Post by Les on May 2, 2021 6:47:30 GMT
Canterbury
Durovernum Cantiacorumhe Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Lower Paleolithic axes, and Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area.
Canterbury was first recorded as the main settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci, which inhabited most of modern-day Kent.
In the 1st century AD, the Romans captured the settlement and named it Durovernum Cantiacorum.[6] The Romans rebuilt the city, with new streets in a grid pattern, a theatre, a temple, a forum, and public baths
Although they did not maintain a major military garrison, its position on Watling Street relative to the major Kentish ports of Rutupiae /Richborough, Dubrae /Dover, and Lemanae /Lymne gave it considerable strategic importance.
In the late 3rd century, to defend against attack from barbarians, the Romans built an earth bank around the city and a wall with seven gates, which enclosed an area of 130 acres
St. Augustine's Abbey gateway
The Roman settlement of Durovernum Cantiacorum Kentish Durovernum occupied the location of an earlier British town whose ancient British name has been reconstructed as *Durou̯ernon stronghold by the alder grove, although the name is sometimes supposed to have derived from various British names for the Stour.
Medieval variants of the Roman name include Dorobernia and Dorovernia.
In Sub-Roman Britain, it was known in Old Welsh as Cair Ceint stronghold of Kent.
Occupied by the Jutes, it became known in Old English as Cantwareburh stronghold of the Kentish men, which developed into the present name.
Canterbury is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent.
It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion owing to the importance of St Augustine, who served as the apostle to the pagan Kingdom of Kent around the turn of the 7th century.
The city's cathedral became a major focus of pilgrimage following the 1170 martyrdom of Thomas Becket, although it had already been a well-trodden pilgrim destination since the murder of St Alphege by the men of King Canute in 1012. A journey of pilgrims to Becket's shrine served as the frame for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century classic The Canterbury Tales.
Canterbury is a popular tourist destination: consistently one of the most-visited cities in the United Kingdom, the city's economy is heavily reliant upon tourism.
The city has been occupied since Paleolithic times and served as the capital of the Celtic Cantiaci and Jute Kingdom of Kent.
Many historical structures fill the area, including a city wall founded in Roman times and rebuilt in the 14th century, the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey and a Norman castle, and the oldest extant school in the world, the King's School.
Modern additions include the Marlowe Theatre and the St Lawrence Ground, home of the Kent County Cricket Club.
There is also a substantial student population, brought about by the presence of the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, the University for the Creative Arts, and the Girne American University Canterbury campus.
Canterbury remains, however, a small city in terms of geographical size and population, when compared with other British cities.
St. Augustine's Abbey, which forms part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site, was where Christianity was brought to England.
Despite being counted as one of the 28 cities of Sub-Roman Britain, it seems that after the Romans left Britain in 410 Durovernum Cantiacorum was abandoned for around 100 years, except by a few farmers and gradually decayed.
Over the next 100 years, an Anglo-Saxon community formed within the city walls, as Jutish refugees arrived, possibly intermarrying with the locals.
In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to convert its King Æthelberht to Christianity. After the conversion, Canterbury, being a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the centre for his episcopal see in Kent, and an abbey and cathedral were built.
Augustine thus became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
The town's new importance led to its revival, and trades developed in pottery, textiles, and leather. By 630, gold coins were being struck at the Canterbury mint.
In 672, the Synod of Hertford gave the see of Canterbury authority over the entire English Church.
In 842 and 851, Canterbury suffered great loss of life during Danish raids. In 978, Archbishop Dunstan refounded the abbey built by Augustine, and named it St Augustine's Abbey.
The siege of Canterbury saw a large Viking army besiege Canterbury in 1011, culminating in the city being pillaged and the eventual murder of Archbishop Alphege in 19 April 1012.
Remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066.
William immediately ordered a wooden motte-and-bailey castle to be built by the Roman city wall. In the early 12th century, the castle was rebuilt with stone.
After the murder of the Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe, as pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine.[21] This pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales.[22] Canterbury Castle was captured by the French Prince Louis during his 1215 invasion of England, before the death of John caused his English supporters to desert his cause and support the young Henry III.
