175 Shopping in Canterbury

By Maggy Hendry 

Canterbury has long been the shopping centre for the area and has always had an adequate number of chain stores in the High Street, but with the building of Bluewater, the new  shopping centre 40 miles up the road towards London  the city council planning department began  to get worried and over the last few years has developed a new shopping area in the town. The Whitefriars development has shifted the focus of the shopping experience away from Canterbury’s medieval streets into a modern square which has attracted enlarged versions of many of the original chain stores and added many others.

Meanwhile the High Street has gone through many changes, the loss of a number of shops has meant the advent of a number of temporary cut price stores, charity shops and massive coffee bars, which are gradually being taken over by some more individual shops and small coffee bars.

On Wednesdays and Fridays the general  market in the High Street provides fresh fruit and veg, flowers, plants, clothing  and so on, and there are also a couple of French stalls selling bread, patisseries, olives, cheese and perfumed soaps etc. from Provence.

For visitors who prefer to get off the beaten track,  Palace Street  and Northgate (go straight down the road to  the left of the front gate of the Cathedral)  have a number of  independent shops selling jewellery, antiques, designer clothing, and so on, several interesting cafes, restaurants and pubs, and a wealth of interesting architecture.

174 The Canterbury Tales

After the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, Canterbury became a popular destination for pilgrims of many different backgrounds, looking for cures and miracles. This pilgrimage was immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer (widely acknowledged as one of the foremost figures in English literature), in his famous tales published in 1476. Chaucer’s pilgrims follow an ancient route from London via the Roman road Watling Street which ran from the Old Kent Road in London crossing the River Medway at Rochester on to Canterbury and beyond to Dover.

The Canterbury Tales Museum, set in an old church in the centre of the city, recreates Chaucer’s stories of 14th Century life with a walk-through reconstruction. To begin, visitors enter medieval England in the Tabard Inn on the Old Kent Road. As the cocks being to crow and the sun rises, the bodies lying snoring on the tables become more visible. (From personal experience, small children can find this alarming.) From then on the visitor can wander along with the pilgrims while the use of wax-works, smells and sounds all help to recreate the medieval atmosphere. As the audio tour guides us through the exhibition  we hear the Knight’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, the popular and bawdy Wife of Bath’s Tale and others, eventually coming into a market place where visitors can enjoy the hustle and bustle of a medieval market along with  the realistic and sometimes pungent aromas accompanying  the stallholders’ haggling and business deals.

At the end of the journey the pilgrims sleep at the ‘Chequer of Hope Inn’ and the hungry visitor may sample the best fish and chips (really!) in the town from The City Fish Bar just on the left as you emerge from the gift shop.

St Margaret’s Street, Canterbury 01227 454888
Advance bookings recommended
Opening hours
March-June, Sept-October  9.30 – 17.30
July – August  9.00 – 18.00
Nov – Feb 10.00 – 16.30

173 Gardens in Canterbury

By Maggy Hendry

The Dane John Garden

Arriving in Canterbury by train at the East Station, on the way into town the visitor will encounter The Dane John Gardens, a historic park within Canterbury’s city walls which dates back to 1551, and includes a mound which was there in the first century AD. From the top of the mound there are excellent views of city and countryside. Awarded the Green Flag Award, and the Green Heritage Site Award, the Dane John (named from the French donjon, a castle keep) is a popular spot in the summer with its colourful floral displays, its shady treelined avenues and areas of grass for playing, picnicking and relaxing in the sun. For children there is space to run around in and a maze. On summer weekends the gardens play host to musicians of all sorts from World Music to brass bands, and the park is also a rallying point at the end of local demonstrations, with speeches and music in the bandstand. In November the grounds are taken over for a long weekend by a Christmas Eurofair featuring stalls from France, Belgium, Italy and so on, as well as local crafts and produce.

Westgate Gardens

At the western end of the High Street next to the West Gate Tower lies the Westgate Gardens, another pleasant floral experience with the River Stour running through it, providing an ideal setting for a picnic, a relaxing stroll or seat in the sun watching the swans, ducks and moorhens and admiring the 200 year old oriental plane tree and some grand medieval ruins ( probably brought by the Victorians from other parts of the city). For the more energetic visitor it is possible to walk (or cycle, although  a proper cycle track has yet to be built) further along the banks of the river and out into the countryside to the village of Chartham, for a relaxing drink in the historic timber framed pub, The Artichoke, which carries the full range of the local Shepherd Neame beers. Many events are organised here on summer weekends and punt trips leave across the river from the corner of Whitehall Road (near the Westgate towers).

