How much does it cost to keep a cathedral open? {Peterborough Cathedral, UK}

The Norman Cathedral in Peterborough, known in part for being the resting place of Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, has announced a voluntary £6 entry donation, due to fears it could "go bust".

"Visitors are welcome to give whatever they can - or nothing at all. The cathedral remains open to everyone, regardless of their ability to donate," a spokesperson has said.

The news received a mixed response. Some visitors support the idea to "help with the upkeep and preserve it" for the future, while others believe the amount could discourage others from visiting.

But what does it cost to run the near 1,000-year-old building, and where does its income come from?

Jack Pishhorn, Peterborough Cathedral's chief operating officer, told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Dotty McLeod that it cost about "£2.5m a year to operate".

"Over the last few years we have operated at a loss of around £500,000 to £1m and that's unsustainable for the cathedral," Pishhorn said.

"That's not just us. That's 80% of UK cathedrals operate in a structural deficit, so we've really got to try to push our income and donations is such a great way of being able to do that.

He added that the cost of keeping it open worked out between £5 and £6 per minute.

The cathedral launched a Cathedral in Crisis campaign amid fears it would not be able to continue opening seven days a week without introducing entry charges.

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The original church, known as "Medeshamstede", was founded in the reign of the Anglo-Saxon King Peada of the Middle Angles in about 655 AD, as one of the first centres of Christianity in central England.

The monastic settlement with which the church was associated lasted at least until 870

In the mid-10th century, monastic revival (during which churches at Ely and Ramsey were also refounded) a Benedictine Abbey was created and endowed in 966, principally by Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester, from what remained of the earlier church, with "a basilica [church] there furbished with suitable structures of halls, and enriched with surrounding lands" and more extensive buildings which saw the aisle built out to the west with a second tower added. The original central tower was, however, retained. It was dedicated to St Peter and surrounded by a palisade, called a burgh, hence the town surrounding the abbey was eventually named Peter-burgh. The community was further revived in 972 by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury

Pilgrimage to Peterborough was common because of the abbey's many relics. The existing mid-12th-century records of Hugh Candidus, a monk, list the Abbey's reliquaries as including two pieces of swaddling clothes which wrapped the baby Jesus, pieces of Jesus' manger, a part of the five loaves which fed the 5,000, a piece of the raiment of Mary the mother of Jesus, a piece of Aaron's rod, and relics of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – to whom the church is dedicated

In 1541, following Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, the relics were lost. The church survived by being selected as the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Peterborough. The last Abbot of Peterborough, John Chambers, became the first Bishop of Peterborough. Henry's former wife, Catherine of Aragon, had been buried there in 1536. Her tomb was damaged in 1643 and restored in the 19th century

The cathedral was vandalised during the English Civil War in 1643 by Parliamentarian troops. Almost all the stained glass and the medieval choir stalls were destroyed, and the high altar and reredos were demolished, as were the cloisters and Lady Chapel. All the monuments and memorials of the Cathedral were also damaged or destroyed.

> Its incredibly tragic how quickly the Western world is rejecting its ancient Christian heritage.

Why is anyone surprised that flooding a country with non-Westerners will result in the replacement of native culture with that of the immigrants?

Western elites are desperate to save themselves by destroying the West before 2030.

Why 2030 ?

Thats when the number of people depending on State Healthcare and Pensions will bankrupt the economy, and a lot of very angry and desperate people will want to know why they can't get healthcare, food, or shelter anymore.

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