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Canterbury

Did You Know?

• Canterbury is a city in the county of Kent, about 85 km from London. It is famous for its cathedral, and for being a place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages.

The site of the town of Canterbury, which has been occupied since pre-Roman times, was in ancient times the mouth of the River Stour, which broadened into an estuary extending to the Wantsum Channel, the strait that once separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland.

St Augustine founded the first Cathedral in about 600AD. He was sent from Rome to convert the ‘Angles’ after Pope Gregory the Great had seen some in Rome as slaves. Kent was the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom to convert to Christianity.

Before the advent of religious sites, Romans lived on Canterbury soils 2,000 years ago. The Romans had a tradition of marching with one to two pious people who’d remind them about kindness and insist upon doing good. This led to the established of first worshipping place (Kentish Cathedral City) and attracted hundreds of surrounding locals to visit as pilgrims. Without few fears, Canterbury became the first and primary source of Christianity.

Nine of the first ten men elected to be Archbishop of Canterbury became saints. The other one was Wighard who died of plague around 666 before he could take up the post.

Archaeologists recently discovered a site at the Dane John Gardens in Canterbury that has a unique but mysterious conical mound. The founders have been unable to resolve its origin or what exactly it is but the evidence and structure show it either some kind of defensive system from Medieval times or a Roman burial.

Modern Canterbury is a market town and regional service centre. It has some light industries and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Its many educational institutions include the University of Kent at Canterbury (founded 1965)

There is an old document kept in the Canterbury Cathedral archives named ‘Accord of Winchester by William the Conqueror’. The cross-sign on the document was made by William which led to speculations of him being uneducated.

St Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral and King Henry II was allegedly held responsible for it. In guilt and repentance, Henry II walked barefoot in penance from Harbledown to Canterbury Cathedral but was killed by few monks when he reached the façade of St Thomas’s shrine.

The Canterbury trot was the name given to the way pilgrims rode their horses to get to the city before the night-time curfew.