Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(£20 adults; £17 seniors; £15.50 children 5-15), which gives entrance to the cathe-
dral, St. Augustine's Abbey, The Canterbury Tales, and a city museum).
GETTING AROUND
You may want to bicycle around Canterbury.
Downland
Cycles,
St. Stephens Road (
&
01227/479643;
www.downlandcycles.co.uk), rents
out bikes for £15 a day (tandems £35, to be paid for in advance). A credit card is
needed as deposit.
An interesting and easy family ride is the Crab & Winkle route to the coast at
Whitstable. It follows the route of the world's first passenger railway line of the same
name, built by George Stephenson in 1830 and torn up by British railways in 1953.
It's about 7
1
⁄
2
miles round-trip. For more information, see www.crabandwinkle.org.
ORGANIZED TOURS
Canterbury Tourist Guides
(
&
01227/459779;
www.canterbury-walks.co.uk) have daily walking tours costing £6 for adults, £5.50 for
students and seniors, £4.25 for children 11 and under, and £16 for a family ticket.
Meet at the Tourist Information Centre (see above). Tours tend to leave year-round
daily at 11am, with an additional 2pm tour July to September and bank holidays.
Canterbury Historic River Tours
(
&
07790/534744;
www.canterburyriver
tours.co.uk) operates 40-minute boat trips with commentary that lets you see Can-
terbury from a different perspective. Prices are £7.50 for adults, £6.50 for seniors and
students, £5 for children 12 to 16, and £4.50 for children 11 and under. March to
October, tours leave daily every 15 to 20 minutes between 10am and 5pm. Tours
begin just below the Weavers House restaurant, at 3 St. Peters Street.
Exploring the Area
Canterbury Cathedral
CATHEDRAL This is one of the most visited
sites in Britain, and still one of the leading places of pilgrimage in Europe. St Augus-
tine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great, arrived in a.d. 597 as a missionary and became
the first archbishop, establishing his seat (“Cathedra”). It was here in 1170, that
Thomas Becket was murdered on a dark December evening in the northwest tran-
sept. The quire (which housed Becket's shrine until it was demolished during the
Reformation) is one of England's earliest examples of Gothic architectural style.
The cathedral, along with St. Augustine's Abbey and St. Martin's Church, forms a
World Heritage Site. Its foundations date from the time of Augustine, but the earliest
part of the building is the great Romanesque crypt from around a.d. 1100, which still
contains traces of wall painting.
The 72-m (235-ft.)
Bell Harry Tower
, completed in 1505, is the most distinc-
tive feature of the cathedral. You enter through the ornate
Christ Church Gate
(from the early 16th century). The fan-vaulted colonnades of the
Great Cloister
on
the northern flank of the building never fail to impress. From the cloister you can enter
the
Chapter House,
with its magnificent web of intricate tracery from the 1300s. This
architectural ensemble supports the roof and a wall of stained glass, depicting scenes
from Becket's life.
There are medieval tombs of the likes of King Henry IV and Edward the Black
Prince. The later Middle Ages are represented by the great 14th-century nave as well
as by the Bell Harry Tower. Sitting amid walled precincts, the cathedral is surrounded
by medieval buildings and ruins. The wonderful Romanesque water tower once sup-
plied the bakery and brewery.
Becket's tomb is in Trinity Chapel, near the high altar. The saint is said to have
worked miracles, and the cathedral has some rare stained glass depicting those feats.
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