Canterbury is associated with several saints from this period who lived in Canterbury:
Saint Augustine of Canterbury
Saint Anselm of Canterbury
Saint Thomas Becket
Saint Mellitus
Saint Theodore of Tarsus
Saint Dunstan
Saint Adrian of Canterbury
Saint Alphege
Saint Æthelberht of Kent
14th–17th centuries
The Black Death hit Canterbury in 1348. At 10,000, Canterbury had the 10th largest population in England; by the early 16th century, the population had fallen to 3,000. In 1363, during the Hundred Years' War, a Commission of Inquiry found that disrepair, stone-robbing and ditch-filling had led to the Roman wall becoming eroded. Between 1378 and 1402, the wall was virtually rebuilt, and new wall towers were added.
In 1381, during Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt, the castle and Archbishop's Palace were sacked, and Archbishop Sudbury was beheaded in London.
Sudbury is still remembered annually by the Christmas mayoral procession to his tomb at Canterbury Cathedral.
In 1413 Henry IV became the only sovereign to be buried at the cathedral.
In 1448 Canterbury was granted a City Charter, which gave it a mayor and a high sheriff; the city still has a Lord Mayor and Sheriff.
In 1504 the cathedral's main tower, the Bell Harry Tower, was completed, ending 400 years of building.
The Westgate is the largest surviving city gate in England. It survived a demolition attempt for a road-widening scheme in Victorian times.
Cardinal Wolsey visited in June 1518 and was given a present of fruit, nuts, and marchpane.
In 1519 a public cage for talkative women and other wrongdoers was set up next to the town's pillory at the Bullstake, now the Buttermarket.
In 1522 a stone cross with gilt lead stars was erected at the same place, and painted with bice and gilded by Florence the painter.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the city's priory, nunnery and three friaries were closed. St Augustine's Abbey, the 14th richest in England at the time, was surrendered to the Crown, and its church and cloister were levelled.
The rest of the abbey was dismantled over the next 15 years, although part of the site was converted to a palace.
Thomas Becket's shrine in the cathedral was demolished and all the gold, silver and jewels were removed to the Tower of London, and Becket's images, name and feasts were obliterated throughout the kingdom, ending the pilgrimages.
By the 17th century, Canterbury's population was 5,000; of whom 2,000 were French-speaking Protestant Huguenots, who had begun fleeing persecution and war in the Spanish Netherlands in the mid-16th century. The Huguenots introduced silk weaving into the city, which by 1676 had outstripped wool weaving.
In 1620 Robert Cushman negotiated the lease of the Mayflower at 59 Palace Street for the purpose of transporting the Pilgrims to America. Charles I and Henrietta Maria came in 1625 and musicians played while the couple entered the town under a velvet canopy held by six men holding poles.
In 1647, during the English Civil War, riots broke out when Canterbury's puritan mayor banned church services on Christmas Day.
The rioters' trial the following year led to a Kent revolt against the Parliamentarian forces, contributing to the start of the second phase of the war. However, Canterbury surrendered peacefully to the Parliamentarians after their victory at the Battle of Maidstone.
Canterbury Castle fell into disrepair.
18th century
The Buttermarket, Canterbury
The city's first newspaper, the Kentish Post, was founded in 1717.
It merged with the newly founded Kentish Gazette in 1768.
By 1770, the castle had fallen into disrepair, and many parts of it were demolished during the late 18th century and early 19th century.
In 1787 all the gates in the city wall, except for Westgate—the city jail—were demolished as a result of a commission that found them impeding to new coach travel.
Canterbury Prison was opened in 1808 just outside the city boundary.
By 1820 the city's silk industry had been killed by imported Indian muslins its trade was thereafter mostly limited to hops and wheat.
The Canterbury & Whitstable Railway (The Crab and Winkle Way), the world's first passenger railway,was opened in 1830 bankrupt by 1844, it was purchased by the South Eastern Railway, which connected the town to its larger network in 1846. The London, Chatham, and Dover arrived in 1860
the competition and cost-cutting between the lines was resolved by merging them as the South Eastern and Chatham in 1899.
