What to.. See CANTERBURY in the Guide to Britain

Canterbury Walls

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:25:22 +0100

The Roman Museum houses an in situ mosaic pavement dating from around 300 CE. Surviving structures from the Roman times include Queningate, a blocked gate in the city walls, and the Dane John Mound, once part of a Roman cemetery. The Dane John Gardens were built beside the mound in the 18th century, and a memorial was placed on the mound's summit. A windmill was on the mound between 1731 and 1839.

The ruins of the Norman Canterbury Castle and St Augustine's Abbey are both open to the public. The medieval St Margaret's Church now houses the "The Canterbury Tales", in which life-sized character models reconstruct Geoffrey Chaucer's stories. The Westgate is now a museum relating to its history as a jail. The medieval church of St Alphege became redundant in 1982 but had a new lease of life as the Canterbury Urban Studies Centre, later renamed the Canterbury Environment Centre; the building is used by the King's School.

The Old Synagogue at Canterbury, now the King's School Music Room, is one of only two Egyptian Revival synagogues still standing. The city centre contains many timber-framed 16th- and 17th -century houses, including the "Old Weaver's House" used by the Huguenots. St Martin's Mill is the only surviving mill out of the six known to have stood in Canterbury. It was built in 1817 and worked until 1890; it is now a house conversion.

The Gate House

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:24:19 +0100

The Westgate is a medieval gatehouse in Canterbury, Kent, England. This 60-foot-high western gate of the city wall is the largest surviving city gate in England. Built of Kentish ragstone around 1379, it is the last survivor of Canterbury's seven medieval gates, still well-preserved and one of the city's most distinctive landmarks. The road still passes between its drum towers, and there is just enough room for a double-decker bus to pass beneath. This scheduled monument and Grade I listed building houses the hundred-year-old West Gate Towers Museum, which as of July 2011 is open every day from 10am to 4:30pm. Access to the museum and roof is via spiral staircases only.

Wikipedia, Westgate, Canterbury, //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate,_Canterbury

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Hugenots Houses

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:24:19 +0100

At 10,000 AD, Canterbury had the 10th largest population in England; by the early 16th century, the population had fallen to 3,000. In 1363 after the Black Death. During the Hundred Years' War, a Commission of Inquiry found that disrepair, stone-robbing and ditch-filling had led to the Roman wall becoming eroded. Between 1378 and 1402, the wall was virtually rebuilt, and new wall towers were added. In 1381, during the Peasants' Revolt, the castle and Archbishop's Palace were sacked, and Archbishop Sudbury was beheaded in London. Sudbury is still remembered annually by the Christmas mayoral procession to his tomb at Canterbury Cathedral. In 1413 Henry IV became the only sovereign to be buried at the cathedral. In 1448 Canterbury was granted a City Charter, which gave it a mayor and a high sheriff; the city still has a Lord Mayor and Sheriff. In 1504 the cathedral's main tower, the Bell Harry Tower, was completed, ending 400 years of building.

During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the city's priory, nunnery and three friaries were closed. St Augustine's Abbey, the 14th richest in England at the time, was surrendered to the Crown, and its church and cloister were levelled.

Conquest House

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:16:45 +0100

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour. Originally a Brythonic settlement, it was renamed Durovernum Cantiacorum by the Roman conquerors in the 1st century AD. After it became the chief Jutish settlement, it gained its English name Canterbury, itself derived from the Old English Cantwareburh ("Kent people's stronghold"). After the Kingdom of Kent's conversion to Christianity in 597, St Augustine founded an episcopal see in the city and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a position that now heads the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion (though the modern-day Province of Canterbury covers the entire south of England).

Thomas Becket's murder at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 led to the cathedral becoming a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide. Conquest House is where the Knights who murdered Becket are reputed to have stayed there the previous night.This pilgrimage provided the theme for Geoffery Chaucer's 14th-century literary classic The Canterbury Tales. The literary heritage continued with the birth of the playwright Christopher Marlowe in the city in the 16th century.

Norman Staircase

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:29:37 +0100

Canterbury was walled by the Romans around 300 AD. This has been consistently the most important of the city's gates as it is the London Road entrance and the main entrance from most of Kent. The present towers are a medieval replacement of the Roman west gate, rebuilt around 1380.

There was a gate here at the time of the Norman conquest, which is thought to have been Roman. From late Anglo-Saxon times it had the Church of the Holy Cross on top, but both church and gate were dismantled in 1379, and the gate was rebuilt by Archbishop Simon Sudbury before he died in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

It has been suggested that it was built primarily as an entrance for pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Thomas Becket at the cathedral. However the rebuild as a defensive status symbol was paid for partly by Sudbury and partly by taxation for military protection against expected raids by the French.

It has been suggested that the spiral staircases were built to the disadvantage of defenders going downstairs who would have had to fight invaders climbing up to their right: difficult with a one-handed sword in the right hand.

St Peter’s Church

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:29:15 +0100

Near to St Peter’s Church is the Kent Museum of Freemasonry, is a museum in St Peters Place, Canterbury, Kent with a rare collection of masonic exhibits of national and international importance. It has possibly the finest collection of Masonic material in the UK outside of London. This includes the unique 19th Century stained glass windows which originally adorned the old Freemasons’ Hall in London. The Canterbury museum hosts a rare collection of masonic artefacts and ephemera of national and international interest.

There are items of interest to both the curious browser and serious student of Freemasonry including many with anthropological links to the City of Canterbury and the County of Kent. The collection includes a fine collection of Masonic paintings, unique glassware and porcelain, along with documents and presentation items. The extensive collection of masonic manuscripts, regalia and books, which are currently being re-catalogued, covers all Masonic orders through the ages.

The Cathedral

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:29:10 +0100

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.

The cathedral's first archbishop was Augustine of Canterbury, previously abbot of St. Andrew's Benedictine Abbey in Rome. He was sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 597 as a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine founded the cathedral in 602 and dedicated it to St. Saviour. Archaeological investigations under the nave floor in 1993 revealed the foundations of the original Saxon cathedral, which had been built across a former Roman road.

A pivotal moment in the history of Canterbury Cathedral was the murder of Thomas Becket in the north-west transept (also known as the Martydom) on Tuesday 29 December 1170 by knights of King Henry II. The king had frequent conflicts with the strong-willed Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" The knights took it literally and murdered Becket in his own cathedral. Becket was the second of four Archbishops of Canterbury who were murdered.