Canterbury Cathedral

The Canterbury Cathedral, St.Augustine’s Abby, and St Martin’s church are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We took the train from Preston Park to Canterbury this morning. It was much cheaper to stay out of London, but it took four trains with three transfers to do it. It was actually 15 minutes faster even with all the transfers.

We walked over to our hotel a couple blocks from the cathedral and were able to check in a little after 11am. We passed through Westgate, England’s largest surviving medieval city gate, built around 1379-1380.

We passed by a statue of Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote The Canterbury Tales between 1387 and 1400.

Then we walked to the Cathedral and got tickets and signed up for the 2 pm tour.

We went in to look around. The tickets are good for admission for one year, so we can re-enter. We looked around the nave and took one of the free mini tours called “Royal Glass” that focused on stained-glass windows containing images of Royalty.

The chapter house has stained glass with many significant figures in the history of the Cathedral.

Thomas Becket, an Archbishop of Canterbury, is first in the second row. Henry II (mislabeled as Henry III) who had Becket martyred in December 1170 in the Cathedral is next to him. Pope Alexander III canonized Becket two years after his death.

The Canterbury Tales are fictional stories told by pilgrams traveling to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of Becket.

Henry VIII is the second in the bottom row, and Queen Victoria is last in that row.

Another window has both a young Queen Elizabeth and later with her family.

This window shows the life of Thomas Becket.

We went out for lunch at a local bakery a block away from the Cathedral, then back to look around and the tour we signed up for.

The pulpit in the nave portion of the cathedral.

The Quire portion of the church is separated from the nave.

This painting from approximately 1480 shows the story of St. Eustace.

Here are some stained glass windows from the 1300s. The first one tells the St. Eustace story.

We looked around a bit more after the tour, going to areas that the tour did not cover like the exhibit in the water tower.

We then went out of the cathedral and looked at the gardens around the cathedral, including the herb garden.

We went back in for Evensong, a short service in the Quire. The local girls choir was singing that evening.

Afterwards we walked down to Dane John Gardens as there is a mound there along the city wall that can give nice views of the Cathedral.

Then we walked along High Street and found a restaurant for supper. We found gelato afterwards.