Canterbury Tales

We have both spent the last few days in Canterbury since our jaunt to London. Friday I wandered up to the oldest parish church in England only to find it closed, but I had a good wander around the church, and you can very clearly see where different bits have been added on at different times in history. Friday, along with last few days have actually been quite warm, unpleasantly so. Not so much hot as we would be getting at home at the height of summer, but very, very humid. I have been walking around with a lot just to see what is here. In the end the heat and humidity beat after what had been long day I had some quiet time until it cooled down in the evening and then went for another long walk around Canterbury, finding all sorts of interesting old buildings and left over bits of places. It was very pleasant.

Saturday morning I again headed out to St Martin's Church and found it open this time. The building dates back to at the very least, the year 580 as a church and probably longer than that. The oldest part of the building was in use in the 370's and was built during the Roman period. That finished in 410.  There are bits and pieces of this building dating from all over the place. After leaving there and having had a pleasant chat to a couple of members of the church, I made my way to the Roman Museum of Canterbury. While it was interesting, with many household style bits and pieces there, although they had on display a bowl that scratched into the bottom a Chi Rho, or the first two letters of Christ in Greek. It was dug up from a grave. In the last part of the museum there were the remains of the floor a Roman house which had a mosaic that was in the floor. This was revealed when a large part of the old city, inside the walls of Canterbury was bombed during World War 2. 

After leaving there, this led to more wandering around discovering all sorts of things from the past, such the mill races from water wheel driven mills and then into the hospital of St Thomas A'Beckett. This and the last place that I went and spent time at on Saturday, Greyfriars Chapel, turned out to be very special, well for me at least. The hospital was built to provide a place of hospitality (hence hospital) for poor pilgrims who were making their way to the Cathedral to visit the Shrine of Thomas A'Beckett. It has been there for over eight hundred years doing pretty much the same thing ever since. Today it provides a home for a small number of poor people in Canterbury and is looked after by the local parish and the members of the Franciscan Community that has been re-established in Canterbury. I sat in the chapel, that is still used, and found that it is a very special place. It was a place that you could feel the presence of God quite strongly. A place that has been continually looking after people in God's name for over eight hundred years. One of the people who was guiding people around the hospital recommended that a visit to the Greyfriars Chapel would also be worthwhile. And it was. The chapel is built over a branch of the River Stour and I was told that it may originally have been built as a mill and had an extra story or floor some time in the past. There is a picture of the chapel over the stream. It was lovely inside and the brothers and sisters are praying specially fort the work of Lambeth. I intend to go to church there on Wednesday lunchtime.  The chapel is also set in grounds that are covered in wildflowers and this is almost exactly in the centre of Canterbury. 

Yesterday, we both went to the Cathedral for the main service. It was very special to be able to worship in the Cathedral. Archbishop Rowan presided and the dean, whose name I didn't get was the preacher. Of course the Cathedral was full of bishops from all over the world, although some were visiting local parishes. Our afternoon was spent getting on a local bus that first took us Whitstable and the seaside. It was a somewhat different experience to what we have at home. One of the pictures posted today is of the Whitstable beach. After this we caught the bus again and had a round trip journey back to Canterbury and a quiet dinner in a local Indian restaurant and a sleep. 

Today it is still very sticky, although a cooler change is due some time today. I have had a pretty quiet day and I am off to London again tomorrow.