By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, Telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 04/10/2006)

Canterbury Cathedral is falling apart at the seams, with chunks of masonry dropping off its walls and a fifth of its internal marble pillars held together by duct tape.

The extent of the building’s disrepair was revealed yesterday at the launch of a global campaign to raise £50 million over five years for urgent and long-term renovation and conservation.

The cathedral, the mother church of worldwide Anglicanism which was founded in 597 by St Augustine, was the scene of the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 and has survived extensive bombing of the city during the Second World War.

But Allan Willett, the chairman of the trustees, says it is now facing its biggest challenge — serious corrosion and pollution.

“Despite its 900 turbulent years, it is the next few years that represent this cathedral’s time of greatest danger,” he said.

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