Other gardens

There are a number of other small gardens will delight the visitor who explores the back streets of the town and several of the pubs and restaurants have gardens of their own.

172 The Crab and Winkle Way

Walking and Cycling around Canterbury

 By Maggy Hendry

The Crab and Winkle Way made specially for walkers and cyclists, was opened in 1999. The route is based on the old railway line that ran between Canterbury and Whitstable. The first commercial railway in southern England and the world’s first passenger railway line, it was first opened in 1830. George Stephenson’s Invicta (modelled on the more famous Rocket) was underpowered for the gradients so a number of specially designed traction engines were installed to  pull the train up the hills between the two towns on ropes. The Invicta was used on the flat but was never adequate to the job and put up for sale in 1839. No one bought it and  it was put on display in the Dane John Gardens in Canterbury where  it rusted until it was taken for restoration to the National Railway Museum in York. It can now be found in Canterbury’s Heritage Museum. The name Crab and Winkle dates back to the 1920s when the line was popular with day trippers. With the development of a good road infrastructure the line became less and less used and was closed in 1952.

But to get back to the present, the cycle track now forms part of National Cycle Route 1. It is mainly flat with a fairly steep hill at either end (nothing a moderately fit modern cyclist can’t handle). It begins and ends conveniently at Canterbury and Whitstable stations so that it is possible, if you have had too many oysters in Whitstable or stayed on after dark, to take the train back to your starting point. Situated at Canterbury West Station Canterburybikes are available from Downland Cycle Hire who will also collect and deliver bikes within a 15 mile radius by arrangement.

171 Canterbury Cathedral

By Maggy Hendry

From the surrounding hills Canterbury Cathedral appears to be floating above the city. It pops up in unexpected places and is especially ethereal on a misty day where it can be seen snuggling within the older parts of the city. An oasis of peace in the commercial heart of the city the original cathedral, now lying beneath the floor of the nave  was founded in 597 AD by St Augustine. The Saxon church was destroyed by fire in 1057, and rebuilt in 1070 by the Normans. In spite of the early fires, pillage during the Reformation and attacks by Puritans, the Cathedral remained and was largely unscathed by several heavy bombings aimed at it during the Second World War. The city bore the brunt of these and the visitor will see that a number of modern areas are mixed in with the ancient city. Most of these have been built over areas of bomb damage.

The murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in the north-east transept in 1170 marked a dark chapter in the history of the Cathedral and for over 300 years until the Reformation, his tomb in the cathedral was one of the most visited places of pilgrimage. It was to St Thomas’s shrine that Chaucer’s pilgrims journeyed to visit his relics and thank him for his help in time of need. His original shrine was flanked on one side by the tomb of Edward, the Black Prince and on the other by the tomb of Henry IV and his queen, Joan of Navarre. The shrine was despoiled in Henry VIII’s reign and Becket’s remains were hidden in a location which is still a matter of conjecture. Where once there stood an elaborate jewelled casket there is now a simple single candle, perhaps a more eloquent reminder of the saint. A controversial modern monument to Thomas Becket called the Martyrdom now stands in the North West Transept where he was murdered. It consists of three pieces of jagged green metalwork hanging above a marble representation of an altar and was added to disapproval in some quarters in 1986. Another modern addition to the cathedral to cause controversy is the green metal statue of a ghostly looking Christ which looms above the Christ Church (main) gate.

Among the Cathedral’s obvious architectural wonders there are many other charming features to look out for – some splendid medieval paintings on the walls, the graffiti of 17th century monks, a lovely tapestry on the pulpit in the crypt for example. In the grounds visitors can walk through  the cloisters and move on round the back where there is a Gormenghastian conglomeration of charming higgledy piggledy ancient buildings which once housed monks, their infirmary and even an ancient water tower to provide for them.

The Cathedral is closed to visitors during services but the tourist will sometimes be lucky enough to catch choir practice and will be charmed by the sweet voices and the magnificent acoustics of the place.

The Cathedral, forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church.

For much more information

Telephone +44(0)1227 762 862
E-mail Enquiries@Canterbury-Cathedral.org.
Website: www.canterbury-cathedral.org

41 Canterbury

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For a quiet backwater we are not entirely lacking in culture. We now have an excellent arts cinema at the University, a new relaxed venue for local bands, djs etc and a garden within the city wall where we can stage musical and other events including an annual world music concert in July and a French Market in September. Canterbury has its own arts festival in September. I like to involve myself as much as possible in these events.

Editor Maggy Hendry

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