UK Travel - Part 16

Stumbling Into Dickens’ World: Wilton’s Music Hall

London, England

by Helen Moat

Early evening in London and its dark and cold, just a few weeks off Christmas. Whilst people are thronging the pavements of Oxford and Regent Street, I’m making my way down Grace’s Alley, a quiet paved lane somewhere between Tower Bridge and St Katherine’s Dock in Wapping.

As the London traffic hums faintly in the distance, I stop outside an old crumbling building, the walls oozing patchy brick-red and mustard-yellow; a cracked wooden double door bearing the last remnants of faded paint. Surrounding the door frame, the stonework is exquisitely sculpted. It feels as if I have stumbled into a Dickensian scene.

Wilton’s, the world’s oldest surviving music hall, was opened in 1858. If its disintegrating walls could talk, they would have a few tales to tell. It began its life as a sailor’s club (and possibly a brothel); then became a music hall. The burlesque lyricist and performer, George Leybourne, aka Champagne Charlie stepped onto the stage here, as did the dancers of the risqué can-can (only to be promptly banned). Sadly, Wilton’s only initially survived a short 20 years as a music hall. In 1877, the hall had to be rebuilt after a disastrous fire. Soon after, this place of twilight glamour was closed down and it took on a series of very different functions from Methodist mission hall, soup kitchen, refugee centre, safe house (from the fascists) to a sorting house for rags.

It was the only building in the area to survive the Blitz. But for years, Wilton’s lay empty, neglected and forgotten but for the ghosts of the past. In 1997, Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw (of Harry Potter fame) reopened it with an impressive stage production of T.S Eliot’s Wasteland. It is presently managed by Wilton’s Music Hall Trust, a dedicated team of people, who are determined to breathe life back into this magical, living piece of Victoriana.

It’s an almost impossible task, and the building (in its unsafe state) has come very close to closure. When I was there, I could see daylight appearing through the rafters in places. There were unsafe electrics, leaking plumbing, and floorboards in the bar so rotten that the number of people permitted at any one time restricted. The whole of the second floor was boarded up, unfit for public use. Even the stone walls were eroding in places. Yet, it’s this forgotten, neglected state that’s given Wilton’s its indescribable atmosphere. It has the feel of Miss Havisham’s mansion in Great Expectations – as if someone had stopped the clock on time and left the building in a state of decaying beauty.

Money has started to trickle in to save this extraordinary building. The custodians of Wilton’s are determined to stop further deterioration and make it safe, but they also want to ensure that the haunting atmosphere contained in its faded glory is kept intact.

I head upstairs and into the Great Hall. I’ve walked into a Victorian fable. From the gallery a hundred fairy-lights cascade outwards from the centre of the ceiling. Yet more fairy-lights line the gallery’s railings. Pastel frescos fill the peeling walls between great arches. The gilt banister is decorated with delicate, intricate detail. A red silk curtain drapes the stage. Musician and artiste Duke Special enters the stage, eyes black with kohl, long dreadlocks, draping shirt cuffs and velvet jacket. To his left sits a string quartet: Behind him a projector screen. For two hours, he sings and plays the piano – songs he has written to accompany the black and white photos of the renowned early twentieth century American photographers, Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand. The music (commissioned by the Met Museum in New York) is heart-wrenchingly moving, the images haunting. The beauty and timelessness of the music and the photographic images fit perfectly in this magical, ethereal building. A great deal of thought is put into the theatre pieces and concerts that are produced at Wilton’s. The art, like the building, is sumptuous. So the next time you are in London, take the tube out to Wapping and to Wilton’s Music Hall and step back in time. Book a tour, or better still, one of their exceptional shows. You won’t regret it.

If You Go:

More info on Wilton’s Music Hall, Duke Special and Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand at:
www.wiltons.org.uk
www.dukespecial.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_VdxPtlnso
www.sphericalimages.com/wiltonsmusichall/index.html (Virtual Tour)

Private London Music & Art Tour

About the author:
Helen Moat is a British teacher and travel writer. She has won several travel writing competitions, including runner-up with the British Guild of Travel Writers, and has been published in The Daily Telegraph. Her greatest passions in life are music, travel and writing (not surprisingly). Find other travel pieces by her at:
moathouse-moathouseblogspotcom.blogspot.com

All photographs by Gail and Michael Watts.