In 1848, St Augustine's Abbey was refurbished for use as a missionary college for the Church of England's representatives in the British colonies Between 1830 and 1900, the city's population grew from 15,000 to 24,000.
Canterbury Cathedral did not sustain serious damage during either World War
During the First World War, a number of barracks and voluntary hospitals were set up around the city, and in 1917 a German bomber crash-landed near Broad Oak Road.
During the Second World War, 10,445 bombs dropped during 135 separate raids destroyed 731 homes and 296 other buildings in the city, including the missionary college and Simon Langton Girls' Grammar Schools. 119 civilian lives were lost through enemy action in the borough.
The most devastating raid was on 1 June 1942 during the Baedeker Blitz. On that day alone, 43 people were killed and nearly 100 sustained wounds. Some 800 buildings were destroyed with 1,000 seriously damaged. Although its library was destroyed, the cathedral did not sustain extensive bomb damage and the local Fire Wardens doused any flames on the wooden roof.
On 31 October 1942, the Luftwaffe made a further raid on Canterbury when thirty Focke-Wulf fighter-bombers, supported by sixty fighter escorts, launched a low-level raid on Canterbury. Civilians were strafed and bombed throughout the city resulting in twenty-eight bombs dropped and 30 people killed. Three German planes were shot down by the RAF.
Before the end of the war, architect Charles Holden drew up plans to redevelop the city centre, but locals were so opposed that the Citizens' Defence Association was formed and swept to power in the 1945 municipal elections.
Rebuilding of the city centre eventually began 10 years after the war.
A ring road was constructed in stages outside the city walls some time afterwards to alleviate growing traffic problems in the city centre, which was later pedestrianised. The biggest expansion of the city occurred in the 1960s, with the arrival of the University of Kent at Canterbury and Christ Church College.
Christchurch Gate was built 1504-1521 but the statue of Christ was replaced in 1990
The 1980s saw visits from Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II, and the beginning of the annual Canterbury Festival.
Canterbury received its own radio station in CTFM, now KMFM Canterbury, in 1997. Between 1999 and 2005, the Whitefriars Shopping Centre underwent major redevelopment. In 2000, during the redevelopment, a major archaeological project was undertaken by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, known as the Big Dig which was supported by Channel Four's Time Team.
Another famous visitor was Mahatma Gandhi, who came to the city in October 1931; he met Hewlett Johnson, the pro-communist then Dean of Canterbury.
The extensive restoration of the cathedral that was underway in mid 2018 was part of a 2016-2021 schedule that includes replacement of the nave roof, improved landscaping and accessibility, new visitor facilities and a general external restoration. The so-called Canterbury Journey project was expected to cost nearly £25 million.
The city is on the River Stour or Great Stour, flowing from its source at Lenham north-east through Ashford to the English Channel at Sandwich. As it flows north-east, the river divides west of the city, one branch flowing through the city centre, and the other around the position of the former walls. The two branches create several river islands before finally recombining around the town of Fordwich on the edge of the marshland north east of the city.
The Stour is navigable on the tidal section to Fordwich, although above this point canoes and other small craft can be used. Punts and rowed river boats are available for hire in Canterbury.
The geology of the area consists mainly of brickearth overlying chalk. Tertiary sands overlain by London clay form St. Thomas's Hill and St. Stephen's Hill about a mile northwest of the city centre.[
The city became a county corporate in 1461, and later a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1974 it lost its status as the smallest county borough in England, after the Local Government Act 1972, and came under the control of Kent County Council.
Canterbury, along with Whitstable and Herne Bay, is now in the City of Canterbury local government district. The city's urban area consists of the six electoral wards of Barton, Blean Forest, Northgate, St Stephens, Westgate, and Wincheap.
These wards have eleven of the fifty seats on the Canterbury City Council. Six of these seats are held by the Liberal Democrats, four by the Conservatives and one by Labour. Canterbury City Council's meeting place is the former Church of the Holy Cross. After it was declared redundant and de-consecrated in 1972, it was acquired by the city council and converted for municipal use: it was officially re-opened by the Prince of Wales as the new Guildhall and meeting place of the city council on 9 November 1978.
