Afternoon, all. A late one today because it took ages but never mind, I've uploaded and cropped the photos and off we go.
St Albans isn't all that far away from here so I was at the picking up point at half past eight for a nine o'clock departure - and it was raining. Oh, dear! The coach arrived, we all got on and off we went. A pleasant journey, no hold ups and no heavy traffic so by bang on ten we arrived at the dropping off point, almost right outside the Museum.
By then it had stopped raining but it was pretty dismal and very damp. Not to worry, what are hoods and brollies for, eh?
The first thing was to go into Pret for a coffee - Pret does do lovely black Americano coffees and I don't have any morning drink if there's a trip. The coach does have a loo but, even so, no . . .
Once my caffeine deprivation had been sorted, I decided to just go up to the top of the market and then trundle slowly back down, past the museum, to the tower and then further down to the Cathedral.
And that's where I started taking a few photos.
(I was cross with myself - I left my camera at home so I had to use my phone which I really don't feel comfortable taking photos with but at least I had it with me)
That market was what I would call a proper market, not one set up for an occasion with overpriced food and 'stuff' stalls.
As a 'thing' the market goes back a very long time. Wiki tells us that after Canterbury Market was closed in 2022 (what a shame), it became the second oldest market after York's Shambles Market. You can read more here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_Market
It was quite a big market with so many different stalls. Prices weren't overly steep and the fruit and veg stalls were great value. If I lived conveniently close, I would get the bus in with a shopping trolley and get all my f&v there. food stalls that looks amazing, There was such a variety of stallage - candles, jewellery, breads, both sourdough and 'ethnic', crafts - but only one fabric stall that was plastic covered cloth and furnishing fabrics and NO YARN stalls!! What is the market world coming to?
(To be fair, there might be a yarn stall on Wednesdays - and maybe it was just as well)
Anyway, it was a market I would use, unlike the Edinburgh Christmas one.
So I meandered down through stalls and people, noting a fresh farm egg stall to return to later (I did but by then they had more or less sold out and only had extra large blue eggs for a fiver for six - so no. )
Towards the other end, the buildings became more historical looking and you can see the top of the Clock Tower, the only remaining medieval town belfry in England.
Click here for more history.This is as good a photo as I could get. I had an idea that I would challenge myself to climb up the very worn spiral steps to the top but it doesn't open until after Easter so I couldn't.
The tower is very close to where St Albans' Eleanor Cross was sited.
I just love the story of the Eleanor Crosses. Eleanor of Castile was married to Prince Edward (later King Edward I, known as Longshanks and then the Hammer of the Scots). It was, as all these were at the time, a marriage of convenience, a contract, a transaction involving property and lots of money.
Despite this, it became a love match and the pair, we are told, spend more time together than most couples in this situation.
Eleanor passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly at Harby in Northants and her grief stricken husband decreed that crosses be built in every place that her coffin rested when it was conveyed back to London. Hence Waltham Cross, Charing Cross - and the area known as Market Cross in St Albans, close to where the tower stands.
On I went to the Cathedral. Oh, my, what a lovely place the Cathedral is.
This 'Peace Bench' was next to one that remembers those who dies in the two World Wars. I have no idea how comfy it is - it was too wet to sit on - but it's rather lovely.
And here we are. There wouldn't be much to see if the trees were in leaf! The tower in the middle is interesting because in 1870 people heard a loud crack from this 700 year old tower and when the investigated, they found serious structural weaknesses that needed prompt action. It could have been a disaster, both for the tower and, of course, for people inside.
I took a stroll around the outside before going in. It was lovely and peaceful and one side looks out over the park through which I could have walked to find the Roman museum, hypocaust, etc. Something for another time.
I found the tomb of Robert Runcie, one time Bishop of St Albans and then Archbishop of Canterbury.
The cathedral as a centre for worship goes back well before the Normans. The story of St Alban, the first British saint is that he was a Roman living in what was then Verulamium at a time when the only religion allowed was that of Roman gods.
He gave shelter to a Christian priest, fleeing from persecution. We don't know his name but he is called Amphibalus which is a Greek/Roman word for cloak.