Skara Brae And Its Many Mysteries

Scotland: The Orkney Islands

by Alexis Brett

Nestled on a small island just north of the Scotland mainland lies an ancient site that is just begging to be explored.

Skara Brae, a prehistoric village that was built before the Egyptian pyramids, has been listed as one of the “Heart of Neolithic Orkney” World Heritage Sites, and it illustrates a perfect example as to why the Orkney Islands have often been referred to as “The Egypt of the North.”

Because of the many mysteries surrounding both the abandonment and the discovery of Skara Brae, researchers have coined the site as “one of the most remarkable discoveries in modern archaeology” as it contains one of the best preserved Neolithic villages known to mankind.

“Skerrabra”

Skara Brae is approximately 5,000 years old and is located about eight miles away from the small town of Stromness on the southern shore of the Bay O’ Skaill. Although it was originally thought that the site was a Pictish village, researchers now believe that the settlement was actually an Orcadian village that was inhabited between the years of 3200 and 2200 BC.

Even though it was deserted thousands of years ago, the village still remains in mint condition and to this day researchers still can’t pinpoint exactly why the last inhabitants left; which only adds to the mystery surrounding Skara Brae.

Skara Brae was discovered in 1850 after a severe windstorm “ravaged” the Orkney mainland and uncovered the land that was sheltering the abandoned settlement for thousands of years.

The first person to discover the site was William Watt of Skaill, who at the time resided at the Skaill House which is located no more than 200 metres away from Skara Brae. (Ironically enough the Skaill House is also said to be haunted as there have been reports of people seeing a ghostly figure of a woman wearing a shawl in one of the windows).

The Skaill House was built in 1620, and even though the Skaill family owned the house for two hundred years before the discovery of the village, none of its former residents had realized just what was sitting in their backyard underneath the piles of sand and dirt.

But it wasn’t until 1925 when another storm revealed even more of the village, and it was at that time when researchers truly realized the treasure that had been literally under their noses the whole time. A sea wall was then built to protect the newly discovered settlement, and soon after scientists uncovered a village with eight different houses, each of which were linked together by underground passages.

A day in the life of Skara Brae

It is believed that Skara Brae was big enough to hold about 50 to 100 villagers at any given time, and that it was inhabited for approximately 600 years.

Because the village was built into mounds of “pre-existing rubbish” the village sunk underground and protected the village from any unwanted visitors and/or predators. Not only that, because the mounds of hills provided a much needed insulation for the homes, the people were also protected from the infamous Orkney windstorms which could last for days or even weeks at a time.

The walls of the village were built with sandstone slabs and the houses were covered with thatched roofs and possibly whale bones. Each of the houses were also designed identically with a fireplace in the center as well as two beds, dressers and storage units, and even a small fish-filled bait box made of stone that was built into the floor. The fireplace was used for cooking and heating and the stone beds were filled with bracken and heather for comfort, and they were also covered with animal skins for warmth as well.

The only building that differs from the rest is said to be the “Village Workshop” after numerous tools and stone-made weapons were uncovered when researchers were digging throughout the room. There is also another separate area which is believed to have been used as a modern-day compost as the inhabitants seem to have used it to store garden and waste materials.

Researchers also believe that the original occupants were very skilled in working with bone and stone because they found different items, tools and artifacts that were left behind in the settlement, (like elaborately-decorated pottery, needles, shovels, picks and weapons).

The villagers also used volcanic pumice that could have been washed up on the shore from Iceland to help shape the bone tools and stone balls, and over 2,400 inscribed beads and hundreds of bone necklaces were found in one of the stone cupboards as well. It is believed that many of these objects resembled one’s symbol of status or may even have been used for ritualistic purposes. It is also thought that the dressers which were sitting directly across from the doorway were used to “show off” any prized possessions and/or hunting trophies whenever a visitor entered the home.

Although it is assumed that those who lived within the walls were a part of a tight-knitted community, experts still can’t decide as to whether there was a hierarchy among the villagers or whether the villagers were equal. And even though there hasn’t been a lot of evidence revealing any sort of religion and/or tradition within Skara Brae, researchers have associated the Skara Brae way of life with the traditional Orcadian beliefs in that the worship or ancestors, gods and spirits was more than likely the norm for the community.

After spending a great deal of time studying the surroundings of the settlement, it is also believed that the original inhabitants were farmers who raised cattle and sheep and possibly grew barley and wheat on the fertile land nearby. Their diet consisted of deer, seabird eggs and various other types of seafood like mussels, shellfish, oysters, crab, cod and saithe (aka pollock).