Durovernum Cantiacorumhe Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Lower Paleolithic axes, and Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area.
Canterbury was first recorded as the main settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci, which inhabited most of modern-day Kent.
In the 1st century AD, the Romans captured the settlement and named it Durovernum Cantiacorum.[6] The Romans rebuilt the city, with new streets in a grid pattern, a theatre, a temple, a forum, and public baths
Although they did not maintain a major military garrison, its position on Watling Street relative to the major Kentish ports of Rutupiae /Richborough, Dubrae /Dover, and Lemanae /Lymne gave it considerable strategic importance.
In the late 3rd century, to defend against attack from barbarians, the Romans built an earth bank around the city and a wall with seven gates, which enclosed an area of 130 acres
St. Augustine's Abbey gateway
The Roman settlement of Durovernum Cantiacorum Kentish Durovernum occupied the location of an earlier British town whose ancient British name has been reconstructed as *Durou̯ernon stronghold by the alder grove, although the name is sometimes supposed to have derived from various British names for the Stour.
Medieval variants of the Roman name include Dorobernia and Dorovernia.
In Sub-Roman Britain, it was known in Old Welsh as Cair Ceint stronghold of Kent.
Occupied by the Jutes, it became known in Old English as Cantwareburh stronghold of the Kentish men, which developed into the present name.
Canterbury is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent.
It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion owing to the importance of St Augustine, who served as the apostle to the pagan Kingdom of Kent around the turn of the 7th century.
The city's cathedral became a major focus of pilgrimage following the 1170 martyrdom of Thomas Becket, although it had already been a well-trodden pilgrim destination since the murder of St Alphege by the men of King Canute in 1012. A journey of pilgrims to Becket's shrine served as the frame for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century classic The Canterbury Tales.
Canterbury is a popular tourist destination: consistently one of the most-visited cities in the United Kingdom, the city's economy is heavily reliant upon tourism.
The city has been occupied since Paleolithic times and served as the capital of the Celtic Cantiaci and Jute Kingdom of Kent.
Many historical structures fill the area, including a city wall founded in Roman times and rebuilt in the 14th century, the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey and a Norman castle, and the oldest extant school in the world, the King's School.
Modern additions include the Marlowe Theatre and the St Lawrence Ground, home of the Kent County Cricket Club.
There is also a substantial student population, brought about by the presence of the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, the University for the Creative Arts, and the Girne American University Canterbury campus.
Canterbury remains, however, a small city in terms of geographical size and population, when compared with other British cities.
St. Augustine's Abbey, which forms part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site, was where Christianity was brought to England.
Despite being counted as one of the 28 cities of Sub-Roman Britain, it seems that after the Romans left Britain in 410 Durovernum Cantiacorum was abandoned for around 100 years, except by a few farmers and gradually decayed.
Over the next 100 years, an Anglo-Saxon community formed within the city walls, as Jutish refugees arrived, possibly intermarrying with the locals.
In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to convert its King Æthelberht to Christianity. After the conversion, Canterbury, being a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the centre for his episcopal see in Kent, and an abbey and cathedral were built.
Augustine thus became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
The town's new importance led to its revival, and trades developed in pottery, textiles, and leather. By 630, gold coins were being struck at the Canterbury mint.
In 672, the Synod of Hertford gave the see of Canterbury authority over the entire English Church.
In 842 and 851, Canterbury suffered great loss of life during Danish raids. In 978, Archbishop Dunstan refounded the abbey built by Augustine, and named it St Augustine's Abbey.
The siege of Canterbury saw a large Viking army besiege Canterbury in 1011, culminating in the city being pillaged and the eventual murder of Archbishop Alphege in 19 April 1012.
Remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066.
William immediately ordered a wooden motte-and-bailey castle to be built by the Roman city wall. In the early 12th century, the castle was rebuilt with stone.
After the murder of the Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe, as pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine.[21] This pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales.[22] Canterbury Castle was captured by the French Prince Louis during his 1215 invasion of England, before the death of John caused his English supporters to desert his cause and support the young Henry III.
