Canterbury

It's been many years since we visited Canterbury and I couldn't really remember much about its building but I do know a little about its history.

We have often passed by this Kent cathedral city on our way to France. Canterbury is full of medieval buildings, cobbled streets and is well known as the birthplace of English Christianity.

There is evidence of a settlement as early as 200BC which I find amazing as that was over 2000 years ago. The Romans captured what was by then a Celtic settlement and built it's fortifications naming the town Durovernum Cantiavorum. 

After the Romans the Jutes took over the area reusing much of the Roman structures. They renamed the town  Cantwaraburh. In 597AD St Augustine was sent by the Pope in Rome and founded the Cathedral making this the ecclesiastical capital which it still is today over 1400 years later.

Canterbury is a bustling city with a mix of shoppers and tourists. We used the Park & Ride which made our journey into the city centre very easy with the bus station being next to Whitefriars Shopping Centre, a modern area with all the popular high Street stores.

As we wandered into the city its age and variety of buildings was everywhere, no wonder there were many tour guides holding flags or umbrellas followed by large groups of wide eyed tourists. 

The tiny cobbled Burgate with its medieval buildings lies on the original Roman street grid. St George's Tower is a 14th century building using Kent flint and is all that remains of St George the Martyr Church which was destroyed in 1942 in the German Luftwaffe Baedeker Raid.

The Buttermarket is Canterbury's large publis square dominated by the ornate Christ Church Gate which is the entrance to the Cathedral.

At the side of the huge gate is an amazing wooden pedestrian door set in a stone archway that dates have to the early 1500s. During the English Civil War the wooden doors were smashed, they were restored in the 1660s under the reign of King Charles II with craftsmen replacing missing fragments of the 360 year old oak.

Christ Church Gate was completed in 1521 as not only a secure entrance to the Cathedral grounds but as a royal tribute to commemorate the wedding of Arthur Prince of Wales (Henry VIII's older brother) to Catherine of Aragon.

The grand central statue of Christ was destroyed during the English Civil War, the niche was empty until the replacement new bronze statue in 1990.

It is possible to stand at the Gate to look at Canterbury Cathedral but there is a charge to actually visit. The shop and small museum next door has free entry and has a huge upstairs viewing window giving views of this magnificent architectural building with it's carved entrance. 

My knowledge of Canterbury Cathedral is that of it becoming a place of pilgrimage after the brutal death of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. After becoming Archbishop Thomas Beckett defended the rights of the Church against King Henry II. After many years of feeding the King was heard to say 'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?'. On 29th December 1170 four knights entered the Cathedral and brutally killed the Archbishop.

Thomas Beckett's body was initially kept safe in the crypt then an ornate shrine was built in the Cathedral only for it to be destroyed during Henry VIII's Reformation. It is not known where his body is now, there is a lit candle where the shrine once was and is the focal point of many pilgrims.

 

The Cathedral is certainly the dominant building in Canterbury, the view of it looking down Mercery Lane is quite famous. However there are many other historic buildings, almost a new one with every step especially walking down High Street and on to St Peter's Street. 

In fact this road was part of the Roman Watling Street which ran from the Kent ports through London and on to Anglesey. It is now the A2 to London and A5 going north, we live close to the Watling Street.

On such striking and very ornate building is Queen Elizabeth's Guest Chambers built for the Queen's visit in 1573.

The Westgate Towers, on the route of the Watling Street, is the largest medieval gateway still standing in England. At a height if 60 feet this structure made if Kent ragstone is the only one if Canterbury's seven medieval city gates to have survived the city's turbulence times.

The Old City Jail us a Victorian building built in the 1830s but its location on Pound Lane us the site of the city's medieval defense boundary.

My favourite building was the Old Weavers House on the banks of the Great Stour River which formed part of Canterbury's defenses. It's a Grade II listed building dating back to 1500AD. During the 16th and 17th centuries it was a refuge for skilled silk and cloth weavers escaping religious persecution in France. They built a thriving industry using the river to ower their looms and wash their materials.

The Great Stour River is a popular place to take a punt, these flat bottomed boats are a popular way to see the city from the river.

We had a superb day in Canterbury, there is so much history over many centuries. The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 1300s is a collection of 24 stories about a group of pilgrims making their way from London to visit Thomas Beckett's Shrine, I think that may well be on my 2027 reading list.