Given the fact that the sky covering the Orkneys remains dark for over half of the year, it is also said that the villagers more than likely used to gather within the homes of Skara Brae around a bonfire and tell stories and sing songs. And because the interior of the dwellings were windowless, researchers believe the rooms and passageways must have been extremely dark and smoky due to the fact that only one bonfire was placed in the center of each room.

An abandoned mystery

Because many belongings and artifacts were left behind in the village and stored carefully away in the cupboards, some believe that Skara Brae was abandoned because of an “apocalyptic” event and/or disaster which forced the villagers to flee their home.

However, it is now thought that Skara Brae was abandoned because of coastal erosion as well as changes of the weather, especially because the villagers would have had to have been locked up inside their homes for weeks or even months at a time because of strong winds and storms which now are associated with the Orkney way of life.

Not only that, because Skara Brae is located next to the ocean, it would have been extremely difficult to maintain the village with the salt water splashing across the land and destroying the homes, and scientists now believe that the ocean was once much further away from the village than it currently is today.

So what happened to the inhabitants after they deserted their homes?

The answer is still unclear; however it is known that after Skara Brae was abandoned around 2200 BC and records show that the Vikings didn’t actually settle in the Orkneys until about 787 AD. And because researchers are struggling to determine exactly what happened to Skara Brae’s original inhabitants, it only adds more fuel to the mysterious fire surrounding the ancient village. But thousands upon thousands of tourists are drawn to the Orkneys each year not only to check out the haunting site for themselves, but to also view several other ancient sites scattered around the Orkney mainland as well.

Believe it or not, Skara Brae is just one of many examples of the haunting and mysterious sites on the Orkney mainland. Just five miles away are two stone circles – the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar – both of which can be compared to the likes of Stonehenge. (It is believed that the Orcadians at that time used both of the stone to monitor the stars, worship the gods, or perhaps even to mark the grave sites of authoritative figures in the village, but their purpose still remains debatable).

And not just seven miles away from Skara Brae also lies Maeshowe, the ancient tomb which was believed to have been built around 2700 BC. To add mystique to the site, researchers also discovered that sometime in the mid-12th century a group of Vikings entered the tomb and started to tag the walls with graffiti. Some of the many tags include “Thorni bedded Helgi” and “Ofram the son of Sigurd carved these runes.”

These are just some of the many examples as to why anyone who has a passion for archaeology and history should not only visit Skara Brae, but the other several ancient sites scattered around the largest Orkney island known as “Mainland” as well.

3-Day Orkney Explorer – Small Group Tour from Inverness

If You Go:

Undiscovered Scotland – Skara Brae
Neolithic Skara Brae Orkney, Scotland
For information on how to get there: http://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/ancient/skara-brae.htm

About the author:
Alexis Brett is a Canadian journalism graduate who works as a freelance writer and recently moved to the UK. You can read her travel tweets at @RambleOnEh.

All photographs are by Alexis Brett.

The Castle Coast and Hadrian’s Wall

North-East England

by Marc Latham

Hiking Hadrian’s Wall in August

Painted Picts once roamed northern lands where
Cheviot cerulean mountains smoulder in the distance;
framing green and yellow.
Green fields of pasturing animals mixed
with barley, rapeseed and wheat providing the yellow.
Swallows and curlews, shearing and harvesting
Grottingham Cottages and Keepwick Fell
thistles and poppies

Hadrian’s Wall stretching from coast to coast

poppies and thistles
Hangman’s Hill and Written Crag
harvesting and shearing, hawks and housemartins
above golden fields of wheat, rapeseed and barley
sheep and cattle graze emerald meadows
stretching corn and lime
to sharp edged blue horizon Pennine peaks;
where wild Brigante spirits still ride free

After a day of walking westwards with very little evidence of any Roman walls ‘the Eel’ Eley, I returned to the Hadrian’s Wall path for a big day of sightseeing at a battle site marked on the map. However, upon arrival we found out it was Heavenfield, and the information at the entrance to the grounds of St. Oswald’s church said it was the site of an important Dark Ages battle between British kingdoms in AD 635: 200 years after the Romans departed British shores!

