City in Kent, England
Canterbury
In 1170 four knights killed an archbishop in Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrim rush that followed gave English literature its most famous road trip.
Key information
- County
- Kent
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Canterbury Cathedral, Thomas Becket and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
- What locals are called
- Cantuarians
- Famous people
- Christopher Marlowe, Mary Tourtel, Orlando Bloom
About Canterbury
The murder that made a pilgrimage city
On 29 December 1170, four knights burst into Canterbury Cathedral and killed Archbishop Thomas Becket after his long quarrel with Henry II. Within three years Becket was a saint, and Canterbury became one of the great pilgrimage destinations of medieval Europe. Henry himself came in 1174 to do penance. He walked the last stretch barefoot, setting out from St Dunstan's Church, and was whipped by monks at the tomb. Becket's shrine drew visitors from all over Europe until Henry VIII had it destroyed in 1538. Today a memorial in the cathedral's Martyrdom marks the site of the killing, while a single candle in the Trinity Chapel marks where Becket's shrine once stood.
Where English Christianity started again
Canterbury's religious story is older than Becket. In 597 Augustine arrived from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory, and was welcomed by King Æthelberht of Kent, whose queen, Bertha, was already a Christian. He founded the abbey that now bears his name and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. That is why the Archbishop of Canterbury still leads the Church of England. The cathedral's Bell Harry tower dominates the skyline, and its twelfth-century stained glass is among the oldest in the country. St Martin's Church, on the edge of the centre, is often called the oldest church in continuous use in the English-speaking world. It was already standing when Augustine arrived.
Chaucer's road trip and Marlowe's cobbler's son
In the late fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer sent a group of fictional pilgrims off to Becket's shrine in The Canterbury Tales, trading stories to pass the time. The characters, from the Wife of Bath to the Miller, are still some of the best known in English writing. Canterbury produced a literary star of its own. Christopher Marlowe, author of Doctor Faustus, was born here in 1564, the son of a shoemaker, and went to the King's School. He was baptised in the same year Shakespeare was born. The city also gave the world Rupert Bear. His creator, Mary Tourtel, was born here in 1874. Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, spent his last years nearby and is buried in the city's cemetery.
Weavers, gatehouses and a river you can punt
Canterbury's medieval centre sits inside the line of its old city wall, parts of which survive. The Westgate Towers, built in the 1380s, are the largest surviving medieval gatehouse in England, and they once served as a prison. The Great Stour flows through town, and punting tours slide beneath the half-timbered Weavers' Houses, where Flemish and Huguenot refugees once worked. A reconstructed ducking stool hangs over the water there. The Romans were here first, as the Roman Museum shows, with mosaics preserved beneath the modern streets. In June 1942 German bombing flattened much of the old centre, though the cathedral survived. The new shopping streets stand on that damage.
Cricket, oysters and a city that exported itself
Canterbury's cricket festival is among the oldest in the game, dating back to 1842. Kent play at the St Lawrence Ground, which used to have a lime tree growing inside the boundary, until a storm brought it down in 2005. A replacement has been planted. For food, the surrounding county does the heavy lifting. Kentish apples, hops, lamb and cheese reach the farmers' market at the Goods Shed by Canterbury West station, and oysters come from Whitstable up the road. The name has travelled too. The Canterbury Association was founded in 1848 and established the Canterbury settlement in New Zealand in 1850. Its principal settlement, Christchurch, was named after Christ Church, Oxford. Meanwhile, two universities, Kent and Canterbury Christ Church, give the city a large student population.