripts and other materials about the early church and about Yorkshire history going back at least 1,000 years.
• Hereford Cathedral holds the amazing 13th century Mappa Mundi, one of the earliest maps of the world.
• Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral. The cathedral's Morley Library has a 17th century globe that shows California as an island and a Saxon bowl that may once have held the heart of King Canute.
• Canterbury Cathedral, can date its foundation (though not its building) to 597 when St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to convert the English. It has archives and manuscrips that go back 1,300 years and its library contains good collections of original material about the anti-slavery movement and the English Civil War. And for fans of the gruesome, The Martyrdom is a modern memorial that marks the spot where St. Thomas a Becket was murdered. Chaucer's Pilgrim's in the Canterbury Tales were headed here.

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