St. Oswald and the Battle of Heavenfield

It was as if we’d arrived in the wrong time period, as fictional time travellers often seem to do, and had by-passed Roman occupied Britain altogether. There was no mention of Hadrian, or even a Caesar; instead we learnt that Heavenfield was where King Oswald of Northumbria defeated Cadwallon of Gwynedd’s army to restore the Kingdom of Northumbria to its dominant position in 7th century ‘Dark Ages’ Britain. Hadrian’s Wall was still standing at the time, and could have been the arranged meeting point.

Oswald was said to have had a holy vision on the eve of the Heavenfield battle, and he ordered his men to erect a big cross where they camped. There is a large wooden cross at the entrance to St. Oswald’s church to represent this, and despite his later defeat to the pagan Mercians there are other churches dedicated to St. Oswald across the world. A friendly local woman told us that the dead from the battle were buried in a field across the road, and that the pasture is now protected from deep digging out of respect.

St. Oswald’s Way

The information board also had a map showing the route of St. Oswald’s Way (97 miles, 156 kilometers), which stretches from the church to the north-east coast locations associated with St. Oswald. We had largely covered that route over the previous few days with our hosts, Paul and Laura: taking in the medieval castle of Warkworth near Amble, and the picturesque coastal villages of Alnwick and Seahouses. Further up the coast we marveled at Bamburgh, which has a history every bit as intriguing as the castle is majestic. It was chosen as the home of the Anglo-Saxon royalty ruling Northumbria in the seventh century.

King Aethelfrith, Oswald’s father, was known for his ferocity, and after he died Oswald and his siblings fled for their own protection to the monastery on the Inner Hebrides island of Iona in western Scotland, where they were converted to Christianity. Oswald returned to Bamburgh when he was strong enough, and after winning back the crown he sent for a bishop from Iona to help him convert the pagan Northumbrians. When Saint Aidan arrived they set up the monastery of Lindisfarne on a nearby island in 635.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is still well worth a visit. A priory resident on the island since the 7th century and a 16th century castle provide stimulating landmarks as well as great views of the Farne Islands farther out at sea and the mainland to the south. On a clear day the volcanic rock that supports the castle provides an ideal promontory for relaxing and dozing under the sun to absorb the harmonious mixture of rich island history and fresh sea air. The mystique of the island is maintained by its natural seclusion: the causeway that links the island to the mainland is submerged by sea twice a day when the tide is in. It is wise to check safe times to travel on the causeway with the tourist board before making the journey.

The north-east castles and monasteries later drew interest from Viking and Norman invaders, as well as being strategically important locations in the wars between English and Scottish royalty.

Hadrian’s Wall: From Heavenfied to the Temple of Light

“Having completely transformed the soldiers, in royal fashion, he made for Britain, where he set right many things and – the first to do so – drew a wall along a length of eighty miles to separate barbarians and Romans.” (The Augustan History, Hadrian 11.1)

After leaving Heavenfield we headed west on the Hadrian’s Wall path. We passed colourful views to the north and south which inspired the introductory poem before reaching the first length of actual wall at Planetrees. The broad foundations and narrower upper wall at the site are evidence of how the Romans had initially planned a ten feet (about three metres) thick wall but had then cut it back to six or seven feet (two metres) for two-thirds of the wall.

The Roman-Britain website explains that the ‘Wall faced front and rear with carefully cut stones set in mortar and an infill of rubble and lime cement or puddled clay. The front face of the wall sported a crenulated parapet, behind which the soldiers patrolled the wall along a paved rampart-walk.’

There were also ditches on either side of the wall, with those in the south known as vallums, and the path now follows them for much of the route. Milecastles, turrets and forts provided regular trusses to keep the wall strong and well-defended, and they now provide the historical highlights on the walk.

The wall was conceived by Emperor Hadrian after his visit to Britain in AD 122. It was built both to keep the Picts from what is now Scotland out of the Roman Empire and to divide the Picts from the Brigantes; a tribe dominant in northern England that did not accept Roman occupation and that had struck up an alliance with the Picts that worried the Romans.

Continuing west the next highlight was Chesters; near the village of Chollerford. It is the best preserved Roman cavalry fort in Britain. There are extensive foundations on view here, as well as the structure of a commandant’s house and the multi-roomed military bath-house. A museum houses Roman artifacts found in archaeological digs on the site.

The Chesters fort was constructed to guard the bridge across the River North Tyne, and is thought to have been built early in the third century. There are still substantial remains of an abutment and piers on the other side of the river, and it is free to access that site.

