Canterbury - 3rd July

Made it to Canterbury today.
The city is beautiful with lots of gorgeous old buildings and narrow, winding streets.
The only thing wrong is that 2,500 French school children have followed us here.
We had to queue to get in the Cathedral, I mean actually stand in a line and wait for hours and hours (10 minutes).
Steven complained, The man on the gate agreed and suggested he should go home.

Once inside the Cathedral we discovered  it was undergoing some major restoration so there were bits we couldn't see. Steven, moan, moan, moan....

The Cathedral was founded in 597, but was rebuilt in in 1070.
It is a world heritage site. It was extensively rebuilt in 1174 after a fire.
In the 1500's it was subjected to Henry VIII's dissolution of monastries program.
It's got the most amazing stained glass windows.


We looked at the scaffolding and then saw the fire brigade coming out, Steven, known for his subtlety, asked the guide if we were too late. Referring to recent events at Notre Dame, some people, as Steven put's it, have no sense of humour.

We chose a bit to research to find out more about, yes, death and murder in the Cathedral.
Thomas Becket was made Archbishop of the Cathedral in 1162 by King Henry II, no-one at the Cathedral was happy about this and they complained. Even Thomas didn't really want to be made Archbishop, but if you defied Henry II bad things generally happened to you.
He took the job, but took it rather seriously and made the King angry. Thomas fled England and lived in exile in France for 8 years. He was still Archbishop during this time.
Toward the end of his exile the King needed a ruling from the church. In the absence of Becket, the King asked 3 other Vicars to sign the documents, Becket heard about this and sent notice to the Vicars, instructing them that under no circumstances, should they sign.
But they did. Becket sent notice to the Pope and had them excommunicated. The Vicars had been with the Cathedral most of their lives and complained to the King about their treatment. The King was heard to say 'will  no-one rid me of this turbulent Priest?'
So, Becket returns and is chased through the Cathedral by the Knights of Henry II, he is caught and rather nastily dispatched by one of these Knights, who takes to Becket with his sword, misses his neck but cuts the top off of his head.
They all leave, a servant woman who was nearly blind found the body laying on the floor and knelt down beside him, realising who it was and what had happened, she wept and dipped her fingers in the blood and smeared it under her eyes (the reason she did this is a bit unclear) Her sight was restored. News of this reached the Pope and there you have it, a new saint.
Well it went something like that anyway.
The book 'Murder in the Cathedral' by T. S. Elliott tells the whole story.

Thomas Becket's body was put into a tomb in the Cathedral and remained there until Henry VIII had it destroyed, now a candle marks the spot.

We found the spot where Saint Thomas Becket was executed, they'd done a good job of cleaning it all up.

 
Back out in the lovely streets for a coffee and then off to Bedford.

We found a campsite and then went to pick up our Auntie Catherine to take out to tea, same pub as four years ago. The food was fabulous and it was a great night, we caught up with Auntie Catherine's son Jonathon after tea.