The Cathedral's history goes back to 597AD when Augustine, a monk, sent by Pope Gregory the Great as a missionary, established his seat (or 'Cathedra') in Canterbury. In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the Cathedral and ever since, the Cathedral has attracted thousands of pilgrims, as told famously in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
What exists today bears little resemblance to the original Cathedral, what with fires, demolition and re-building of the tower, and of course some efforts by Heinkel-driving Germans in WW2, but most of what exisits today was built between the 10th and 14th centuries.
I've been stalking the precincts for some time, eyeing it up and assessing potential options of getting up it - the problems mainly being that there always seemed to be people around and the obvious way up was floodlit to within an inch of its life. After a number of visits I was in danger of taking the 'six Ps' rule too far and it was time just to crack on and have a go. I need not have worried, I'm pleased to report that there does come a time of day when everyone goes to bed and they switch the floodlights off.
The whole venture, from the point of actually getting into the Precinct grounds, and the method of doing so, to getting back out again, was an experience I won't forget, and it turned out to be quite a relaxed affair, all told.
I got to the point shown by the arrow in the first photo.
There's something special about getting up this close to such an historic building, and being able to touch and see bits of it from a perspective few people ever will get to.
The next two are a couple taken from either end of the library roof, over on the opposite side of the building, which I'd done a month or two earlier. The temporary roof covering has since been removed -
What exists today bears little resemblance to the original Cathedral, what with fires, demolition and re-building of the tower, and of course some efforts by Heinkel-driving Germans in WW2, but most of what exisits today was built between the 10th and 14th centuries.
I've been stalking the precincts for some time, eyeing it up and assessing potential options of getting up it - the problems mainly being that there always seemed to be people around and the obvious way up was floodlit to within an inch of its life. After a number of visits I was in danger of taking the 'six Ps' rule too far and it was time just to crack on and have a go. I need not have worried, I'm pleased to report that there does come a time of day when everyone goes to bed and they switch the floodlights off.
The whole venture, from the point of actually getting into the Precinct grounds, and the method of doing so, to getting back out again, was an experience I won't forget, and it turned out to be quite a relaxed affair, all told.
I got to the point shown by the arrow in the first photo.
There's something special about getting up this close to such an historic building, and being able to touch and see bits of it from a perspective few people ever will get to.
The next two are a couple taken from either end of the library roof, over on the opposite side of the building, which I'd done a month or two earlier. The temporary roof covering has since been removed -