Marking history Cathedral tour celebrates graffiti down the centuries

You don't notice them at first. The eyes tend to be drawn to grander wonders - the altars, the stained glass, the flowing arches.

- Steven Morris

But once the marks carved into the stonework of Salisbury Cathedral by centuries of pilgrims, churchgoers and mischief-makers are pointed out, they begin to pop out all over the place.

A new "graffiti tour" of the great Wiltshire church is being launched in May with guides showing off what feel like whispered messages from the distant past. There are thousands of marks, from initials of people long-forgotten to images of animals and flowers and "protection marks" thought to keep evil at bay.