Canterbury is associated with several saints from this period who lived in Canterbury:
Saint Augustine of Canterbury
Saint Anselm of Canterbury
Saint Thomas Becket
Saint Mellitus
Saint Theodore of Tarsus
Saint Dunstan
Saint Adrian of Canterbury
Saint Alphege
Saint Æthelberht of Kent
14th–17th centuries
The Black Death hit Canterbury in 1348. At 10,000, Canterbury had the 10th largest population in England; by the early 16th century, the population had fallen to 3,000. In 1363, during the Hundred Years' War, a Commission of Inquiry found that disrepair, stone-robbing and ditch-filling had led to the Roman wall becoming eroded. Between 1378 and 1402, the wall was virtually rebuilt, and new wall towers were added.
In 1381, during Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt, the castle and Archbishop's Palace were sacked, and Archbishop Sudbury was beheaded in London.
Sudbury is still remembered annually by the Christmas mayoral procession to his tomb at Canterbury Cathedral.
In 1413 Henry IV became the only sovereign to be buried at the cathedral.
In 1448 Canterbury was granted a City Charter, which gave it a mayor and a high sheriff; the city still has a Lord Mayor and Sheriff.
In 1504 the cathedral's main tower, the Bell Harry Tower, was completed, ending 400 years of building.
The Westgate is the largest surviving city gate in England. It survived a demolition attempt for a road-widening scheme in Victorian times.
Cardinal Wolsey visited in June 1518 and was given a present of fruit, nuts, and marchpane.
In 1519 a public cage for talkative women and other wrongdoers was set up next to the town's pillory at the Bullstake, now the Buttermarket.
In 1522 a stone cross with gilt lead stars was erected at the same place, and painted with bice and gilded by Florence the painter.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the city's priory, nunnery and three friaries were closed. St Augustine's Abbey, the 14th richest in England at the time, was surrendered to the Crown, and its church and cloister were levelled.
The rest of the abbey was dismantled over the next 15 years, although part of the site was converted to a palace.
Thomas Becket's shrine in the cathedral was demolished and all the gold, silver and jewels were removed to the Tower of London, and Becket's images, name and feasts were obliterated throughout the kingdom, ending the pilgrimages.
By the 17th century, Canterbury's population was 5,000; of whom 2,000 were French-speaking Protestant Huguenots, who had begun fleeing persecution and war in the Spanish Netherlands in the mid-16th century. The Huguenots introduced silk weaving into the city, which by 1676 had outstripped wool weaving.
In 1620 Robert Cushman negotiated the lease of the Mayflower at 59 Palace Street for the purpose of transporting the Pilgrims to America. Charles I and Henrietta Maria came in 1625 and musicians played while the couple entered the town under a velvet canopy held by six men holding poles.
In 1647, during the English Civil War, riots broke out when Canterbury's puritan mayor banned church services on Christmas Day.
The rioters' trial the following year led to a Kent revolt against the Parliamentarian forces, contributing to the start of the second phase of the war. However, Canterbury surrendered peacefully to the Parliamentarians after their victory at the Battle of Maidstone.
Canterbury Castle fell into disrepair.
18th century
The Buttermarket, Canterbury
The city's first newspaper, the Kentish Post, was founded in 1717.
It merged with the newly founded Kentish Gazette in 1768.
By 1770, the castle had fallen into disrepair, and many parts of it were demolished during the late 18th century and early 19th century.
In 1787 all the gates in the city wall, except for Westgate—the city jail—were demolished as a result of a commission that found them impeding to new coach travel.
Canterbury Prison was opened in 1808 just outside the city boundary.
By 1820 the city's silk industry had been killed by imported Indian muslins its trade was thereafter mostly limited to hops and wheat.
The Canterbury & Whitstable Railway (The Crab and Winkle Way), the world's first passenger railway,was opened in 1830 bankrupt by 1844, it was purchased by the South Eastern Railway, which connected the town to its larger network in 1846. The London, Chatham, and Dover arrived in 1860
the competition and cost-cutting between the lines was resolved by merging them as the South Eastern and Chatham in 1899.