Alban converted to Christianity, moved by the priest's faith and courage.
The authorities came to arrest Amphibalus and Alban, inspired by his new found faith, exchanged cloaks with the priest, allowing him to escape.
Alban was brought before the magistrate, refused to give up his faith and was taken outside the town and beheaded.
The site/grave became a centre of pilgrimage and Alban became the first British saint of a still undivided fledgeling Christian church.
(The nave has some wonderful medieval wall paintings which had been limewashed over in the mid 1500s. Using light projection, we can see how they may have looked in the Middle Ages - the one above is Alban and Amphibalus exchanging cloaks)
Obviously, there's a whole lot of history here and this is going to be long enough without that so, if you're interested, here's some reading . . .
https://www.stalbanshistory.org/archaeology/st-albans-abbey/a-brief-history-of-the-cathedral-and-abbey-church-of-st-albansI was lucky. Just as I walked in, a group was gathering for a guided tour (totally free) so I joined the group and was treated to an excellent guided tour of the Cathedral. The lady giving the tour was so good, so knowledgeable and she popped in so many of those little human-history stories that bring the past to life. The whole tour was around an hour, maybe a bit longer.
The whole building crosses the whole panorama of British history.
While no parts remain standing from pre Norman times, there are Roman bricks used in rebuilding work and I am sure there's other remains from Roman and Dark Ages times. The most modern part is the Welcome Centre and shop (yes, I got my fridge magnet). You walk in and look down the transepts to a lovely rose window. My photo is rubbish but you can see a really good one
here.
I'll share a few of the photos I took inside. The light isn't great but never mind.
I love really old wooden doors and there are plenty in the cathedral
This is the Lady Chapel, completed around 1310-ih sort of time. There are traces of the original beauty of the place but in 1553 the abbey church was bought by the townspeople and the Lady Chapel was walled off and used as a grammar school for the next three hundred years. Where I am standing was a covered public pathway and behind me is where the shrine of St Alban is now.
After the school moved to the gatehouse in 1871, the Chapel was reunited with the rest of the church and attempts were made to remedy the damage cause by generations of schoolboys!
The guide book says the restoration was quite sympathetic and today it's in use for weddings, funerals, etc and serves Christians from many traditions, not just the Anglican one.
The stone nave screen has seven new statues to represent martyrs - people who have given their life for their faith - from many times, places and Christian traditions. They are from l to r:
St Oscar Romero (1980)
St Alban Roe (1642)
St Ambhibalus (around 300)
St Alban (around 300)
George Tankerfield (1555)
St Elisabeth Romanova (1918)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1945)
This is stunning - the High Altar, Presbytery and Quire.
The original images were destroyed by Henry's hooligans after the dissolution and now the screen displays images of notable people from British Christianity.
St Alban's shrine. Again, it is a reconstruction as the original was destroyed in 1540.
They used small pieces of the original found during other work and some supposed relics of the saint rest under the canopy.
I love this. Beside the shrine there is a 'watching loft' where monks were able to keep a beady eye on what was going on on the outside. These are the stairs.
And here's St Amphibalus' shrine - he didn't survive for long after he escaped with Alban's help, I'm afraid.
Again, destroyed after the dissolution and reconstructed using as much original material as they could. It was left in a dark corner until it was restored in 2021.
Some new carvings were added including one little carving of a figure wearing a face mask, a reminder that this restoration happened during covid.
I think that's so good.
And, finally (no cheering at the back there!!) my absolute favourite little thing which you could miss if you weren't told about it.
These little holes in a 3x3 grid were dug into the stone seats on the outside of the public way outside the shrine. It is thought that waiting pilgrims used then to play games - a sort of medieval noughts and crosses, maybe, or skittles - with stones to wile away the tedium!
By the time I emerged, the sun was shining and I strolled back up the market, did a quick trawl of the museum (not that impressed really but maybe I missed some parts) and had a pot of tea in M&S (very refreshing) before getting back on the coach for the journey home.
It was a really lovely day and if they do another trip there, I will definitely go again. There's a whole load of Roman stuff I didn't investigate at all.
If you get the chance - go. It will be well worth it.
(and I hope the links all work)
