Do you want to get off the usual tourist trails and discover the very best that Canterbury and the Kent countryside can offer? Would you like to be part of a small, exclusive group which is lead by a local guide with a History PhD from Cambridge? Have you got limited time with only just a morning or afternoon available?
If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, this carefully crafted minibus and walking tour is just for you!
Lead by local Canterbury resident, Dr Anthony Medhurst, you will discover the most fascinating, historic and beautiful locations many of which are not accessed by large tour groups. This relaxed and informative tour gives you the chance to experience the real and authentic Kent. It enables high levels of inter-action with your guide, as well as the flexibility to spend more time in locations which are most meaningful to you. Avoid the crowds and join a small group for a fun and inspirational experience!
You will be met by your guide, Dr Anthony Medhurst, at the Hampton by Hilton hotel in St Margaret’s Street at either 9am or 2pm (depending on the morning or afternoon tour booked), and will be escorted to the nearby minibus.
As you leave the Canterbury city centre, you will stop briefly by the second of the city's most important UNESCO World Heritage landmarks - St Augustine's Abbey. Founded shortly after St Augustine arrived in Kent in AD597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, the abbey was a residence for Augustine and his brother monks and functioned as a monastery. It was also a ‘missionary school’ where classical knowledge and English learning flourished. Among its library of illuminated manuscripts, only 150 survived the English Reformation and the dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. One of these – the ‘Canterbury Gospels’ – survived from AD597 and was used in the recent Coronation of King Charles III.
As you leave the Abbey, you will pass two statues depicting King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha on Lady Wootton’s Green. As King and Queen of Kent, these two people were most responsible for welcoming Augustine into Canterbury and enabling him to build the foundation for Christianity throughout the country.
You will make your own way to the meeting points
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