Visitors enjoying private tours of London can experience some wonderful excursions to places not far from the capital, with lots of fine countryside, historic treasures and smaller cities with their own rich history.
Few are more worthy of a visit than Canterbury, a small city in Kent with its Roman history, extensive city walls, famous cathedral and a particular place in historical English literature.
The last of these may be the way in which some people come to hear of Canterbury for the first time. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was a collection of 24 stories written between 1387 and 1400 focusing on issues like love, faith, marriage and death.
Chaucer’s prologue held that these stories were told by two pilgrims on their way to the city from London, who took turns telling them.
Be prepared for a shocking revelation, however: Chaucer himself never actually set foot in Canterbury, even though there is a statue of him there. You can admire it while noting you will end the day already knowing the city in a way he never did.
Canterbury Cathedral
Medieval Canterbury is certainly highly apparent, with the cathedral being the largest and by far the most imposing building in the city. It is from there that the title of the Archbishop who heads the Church of England is taken (although his official residence is Lambeth Palace in London).
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the cathedral is an essential part of any tour of the city. It was founded by St Augustine in 597 and offers some spectacular architecture as well as a rich history.
Visitors today can attend services and also come to events, with various exhibitions, talks and cathedral tours.
You can learn about everything from the stained glass windows to the martyrdom of Bishop Thomas Beckett, who was the “turbulent priest” that King Henry II ordered to be assassinated in 1170, with four soldiers entering the cathedral to carry out the sacrilegious and dastardly deed.
Walls And Castles
The Cathedral is far from the only historic feature of the city. It has a ruined (but still largely structurally intact) Norman castle, built in the traditional Motte and Bailey style of the time shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Another major feature is the city walls, which are very extensive and have been rebuilt multiple times down the centuries, with the originals dating back to Roman times. Although the structures of four Roman gates remain, it is the medieval masonry that dominates today.
Roman Canterbury
This echoes one of the main themes of Canterbury’s history today in that the medieval elements are dominant in an ancient city that was already in existence before it was occupied by the Romans. However, you can see many traces of the Roman occupation if you know where to look.
The most obvious case in point is the Canterbury Roman museum, which essentially occupies a basement that was once the surface street level. The main feature is the well-preserved floor mosaic of a Roman townhouse, while visitors can learn more about Roman Canterbury, try on Roman clothes and armour, and even play Roman board games.
Canterbury is also one of the places through which Watling Street passes, a Roman road that ran from Dover through Canterbury, London, St Albans and all the way up to Wroxeter, which is in present-day Shropshire near the border between England and Wales.
The road bears the Watling Street name as it passes through the city, which is appropriate, not just to recognise Roman history but its later usage too, as the pilgrims Chaucer wrote of would have walked down it from London on their way to Canterbury as they told their tales.
Stour And A Stool
Some features of Canterbury are not as immediately apparent as the high walls or the towering cathedral, but still tell their own tale of the city.
An example of this is the River Great Stour, a small river on which you can take a lovely little boat ride, observing as you do a ducking stool.
Contrary to the urban myth, this was not used in medieval times to drown suspected witches, but rather to give recalcitrant women a dunking, rather in the same way that stocks would also be used as a form of public punishment.
Like the statue of the absentee Chaucer, a ducking stool might slightly mislead visitors about some of the realities of Canterbury. But the solidity of the town walls, rich Roman heritage on one of the most notable roads they built in Britain, plus the towering majesty of the cathedral provide ample authenticity.
Canterbury is not a big city, but it oozes history and no visitor to London should miss the chance to take an outing to Kent and enjoy its attractions.