In 1848, St Augustine's Abbey was refurbished for use as a missionary college for the Church of England's representatives in the British colonies Between 1830 and 1900, the city's population grew from 15,000 to 24,000.
Canterbury Cathedral did not sustain serious damage during either World War
During the First World War, a number of barracks and voluntary hospitals were set up around the city, and in 1917 a German bomber crash-landed near Broad Oak Road.
During the Second World War, 10,445 bombs dropped during 135 separate raids destroyed 731 homes and 296 other buildings in the city, including the missionary college and Simon Langton Girls' Grammar Schools. 119 civilian lives were lost through enemy action in the borough.
The most devastating raid was on 1 June 1942 during the Baedeker Blitz. On that day alone, 43 people were killed and nearly 100 sustained wounds. Some 800 buildings were destroyed with 1,000 seriously damaged. Although its library was destroyed, the cathedral did not sustain extensive bomb damage and the local Fire Wardens doused any flames on the wooden roof.
On 31 October 1942, the Luftwaffe made a further raid on Canterbury when thirty Focke-Wulf fighter-bombers, supported by sixty fighter escorts, launched a low-level raid on Canterbury. Civilians were strafed and bombed throughout the city resulting in twenty-eight bombs dropped and 30 people killed. Three German planes were shot down by the RAF.
Before the end of the war, architect Charles Holden drew up plans to redevelop the city centre, but locals were so opposed that the Citizens' Defence Association was formed and swept to power in the 1945 municipal elections.
Rebuilding of the city centre eventually began 10 years after the war.
A ring road was constructed in stages outside the city walls some time afterwards to alleviate growing traffic problems in the city centre, which was later pedestrianised. The biggest expansion of the city occurred in the 1960s, with the arrival of the University of Kent at Canterbury and Christ Church College.
Christchurch Gate was built 1504-1521 but the statue of Christ was replaced in 1990
The 1980s saw visits from Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II, and the beginning of the annual Canterbury Festival.
Canterbury received its own radio station in CTFM, now KMFM Canterbury, in 1997. Between 1999 and 2005, the Whitefriars Shopping Centre underwent major redevelopment. In 2000, during the redevelopment, a major archaeological project was undertaken by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, known as the Big Dig which was supported by Channel Four's Time Team.
Another famous visitor was Mahatma Gandhi, who came to the city in October 1931; he met Hewlett Johnson, the pro-communist then Dean of Canterbury.
The extensive restoration of the cathedral that was underway in mid 2018 was part of a 2016-2021 schedule that includes replacement of the nave roof, improved landscaping and accessibility, new visitor facilities and a general external restoration. The so-called Canterbury Journey project was expected to cost nearly £25 million.
The city is on the River Stour or Great Stour, flowing from its source at Lenham north-east through Ashford to the English Channel at Sandwich. As it flows north-east, the river divides west of the city, one branch flowing through the city centre, and the other around the position of the former walls. The two branches create several river islands before finally recombining around the town of Fordwich on the edge of the marshland north east of the city.
The Stour is navigable on the tidal section to Fordwich, although above this point canoes and other small craft can be used. Punts and rowed river boats are available for hire in Canterbury.
The geology of the area consists mainly of brickearth overlying chalk. Tertiary sands overlain by London clay form St. Thomas's Hill and St. Stephen's Hill about a mile northwest of the city centre.[
The city became a county corporate in 1461, and later a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1974 it lost its status as the smallest county borough in England, after the Local Government Act 1972, and came under the control of Kent County Council.
Canterbury, along with Whitstable and Herne Bay, is now in the City of Canterbury local government district. The city's urban area consists of the six electoral wards of Barton, Blean Forest, Northgate, St Stephens, Westgate, and Wincheap.
These wards have eleven of the fifty seats on the Canterbury City Council. Six of these seats are held by the Liberal Democrats, four by the Conservatives and one by Labour. Canterbury City Council's meeting place is the former Church of the Holy Cross. After it was declared redundant and de-consecrated in 1972, it was acquired by the city council and converted for municipal use: it was officially re-opened by the Prince of Wales as the new Guildhall and meeting place of the city council on 9 November 1978.