Canterbury Cathedral - Cloisters
(visited December 2015)
There
are many burials and memorials in Canterbury Cathedral itself, to the
great and the good - very ornate sculptures, tombs of people such as the
Black Prince, former bishops galore, and of course memorials to many
soldiers (including a whole chapel for The Buffs).
Outside,
in the cloister, little visited when I was there (perhaps due to the
blustery wind blowing through, or the lack of signage), are the tombs of
the servants of the cathedral. Memorial plaques are on the walls, while
the floors have flat gravestones (a number with spaces where once there
were brass inlays), and a few table tombs sit in the central grassy
square. Burials stopped in the mid-19th century. The vaulted roof of the
cloisters dates to the early 1400s, when the cathedral still had an
active monastic purpose.
You
do have to pay to get into the cathedral and the surrounding buildings
including the cloisters, and the chapter house (it's about £10.50 for an
adult), but if you can Gift Aid it your ticket is valid for a whole
year.
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