In this illustrated talk Dr Richard Fisher first explains how the nineteen cathedrals of medieval England were administered and funded, including their curious division into two very distinct organisational groups.  Henry VIII is infamous for his dissolution of the monasteries, but not so well known for creating six new dioceses, bishops and their requisite cathedrals from abbeys spared destruction.  Yet which did he choose to save and why?  Using examples from the Three Choirs cathedrals of Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester, the story is told of how our cathedrals survived the early Reformation and then contributed to the distinctive musical worship of the emergent Anglican church.