I'm still learning about the cathedral, says guide

As St Albans Cathedral's longest serving active guide, who is spending his 46th Christmas in the role, Stephen de Silva talks of the importance of telling its history and how he is still learning about the church.

The cathedral, a shrine to Britain's first saint, is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain.

After moving to St Albans in 1979, Mr de Silva found the Norman cathedral was "a nice place to go to church" but his experience and communication skills as a drama and religious education teacher were soon noticed and he was told he "would make a wonderful guide".

In those days, there were a handful of people who "occasionally did a tour if somebody asked", he said.

"You went round with the head guide twice and then you were a guide.

"Today we make [trainee guides] jump through hoops, quite rightly because they're representing the cathedral to large numbers of people."

He said that as well as explaining the history of the building, their "core purpose is to talk about the importance of the Christian faith and what that means to people and how it's guided them through the ages".

He learned on the job but said even he is "still learning".

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