It was now mid-afternoon, so we decided to make the Procolitia fort the final destination on our westward Hadrian’s Wall hike, as we also had to walk back to the campsite near Acomb; across the valley from Hexham. Three miles later we arrived at Procolitia to find that it is now a car park! However, the extra miles were not in vain, as behind the car park there is the mithraeum: a temple to Mithras, the Persian sun god that the Romans imported into Britain.

Procolitia, also known as Brocolitia, was discovered in 1949, and excavations in the following year found that its boggy location had done a good preservation job. There is still detail in a statue of a deity with three holes bored behind the god’s head. A candle was lit behind the stone during ceremonies and light would shine through. Third century inscriptions to the invincible god of Mithras are also still clearly visible.

It was good to reach the day’s highlight (no pun intended) at the end of the westward walk, and also fitting to have visited the god of light on a gloriously sunny day. Moreover, after stopping off for food and ale in the Hadrian pub beer garden on the edge of the village of Wall on the return journey, iridescent lights appeared in clouds before a stunning sunset took over the horizon.

Although its worshipers are long gone maybe they were right about Mithras being invincible.

Alnwick Castle and Lindisfarne Day Trip from Edinburgh

If You Go:

Newcastle is the main entry point to the region: it has air, ferry, road and rail links with many destinations in the UK and overseas. For more information see Newcastle Gateshead.
Trains run from Newcastle to Alnwick and buses to Bamburgh
Hadrian’s Wall starts in the east from Wallsend in Newcastle.
Entrance to substantial Hadrian’s Wall sites, such as Chesters, cost £4.50.

Useful Websites
Visit Northumberland
The Holy Isle of Lindisfarne
Hadrian’s Wall Northumberland
Roman Britain

About the author:
Marc Latham traveled to all the populated continents during his twenties, and studied during his thirties, including a BA in History. He now lives in Leeds, and is trying to become a full-time writer. A collage of photos from this walk have been made into a video that is viewable on: www.youtube.com/user/greenygrey3

All photos are by Marc Latham.

In London for the Royal Wedding

View From The Mall

by Alexis Brett

One third of the world’s population tuned in to watch the Royal Wedding coverage on TV, and nearly one million people took to the streets of London on Friday, April 29th just to be at the epicenter of all the festivities. Luckily for me, I was one of those people.

The Royal Wedding is not only important because it means that Prince William, (the future King of England who is second to the throne after his father), will now have a future Queen to help him with his reign, it’s also important because his wife (Kate Middleton) is Britain’s first middle class queen-in-waiting, and some say her humble upbringing may change the future of the British monarchy forever.

The public’s fascination with Kate

Believe it or not, when Kate was growing up in Bucklebury, England she used to have posters of Prince William and Prince Harry hanging up in her bedroom. Little did she know that a few years down the road she would end up meeting her beloved Prince William while studying at St. Andrews University in Scotland and end up becoming his wife nearly ten years later.

The Brits are fascinated with Kate not only because of her simple background which most British girls can identify with, but also because she seems to have a charming aura to her that has been comparable to the late Princess Diana, Prince William’s mother. But unlike Princess Diana, Kate Middleton has a university education (she completed a degree in Art History), and also seems to be surprisingly prepared for life in the British monarchy given that she’s 28, and Princess Diana was only 20 when she married Prince Charles.

But even though Kate Middleton grew up living the simple, middle-class life, she has now become one of the most talked about women on the planet; and within a few hours of me arriving in London I noticed that Kate was the topic of nearly every conversation in the streets of London.

The day of the ceremony

I woke up at the crack of dawn (6 a.m. to be exact) just so I could grab a good spot along the royal carriage route near Buckingham Palace. (Not being a particularly upbeat morning person I was committed to waking up early because I spent close to $100 USD so I could stay at a centrally-located hostel).

Even though it was early I could almost feel the buzzing of excitement as I quickly strolled through the streets. I saw people were wearing William, Harry and Kate masks, and there were tons of people waving around Canadian flags, American flags, South African flags…even Tesco and Hello Magazine flags.

You could tell there were many people who had camped in tents overnight just to get the first row along the carriage route, some of whom were still washing their teeth by the time I got there. I heard some parents claiming that they dragged their children out of bed at 4 a.m. just to see “Wills and Kate” in the flesh, but by mid-morning they had realized that this was probably not a good idea.

