2 Best Sights in Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Heart of England

The early-18th-century Cathedral Church of St. Philip, a few blocks from Victoria Square, contains some lovely plasterwork in its elegant, gilded Georgian interior. The stained glass windows behind the altar, designed by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833–98) and executed by the firm of William Morris & Company, glow with sensuous hues. There are regular free half-hour guided tours (most Mondays at 12:30 pm and Thursdays at 11:30 am) where you can find out how this church became a cathedral.

It’s worth a detour 15 miles northeast of Birmingham to explore the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The sandstone building, beautifully sited by a tree-fringed pool, dates mainly from the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Lady Chapel glows with some 16th-century stained glass from the Cistercian abbey of Herkenrode, near Liège, in Belgium. Half-timber houses surround the peaceful grounds, and the town itself has Georgian buildings as well as the birthplace (now a museum) of lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson. Highlights Tours (45 minutes) run Monday through Saturday at 11 am and 2 pm. Visitors can also pay to tour the restored historic library, accessed up 35 spiral steps, which includes many early books, including 15th-century manuscripts of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, or join a Tower Tour to go into the cathedral's vaulted roof spaces and enjoy rooftop views of the town. Frequent trains from Birmingham New Street take 45 minutes.