Photos
I anticipate I’m in for lots of Winter sunshine as I embark on another long weekend of 50@fifty, this time to Kent. The first leg should be a straightforward run up to Waterloo except that engineering work means it will take about twice the time - cursed engineers! To cap it all I’m starting later than usual because I’ve had to attend a church meeting that same morning - there's dedication to the Cause for you!
1145 Sat in a lively carriage of day trippers: friends talking, a granny in a red knitted cap reading the Express. Everywhere is sunshine I feel it's going to be a great day. Settle down to my book. See you at the other end.
1238 The train is diverted through my old stamping ground of Staines.
1452 Now trundling through the pleasant Kent countryside passing stands of denuded hazel/willow and horticulture poly tunnels.
1626 So here I am in fading light doing a whirlwind tour of Canterbury cathedral having paid the incredible £9 entry fee. An impressive building but it’s not my favourite. You can't see end to end like you can at Salisbury - too much stuff in the way. My ticket is good for 12 months though, so I do what I can tonight and decide there and then to alter tomorrow’s itinerary so I shall come back in the morning.
The cathedral is quite big on martyrs and martyrdom which is, I suppose, to be expected. They keep a lit candle where Becket’s shrine was before Henry vee-eye-eye-eye did away with it.
1651. The cathedral closes at 5pm and I notice that subtle ‘No Entry’ signs discreetly appear along with clerical bouncers posted strategically that inevitably guide visitors ever so gently and inexorably out of the building. Evening has dulled the colours of the stained glass, so I go into the cloisters and admire them from the outside, the electric lighting casting the design in reverse. Time to make my way to the B and B.
2051 Settled in my tiny room – I wondered why it was cheap. Grab a meal at one of the many pubs - sausage and mash with rather stringy French beans. I’m hoping to see more of Canterbury tomorrow.
15th January:
0800 Another sunny morning. Other guests include a French couple who surprise their host by shaking his hand at breakfast and a family with a student daughter in tow.
0920 wandering through the empty streets of Canterbury taking advantage of the deserted roads and the unseasonally good light to take a few photos. The Cathedral bell evocatively tolls for Matins as it must have done for hundreds of years sounding rather deep and discordant to my ear. It's lovely having the city centre to myself apart from a few early bird tourists and the odd road sweeper in day-glo orange.
0920 wandering through the empty streets of Canterbury taking advantage of the deserted roads and the unseasonally good light to take a few photos. The Cathedral bell evocatively tolls for Matins as it must have done for hundreds of years sounding rather deep and discordant to my ear. It's lovely having the city centre to myself apart from a few early bird tourists and the odd road sweeper in day-glo orange.
0945 SLR camera battery is flat and I haven’t brought my charger so relying on iPod and pocket camera.
1030 I join the congregation at the Methodist chapel and afterwards chat to a couple over coffee. The chapel still has a choir which is nice. The inside of the chapel is plain in stark contrast to the high ostentation of the cathedral.
1240 Sticking to my revised itinerary, I return to the cathedral at midday and see the cathedral and East end windows literally in a better light. I am beginning to revise my opinion - I think this cathedral is rather special. I buy a very reasonably priced short booklet and fall into conversation with the cathedral volunteer guides. No one knows what happened to Becket’s body or what his shrine looked like. The guide points out the groove in the tile floor where millions of pilgrims’ knees wore it away.
As a piece of medieval theatre, to footsore pilgrims it could not have disappointed. Pilgrims would’ve gone through a tunnel and queued up two flights of steps before entering the shrine of Thomas Becket. If that wasn’t enough then the amazing stained glass all around the east end and the apse of the cathedral would’ve made their long journeys worthwhile. It’s funny to think that Henry VIII ordered the shrine and all traces of the cult of Thomas Becket to be destroyed, but seemingly missed the windows which record miracles attributed to the saint!
As a piece of medieval theatre, to footsore pilgrims it could not have disappointed. Pilgrims would’ve gone through a tunnel and queued up two flights of steps before entering the shrine of Thomas Becket. If that wasn’t enough then the amazing stained glass all around the east end and the apse of the cathedral would’ve made their long journeys worthwhile. It’s funny to think that Henry VIII ordered the shrine and all traces of the cult of Thomas Becket to be destroyed, but seemingly missed the windows which record miracles attributed to the saint!
I definitely get a sense of the size of the Medieval Thomas Becket cult. Today we go to this building for a different reason though the money collected goes to the same purpose – to maintain the building.
1330 Hot foot it to the train station and Ramsgate, my next destination.
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