I walked down towards The Mall (the long stretch of road leading to Buckingham Palace) and as soon as I found a good spot I immediately searched for the shortest group of people in line so I could take my place behind them; (I ended up standing shoulder to shoulder with these people for the next eight hours and got to know them very well).

I talked to one Londoner who said he was in London celebrating Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981 and felt that it was only right to attend William and Kate’s wedding 30 years later…only this time he was celebrating with his daughter.

By 8 a.m. the crowd was awake and festive, and many would start cheering whenever police cars or even garbage trucks would drive up and down The Mall. By 9 a.m. some people in the crowd started blasting their hand-held radios to listen to the local news for pre-service announcements. Some were gossiping about who the designer of Kate’s wedding dress would be and there were even families recording their own bets about what color of dress Carole Middleton would be wearing or whether Kate’s hair would be styled up or down.

By 10 a.m. the excitement in the streets was electrifying. There were people feverishly waving their flags whenever a film crew stopped to point a camera in their direction, and some started sitting on top of the porta-potties that were lined up behind us but were soon told to get off by the police. Being a stone’s throw away from royalty

As the start of the ceremony edged closer and closer we started to see cars driving wedding guests and buses of foreign royals being escorted to Westminster Abbey. The ones who were smart enough to bring radios with them were listening through their headphones and shouting out reports about who was in the vehicle. Word started to spread that we would soon see members of the royal family being escorted to the service.

The crowd went wild as soon as the car driving Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles drove past us, but as soon as the Queen’s car came into view there was a lot of friendly pushing and shoving just so everyone could get a good shot of the Queen from their camera; (the cars were all driving very fast so this proved to be difficult). You could almost hear the gasps in the crowd when everyone saw that the Queen was wearing a bright yellow dress, as there was much talk prior to the wedding that the Queen would wear blue or red.

But immediately after the Queen’s car passed our section of the crowd started chanting “We Want Kate! We Want Kate!” And soon enough…Kate came. I couldn’t get a good glimpse of her because the crowd was frantic by this point, but I saw a corner of her veil in the backseat window. After Kate’s car drove past us teenage girls broke out into tears and sobbed about how beautiful she looked.

As soon as Kate arrived at Westminster Abbey at 11 a.m. the service started broadcasting over the megaphones and the crowd fell silent for the first time. It seemed as though the streets were at a complete standstill so people could listen to the service and sing along with the traditional British hymns.

Some members of the crowd sat down and took a cat nap or started eating the packed lunches that were in their backpacks all morning. Others were discussing how they were expecting a lot more people to show up along the route, but we found out later on that during the service policemen had blocked hundreds of people off from lining up behind us.

As soon as the couple started exchanging their vows the crowd started to get emotional and cheered as soon as they heard William or Kate’s voice.

Then when the ceremony had wrapped up the streets immediately came back to life as people started cheering and waving their flags, and some even crying as soon as they heard the sound of the bagpipes. Soon the newlyweds would make their way from Westminster Abbey back to Buckingham Palace, and as soon as the royal carriage came into sight the whole crowd went wild yet again.

People were shoving each other and getting their cameras ready, and some children in the crowd broke out into tears because the atmosphere was so intense.

This time around I was lucky enough to get a good view of Kate as she and her now-husband were being escorted back to Buckingham Palace. She was smiling from ear to ear and her eyes lit up as she waved to the crowd and scanned over both sides of the street. It seemed as though she was trying to look at every single person in the crowd as if she was still taking it all in.

Seeing the Queen, Prince Charles and even Prince William was an experience I will never forget, but seeing Kate’s big smile up close is something I will remember for a lifetime. This is truly what fairy tales are made of.

And although there were lots of complaints about how the Royal Wedding was a waste of money and that there were more important matters in the world to worry about, being in London during the Royal Wedding made me realize that this is just what the world needs right now: To forget about unemployment, rising gas costs, terrorists and war in the Middle East, and to come together to celebrate a fairy tale love story that came true for one middle-class girl from Bucklebury who ended up marrying her Prince Charming.

London Combo: Westminster Abbey with Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace and Afternoon Tea

About the author:
Alexis Brett is a Canadian journalism graduate who works as a freelance writer and recently moved to the UK. You can read her travel tweets @RambleOnEh.

All photos are by Alexis Brett.

