Lord Cormack’s Monthly Message

A very happy New Year to you all and may it be a splendid one for Lincoln and Lincolnshire.

The Castle has now closed pending its revelation and reopening at the beginning of April. Magna Carta will not return to the Castle until a little later than that but we now have a firm date for the official opening of the vault, namely Monday 8^th June and further details on this will follow. Of necessity, because of space, this will be an invitation only event but the vault will be open for everyone to see almost immediately thereafter.

June is going to be a very special month for our Magna Carta celebrations. We shall have the Three Choirs Festival in the Cathedral from the 18^th to the 21^st June and Lincolnshire’s Great Exhibition will be open to the public from the morning of June 27^th until it closes on the evening of September 27^th. But before then Lincoln’s Magna Carta has one more great adventure before returning to Lincoln. After coming back from Washington it will, for the very first time in history, be united with the other three surviving copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. One of these is in Salisbury Cathedral and the other two are in the British Library, although one of these was almost certainly first sent to Canterbury in 1215. They will united in a brief exhibition in the British Library on the 2^nd and 3^rd of February and on the 5^th February they will be united in the House of Lords.

This will be an exciting year for everyone who has an interest in this country’s great history.

With warmest wishes for 2015

Patrick, Lord Cormack