Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral 

I arrived in Canterbury GB on Wednesday September 11 and will leave on Sunday September 15.  The Canterbury Cathedral is the main attraction here and I will have visited it at least 3 - 4 times over a couple of days.  Rather than break up the different experiences, I will try to put all Cathedral related all in one blog post, and the rest of Canterbury in another.  Also, being able to immerse in the cathedral and the history, really made me understand the people of the area through the years.  I think I said it in other blogs, but church’s/cathedrals in Europe were the center of the community and much revolves around them.  From the stone masons to the artisans to the stain glass experts to the religious community and all the town built up to basically support all those, is incredible to learn about. 

The first picture is the right side of the cathedral, it is hard to get the whole thing in a picture because it was so big and some was under scaffolding for restoration.  The 2nd picture is looking at it from the cathedral gardens, the round 2 story part on the left had side was their water tower so the monks could have fresh water - for beer making of course! 

These statues at the outside front of the church remind you that this is still a working cathedral.  Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles are the most recent additions.  

My hotel was on the grounds of the Cathedral, so there were a few perks by being right on site.  Not only were the views beautiful, but also I could come and go as I liked and was able to experience different aspects.   This is really a view from my hotel window.  I really like on Rick Steves tours, that they put you right where the town and sights are. 

The first full day here, I went on my own and did a self guided tour to learn the basics.  Canterbury is the headquarters of the Anglican Church which makes it akin to the English Vatican. There had been a church here since groundbreaking in 597AD.  None of that church has survived, and the majority was built between 1100 and 1400 as a Catholic Cathedral.  Other than being the now seat of the Anglican Church it is also famous for being the place where Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170, at the behest (sort of, since he wished it out loud, of Henry II).  Soon after Becket died, word of miracles at the church spread, he became a saint and the Cathedral soon had pilgrims come from all over for the next 400 years, and the town and Cathedral flourished.  Becket’s tomb was there until the Henry VIII destroyed it during the reformation.   It is even said that the church is built over a Roman place of worship. 

The first 2 pictures are the cloisters where the monks wrote out bibles and other scholarly things, year round.  Back in those days it was too dark in the church to see well enough to write. 

This was the ceiling in the walkway of the cloisters.  Just like modern days where people put their names on bricks in walkways, these crests are some of the many families that donated to Cathedral.

The next 3 are pictures of the monks herb and vegetable garden.  Parts of this area was in ruins, but the garden was still kept up.

It is hard to take good pictures inside of a place that is so large, but I always like to take pictures of the baptismal fonts.  They are always interesting. 

The picture above is not outside, it is in approximately the middle of the church.  In the olden times, you had to be in a religious order or a very important person to get through the entrance, all the regular folk, participated in the service from where I took the picture.  The picture below is decoration on one of the ceilings. 

I included this tomb, because everyone that we interacted with said that he was the best king that never was.  He was “The Black Prince”. Edward Plantagenet 1330 - 1376.  He dies before his father, but apparently everyone loved him. 

There was stain glass everywhere, here is just an example.

While at the cathedral, I was able to witness a very moving ceremony   Every day at 1100am, with a deacon reading a prayer and an old soldier performing the duty, a ship bell is rung and a page is turned in the book memorializing soldiers from WWI to present day who died in service to their country.  It was an extremely moving ceremony.   In the pictures below, 1st-ringing of the bell, 2nd and 3rd the book with the names of the fallen. 

In the same room as the remembrance ceremony is the grave of Stephen Langton -an arch bishop of Canterbury in the early 1200’s.  He was instrumental in the writing of the Magna Carta which our docent said gave freedom to England.  Through that, the writing of the Declaration of Independence was influenced by the Magna Carta.  (I just thought that was an interesting tidbit) 

I went back in the late afternoon on Thursday to get a private tour of the corona chapel (where they kept the top of the head of Thomas Becket until Henry VIII destroyed it). This was a great experience since we could see up close the medieval tile floors, learn a little more of the history, and we took a spiral staircase that ran behind the chapel up to the roof.   On the roof we were able to see up close the way that the volunteers (mostly women) in 1942 save the Cathedral from being destroyed when the Nazis were targeting it on deliberate bombing raids. 

In the farther shot, you can see pipes going up the side of the cathedral and in the closeup, you can see one of the pipes and a ladder.  The pipes carried water and they accessed the roof by climbing up the ladders  if they couldn’t smother a bomb with water or sand, they would bravely throw it off the roof. 

Then, on Friday we had a private tour of the Cathedral and the docent told a very animated story about the murder of Thomas Becket and the forgiveness of Henry II for “ordering” the murder.  Then the docent, who taught science for 40 years, described a miracle that he had witnessed. 

Later that morning we went to the Cathedral’s stain glass workshop and learned about making, repairing and restoring stain glass.   It was all very interesting. 

Above she is showing us how they make modern day stain glass windows, below is a restoration project with windows from the 1500s 

These stain glass were from approximately 1250 and depicted the miracles after Thomas Beckets death.  The glazier was very nervous when one of the guess held their camera phone over the work! 

 The only thing left that I want to do at the Cathedral is go to their choir service tomorrow night.  It is supposed to be beautiful.  Hopefully I can add some pictures later.  Well, I went to the evensong service and it was very nice.  It mostly blew me away that I went to a service in a church that millions upon millions of pilgrims and of course regular people have gone for over a thousand years, then on the same spot that so many came for the thousand years before that.  I was unable to take many pictures-only one, since they told me not to take anymore- oops.