A Historian’s Pilgrimage to Canterbury

by Kathy Simcox

Canterbury and its cathedral has withstood centuries of religious change but has remained England’s center of Christianity for over a thousand years. I had the privilege of visiting the cathedral during a trip to England in 2007, and it was a memorable experience. As the train chugged through the outskirts of Canterbury toward the station, I glimpsed to the right and saw the magnificent cathedral’s spires rising high above the ground. After leaving the train station I walked next to West Gate Garden, a lovely little park that sits on the River Stour, with its bright, colorful flower beds, and through what is literally the stone gate that leads into the west side of the city – West Gate Tower. The medieval streets were bustling with activity, and as I strolled past the Old Weaver’s House, dated from the early 16th century, I heard the lilting notes of Wang Shun Xin as he played his Chinese flute under the shade of a nearby tree.

The great cathedral, towering over the city, beckoned to me. As I walked closer, my heart stirred as I anticipated walking among a place that holds such a strong significance in England’s amazing history. There are two events connected to the cathedral, events that tell a story that’s both rich and bittersweet. Though this story, and Christianity in England, begins in the late sixth century, Britain’s history goes back even further.

During the Iron Age (approx. 750BC – 150AD), Britain experienced the migrations of the Celtic peoples from Eastern Europe. These people would establish many tribes throughout the island, bringing with them highly developed craft skills and artistic achievements. Overlapping these events was the rapid expansion of the Roman Empire in Europe (approx. 150BC – 50AD). Despite this expansion, Britain was not attacked by the Romans until 55BC and 54BC by Julius Caesar. Caesar was pushed back both times, and it wasn’t for another century, in 43AD, under the reign of Emperor Claudius, that the Romans would launch another attack. Landing at Richborough, Kent, they attacked the local tribe (Cantii) and settled. Over the next 4 centuries Roman culture would spread and influence many aspects of early British society.

On the continent Christianity was a minority religion, struggling to find a voice among the ancient traditions of Roman society. This voice was often silenced by gruesome violence, but in the year 324AD Constantine the Great made Christianity the legal religion in his empire. Under Constantine, Christianity in the Roman Empire would gain prominence and become fairly established and organized.

In Britain, with the coming of the Romans, trade routes to and from the continent were opened, and merchants brought their business to Britain. These merchants also brought Christianity with them, but as there wasn’t a strong guiding hand to maintain cohesiveness it was quite disorganized and scattered throughout southern England. Also during this time the Anglo-Saxons were settling the island and establishing kingdoms; indeed each kingdom had its own king, but the Anglo-Saxons were a pagan people, and paganism was thus the majority religion. This would change with Gregory the Great.

Gregory was born into a noble Roman family in 540AD. After a successful secular career as a Roman official, he became a monk and would later found six monasteries in Sicily. He became Pope Gregory I in 590AD, becoming the first monk elected pope. He was also the first pope to sponsor missions work.

In 595AD Pope Gregory began contemplating missionary activity in Britain. According to the Venerable Bede (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), Gregory saw some attractive fair-skinned boys for sale in a slave market in Rome, and inquired as to who they were. He was told they were Angli (Angles) from Britain, and pagans; Gregory replied that they were not Angli, but Angeli (not Angles, but Angels) and deserved to be fellow heirs with the angels of heaven – they and their people ought to be converted to Christianity. A year later the pope commissioned Augustine, the prior in charge of his papal monastery in Rome, to cross the channel to the distant island with 40 other monks and work among the Anglo-Saxon peoples.

Augustine and the monks arrived in Canterbury, the seat of Ethelberht, the Anglo-Saxon king of Kent, around Easter 597AD. The missionaries were given a polite but cautious welcome. King Ethelberht, despite his suspicion, was impressed by the monks’ sincerity and allowed them to preach. The king and his people would eventually be won over to the Christian faith, and over the next couple of years Ethelberht would see the conversion of his people. Christianity would continue to grow in the area and Augustine would become the first Archbishop of Canterbury; there have been 104 ever since. And he would also establish the Abbey of St. Peter and Paul outside the city walls, the ruins of which are still visible today (www.english-heritage.org.uk).

The cathedral saw much reconstruction and redesign over the next several centuries, but it was the story of Thomas á Becket that put the building on the historical, and literary, map. Becket was born in London in 1118 AD. He was well-educated, training as a knight before becoming a clerk to Theobold, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time. Becket was also a close and personal friend of King Henry II, who would appoint him Lord Chancellor. Archbishop Theobold died in 1162 AD, and Henry appointed Becket to take his place. With this appointment Henry thought he would have an ally in England’s highest ecclesiastical office. The king was wrong, however, and there were two issues that proved to be the archbishop’s undoing.

