Day 279 - Canterbury Tales

"It's that you each, to shorten the long journey,

Shall tell two tales en route to Canterbury,

And, coming homeward, another two,

Stories of things that happened long ago.

Whoever best acquits himself, and tells

The most amusing and instructive tale,

Shall have a dinner, paid by us all,

Here in this roof, and under this roof-tree,

When we come back again from Canterbury."

As said by the Inkeeper and Host to the pilgrims traveling 

to Canterbury in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

I mentioned in a post a few days ago that when we started our adventure last September in Alton, one of the first things we did was walk part of the Pilgram's Way that runs from Winchester to Canterbury. It was originally used by those going to see the shrine of St Thomas Becket. As we near the end of this particular adventure, we find ourselves in Canterbury. Although admittedly this was not a consciously planned route, it does seem fitting. Like the tales told by the travellers in Chaucer's tales, we've enjoyed sharing our own stories along the way.

We have a few days remaining and a few tales left to tell, and we are continuing to make the most of each one.

From Hythe, the number 18 bus takes you through tiny villages of Kent to the bustling City of Canterbury. At its heart lies the mostly walled old town in which lies the famous Canterbury Cathedral.

Costumes for King Ethelbert and
Queen Bertha in the museum of
St. Augustine's Abbey.

But Canterbury as we know it and perhaps even English Christianity would not have existed at all if not for a Benedictine monk from Rome named Augustine. in the year 595, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to Britain to convert King Ethelbert and his Kingdom of Kent from Anglo-Saxon paganism to Christianity. Ethelbert had married Bertha who was the Christian daughter of the King of Paris, so the conversion wasn't too difficult. Augustine set off with 40 monks, but returned to Rome after two months. The Pope basically told him he would be derelict in his duties if he didn't complete the mission and sent Augustine back on his way.

The first parts of 
St. Augustine's made 
use  of red brick from
Roman buildings on 
the site.

Ethelbert's castle was in the walled town of Canterbuy, and in 598 he granted Augustine land just outside of the walls to use to build a monastery and gave him free reign to try to convert his citizens. In 597, Augustine effectively became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior bishop and principle leader of what is today the Church of England.

Several kings and archbishops were buried at St. Augustine's.

The abbey was not only a home for the monks, it was to be the burial place for Kings of Kent, archbishops and other high-ranking members of royalty and the clergy.

The remains of one wall of the former abbey.

Despite its historical significance, most of the abbey was demolished by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and stone from it was used in a variety of buildings and forts near and far.

Which brings me to Canterbury Cathedral, a stone's throw away from St. Augustine's, but built on the inside of the town walls. (Before exploring the Cathedral, we stopped for a cup of tea and a sandwich at The Moat tearoom, a Tudor-era building inside the old town. Lovely!)

You can see in this photo the
variety of eras that make up
Canterbury Cathedral.

While the Abbey housed the monks, the cathedral was the church over which Augustine was archbishop. He started work on Canterbury Cathedral at the same time as the monastery, re-using a former Roman Church to begin with. The cathedral was badly damaged in 1011 during raids by the Danes. The Archbishop at the time, Elfheah, was taken hostage and killed at Greenwich, becoming the first of five Canterbury archbishops to be murdered.

After being destroyed by fire in 1067, the Cathedral was completely rebuilt and vastly expanded.

To honour Queen Elizabeth II's
Diamond Julilee, statues of her
and Prince Philip were added to
the western front of the Cathedral
in 2015. 

Thomas Beckett became the second martyred archbishop. Pilgrims began to flock here and the Cathedral grew again to accommodate their numbers. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII had Beckett's tomb destroyed and all relics associated with him vanished. Canterbury surrendered in March 1539 and was spared destruction, although another abbey that had been built into it was abolished.

We took two tours while visiting the Cathedral. The first explained the life of the monks who had lived there, and the second discussed the murders of the archbishops.

Our heads almost filled to the brim with history, we walked along the River Stour and watch the punters steer their boats down the river amid the gardens. We resisted the urge to jump in despite the heat that has been hitting the UK, and returned to our cottage in Hythe for a well-earned rest.