Salisbury cathedral archives reveal 800 years of smuggling, threats and ‘lying about’

The archives of Salisbury cathedral opened on a page detailing the 16th-century assault on the dean by an organist, John Farrant. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

There are tales of pilfering from the cathedral larder, of smuggling trips and constables chasing layabouts off the manicured lawns – even a crime of passion that ended with a 16^th-century dean only just escaping with his life.

The archivist and volunteers at Salisbury cathedral have been combing through the great church’s records to create a history of crime within the building’s magnificent close.