Across the channel in Europe, the Church was struggling with reform issues. Clergy unworthy of their offices were breaking many canon laws – adultery, carrying weapons, inability to perform Mass – and archbishop Becket, wishing to uphold the rights of the church, felt that the erroneous clerics should only be tried in the church courts and be defrocked; Henry felt these clerics should be tried through the royal courts and receive due punishment. As a result of this friction the king established the Constitutions of Clarendon, a very pro-royal list of customs regarding church-state relations. At first Becket agreed with the provisions set forth in the document but later reneged, and as a result of this refusal to acknowledge the royal document he fled to France. This was the first issue that would put a wedge between the archbishop and King Henry.

The second problem involved the king’s eldest son, also named Henry. In 1170 AD the king wished his son, also named Henry, formally crowned as king so the boy would succeed him as the next king of England when the elder Henry died. Normally the Archbishop of Canterbury presided over the ceremony, but as Becket was in France the next most powerful cleric in England, the Archbishop of York, presided in his stead. Becket of course was opposed to this and came back to England to excommunicate all the bishops that had taken part in the coronation. Becket also threatened to put England under interdict – a censure that forbids participation in most sacraments. King Henry, exasperated, had had enough.

“Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”

Was Henry speaking literally or was he just expressing his frustration? Although we will never know the king’s true intentions, four of his knights took his words to heart and murdered the archbishop in the cathedral on December 29, 1170. Becket was canonized shortly after and a shrine was erected in his honor. The shrine became a pilgrimage site for thousands of Christians and became the inspiration of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the fourteenth century. The shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII during the religious turmoil of the English Reformation in the sixteenth century, and the only surviving evidence of the shrine is a burning candle marking the place where it stood.

Today, Canterbury remains a vibrant place of worship, holding close to 2,000 services a year. Though the city, cathedral, and indeed the Church of England has witnessed a long and complicated history, it has stood the test of time, a testimony to the hardiness and durability of the English people, and is one of the most visited and well-loved places in England.

Canterbury Historic City and Cathedral – Private Day Tour From London

If You Go:

Canterbury Cathedral Web Site

By Car

Canterbury is well served by the Motorway network with both the M20 and M2 providing links to the rest of England. There are several car parks in the centre of Canterbury and a park and ride scheme operates with buses running at 7-8 minute intervals from designated areas on the outskirts of the city right into the city centre.

By Train

South Eastern run regular train services from London Victoria and London Charing Cross to both Canterbury East station and Canterbury West station. Upon arrival at either Canterbury station the cathedral is a short walk into the city.

For more information on times of trains etc from London to Canterbury please telephone the National Rail enquiries centre on 08457 484950 or +44 (0) 345 484590 (outside UK).

South Eastern Trains offer an all-in great value Canterbury train ticket, which includes train travel as well as entrance to Canterbury Cathedral, The Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction, St Augustine’s Abbey and one of Canterbury’s museums.

For visitors travelling by Eurostar to Ashford there is a frequent train service running between Ashford and Canterbury West.

By Coach

Canterbury is served by Stagecoach East Kent buses from Canterbury bus station – a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral Precincts. For timetable enquiries please telephone 08702 433711.

National Express run regular coaches from London Victoria Coach Station (telephone 08705 808080 for more information on timetables).

About the author:
Kathy Simcox lives in Hillard, Ohio. Ms. Simcox is an office associate in the Arts and Humanities at Ohio State University. She holds a BA in psychology from Ohio University and a 2nd B.A. in Religious Studies from Ohio State University. She has a love of teaching English history and has taught two courses she developed, Morsals of Christian History: Europe and England, and The English Reformation, at her church, at Terra Community College in Fremont, Ohio, and at the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space in Columbus. She has done over 40 lectures on her trip to England and has had two other articles published on travelthruhistory.com about places she visited. She enjoys traveling, writing, kayaking, hiking, biking, cross country skiing, swimming, Irish music (she plays the Bodhrán), British comedies, and Guinness. She is also known to pick up an occasional book, preferably historical fiction. You can contact her at simcox1@gmail.com.

All photos are by Kathy Simcox.