A pilgrim's Tale

The cathedral is the undoubted highlight here. It's historic, beautiful, and laiden with the dreams and devotions of a thousand years.

The castle built for William the Conqueror, in the 11th century, is largely ruined but still interesting.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

It's easy to get here by train from London, and it takes about an hour and a half to do so. Once here, the local buses are fairly good, and the town isn't too big. Parking is tricky - my sister, who lives near Canterbury and goes to Uni here, has a fistful of tickets to show that fact!

If you want to get here the traditional way, walk from London, along the Old Kent Road and keep going! Might take you a while, though...

This cathedral, spiritual head of the Anglican church world-wide, is awesome. Bound up in the religious and spiritual life of England for well over 1,000 years, it exudes great power as well as architectural beauty and perfection.

The Cathedral was founded in 597, by St Augustine on a mission from Pope Gregory in Rome. St Augustine then became the first Archbishop, first out of 103 so far. (And a dangerous occupation it is too, many incumbents came to a sticky end. Thomas A Becket and Thomas Cranmer spring immediately to mind, but I'm sure they aren't the only ones to die violently in the post. Both of these were killed by, or on the orders of, the monarch of the day to boot!) The present building is a little younger - it dates from the early 12th century onwards.

The Cathedral was originally the church for a monastery, and the monks followed the Benedictine rule. Once Henry VIII had ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, the cathedral became independent of any monastic connections.

The interior of the cathedral is amazing. The nave soars high above the visitor, making him feel the heights of religious devotion that built such an enourmous structure in a poor, medieval society. The cloisters, nearby, were the heart of the monastic community. Here monks lived, ate, slept, and worked. It must have been a beautiful place to reside, but all that stone must have made the winter winds seems very cold.

The chapel of St Anslem is my favourite of the small chapels around the main body of the building. It's more intimate than the nave, and just as beautiful. It was built in memory of the saint from France, who became Archbishop here in the 1090s. The other small chapels - St Michael and Trinity - are also beautiful.

The cathedral costs £2.50 for adults, and costs £1.50 for concessions.

This abbey, also founded by the busy Augustine along with the cathedral, suffered badly in the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1540s. The site is now ruined, but fascinating still. There are the ruins of both Saxon and Norman churches, and a palace built by Henry VII after the dissolution to demonstrate his power and new-found property rights over the former church properties. The palace was built for his marriage to Anne of Cleves, the bride he married sight unseen on the basis of a painting. The art turned out to be somewhat more impressive than the real thing, and this marriage, Henry's fourth, ended in divorce before it has properly begun. The palace suffered along with the nuptials, and was rented out for several centuries. There's a very interesting museum on-site which explains the history of the buildings, and displays various objects from them.

It costs £2 to enter the site, £1.50 for students and OAPs, and £1 for children.

One of the earliest surviving works in the English language, Chaucer's tales about the journey from London to Canterbury are fascinating. The language isn't easy - it is much more different from modern English than Shakespeare is - but worth the effort. Most books come with a vocab list anyway. Try reading it aloud to yourself - it then becomes more obvious that 'apultrie' is actually 'apple tree'. The spelling is pretty phonetic. Much of the language is still witty today; he talks about the advocate who 'was a busy man, and yet he seemth busier than he was.' An observation that is still true today!

Before you leave for Canterbury itself, there are some interesting details on the route pilgrims took there from London. They left along the Old Kent Road - where there is still a Thomas A. Beckett pub. Because it was a pilgims' route, pubs were not allowed on the road itself. Even now, almost all the pubs on the Old Kent Road are on crossroads, and have their entrances on the road leading off the Old Kent Road, so as not to breach the letter of the law. (Although the spirit was definitely honoured in the breach not the observance!)