Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England.

The present building was complete by about 1400, and has several notable features including an early set of misericords, an astronomical clock and the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England.

The founding of the cathedral at Exeter, dedicated to Saint Peter, dates from 1050, when the seat of the bishop of Devon and Cornwall was transferred from Crediton because of a fear of sea-raids. A Saxon minster already existing within the town (and dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Peter) was used by Bishop Leofric as his seat, but services were often held out of doors, close to the site of the present cathedral building.

On 4 May 1942, an early morning air raid took place over Exeter. The cathedral sustained a direct hit by a large high-explosive bomb on the chapel of St James, completely destroying it. The muniment room above, three bays of the aisle and two flying buttresses also perished in the blast. Fortunately many of the cathedral's most important artifacts, such as the glass of the great east window, the misericords, the Exeter Book, the bishop's throne and the Bronescombe Effigy, had been removed at the start of the war in anticipation of such an attack. Subsequent repairs and the clearance of the area around the western end of the building uncovered portions of earlier structures, including remains of the Roman city and of the original Norman cathedral.

Notable features of the interior include the great clock, the minstrels' gallery, and the ceiling bosses, one of which depicts the murder of Thomas Becket. Because there is no centre tower, Exeter Cathedral has the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England.

(Wikipedia)