Ray & Barb 2016 Trip: Day trip to Canterbury 25 Jul 2016

The day after our weekend trip to Devon, it was back to work for Jeantine and back to a railway station for Barb and I

AMT Coffee, Platform 13, St Pancras Int'l, 10:41am. We were taking a day trip to meet up with Sarah Long, daughter of Alan Mankelow, who I had met on our brief stop over in London in 2008.

Sarah at the time was not available and I was lucky in having John & Deanna Skelton take me down to Tonbridge while Barb stayed with Sue Derbyshire's sister. I had Alan's name from cousin Chrissie Mankelow who had met up our English relatives (going back a few generations) while on an earlier trip Chrissie had made researching our ancestors and their lives.

12:25 Off the train and Barb walking with Sarah giving us the benefit of their local knowledge. Sarah and Bob Long had met us at the Canterbury West Railway Station and it was close enough to town to walk to the Cathedral. Photo details say this is on Saint Peters Street.

Walking toward the Cathedral and having historical and interesting features pointed out to us. This outside 32 High Street says the iPhone GPS.

The Cathedral as seen at the junction of Mercery Lane and High Street.

Entrance fee paid and through the gates

First view inside Canterbury Cathedral. Barb looking at the guide phamplet.

Looking further up ahead.

So many nooks and crannies to explore. Is that our host Bob Long?

New window as of 1954. This we know from talking to a Cathedral volunteer who enjoyed telling us little snippets about the construction and features. As Sarah Long said on Facebook ... "Such a lovely day . We thoroughly enjoyed 'finally ' meeting you both and also the wealth of infomation we all learnt about the cathedral from such a lovely gentleman who seemed to adopt us as we walked around such an historic building."
I did record the guy on the iPhone Voice memos app and have since worked on boosting the sound in my audio editing software and posted to SoundCloud. as I pick him up on talking about the stained glass windows.
My photo below of the two windows referred doesn't show enough detail to follow the narration, so click this link for a photo of the window and explanation. This page even links you to the other window.

1:29pm. Windows blown out during the Second World War. On the left window, down the bottom is a prison cell - as explained by our kindly volunteer in the link above. The window on the right added in 1958.
From Wikipedia ... The earliest coloured glass windows in the cathedral date from the late 12th century, whilst others are as new as the four Ervin Bossányi windows in the south east transept (1957).

The Cathedral volunteer who was giving us little snippets of information then pointed out this area and asked if we could see image of a person. Doing a Google search months after our visit, I searched images and was wondering if anyone had published images and details of this area of the cathedral. To my relief I finally found this area in this link

I think at the time, I thought I could see the suggested image but, with the passage of time it is not so evident.
"Altar - A new alter was installed In 2005 after it was kindly donated to the cathedral by the people of the Region of the Valley of Aosta, Italy, to commemorate the close links between Aosta, the birthplace of St Anselm, and Canterbury. This altar was created by the English sculptor, Stephen Cox, out of a block of dark green Aosta marble with a white grain. The names of “Anselm”, “Runcie” and “Coggan” are carved on the floor in front of the altar to commemorate their times as Archbishop. It was consecrated by Archbishop Rowan Williams on the 21st April 2006, the feast day of St Anselm." (from the link above under canterbury-cathedral.org)

Yet another detail 'our guide' pointed out for our delight and also another recorded moment of when we came across the same gentleman, who engaged with us again, explaining the story of Thomas Becket. The only thing is we struggle to hear when the Cathedral organ is played for short bursts as you can hear in this link.

Detailed craftmanship through the ages

Now that grassed area looks inviting.

However we were told by a cathedral volunteer (I guess) that we should not be out on the grassed area. I can't recall the reason given. Photos by Sarah Long, who went onto the grass to get these shots.