Canterbury Cathedral

Well my client and I have been on ‘holiday’ now that her renovations have finally started! We stayed in a place called Strode Park in Herne, Kent. It is a charity run organisation that provides all sorts of services for people with disabilities (but more of that in a new post!) On 22/11 we went to Canterbury, which is about 20 mins away. We used the sat-nav which took us though small cobbled streets, that I later found out was closed to cars and pedestrian access only from 10.30am. We were driving through at about 10.20 We parked and then went for a walk along the High Street and made our way to the fairly spectacular Cathedral, which is considered to be the ‘mother’ church of the Anglican faith. The Lord’s Prayer is said hourly by the cathedral chaplain, and multiple services held throughout the week, including of course Sunday services.

They had just begun to put the nativity scene up. If you have a look at the right hand side of the roof, there is a lamb up there! Not sure what he is doing up there though

 

The cathedral also caters fairly well for visitors with disabilities. There is wheelchair access to most parts of the cathedral, however most of these are in the back entrance. There is a ramp down into the crypt, and a lift up to the Quire albeit a small one, and it was a tight fit with an electric chair and carer accompanying someone. There is one area (the Trinity Chapel) that is inaccessible, but there is a touch screen computer with photos and information that a visitor can use, which was interesting to read. The photos below are from the Trinity Chapel.

These photos are from areas accessible to people in wheelchairs.

While were we there my client got her St. Christopher pendant blessed, which was probably a good thing – I decided to have a look at something and she followed me, without realising there were stairs in front of her. Needless to say wheelchairs and stairs don’t mix!! (even if they do rhyme) Anyway, I managed to alert her to the fact that she was about a centimetre from falling down said stairs. At that stage I may have also used the Lord’s name in vain.. do you think the big guy will forgive me!?