Liberal Arts Blog — UK (Part Fifteen) Kent — Canterbury Cathedral And Thomas Becket, The White Cliffs And The Evacuation Of Dunkirk, Maidstone And Wat Tyler
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Miscellaneous Day
Today’s Topic: UK (Part Fifteen) Kent — Canterbury Cathedral and Thomas Becket, the White Cliffs and the Evacuation of Dunkirk, Maidstone and Wat Tyler
Kent was a point of entry for waves of invaders over the centuries — from the Romans (54–55 BC) to the Anglo-Saxons (5th century), to the Vikings (9th century), and the Normans (1066). And of course, the Nazis hoped to do the same in 1940. They failed. And as a result, the White Cliffs of Dover remain an icon of freedom.
Are you from Kent? Have you ever visited? What do you know about the geography, the history, or the culture that the rest of us may not but would delight to learn?
Today, a few notes on the “Garden of England,” the assassination of the Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry II in 1170, the Peasant Revolt of 1381, and the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“GREATER LONDON TO THE NORTH-WEST, THE THAMES ESTUARY TO THE NORTH, THE STRAIT OF DOVER TO THE SOUTH-EAST, EAST SUSSEX TO THE SOUTH, SURREY TO THE WEST — and France is only 21 miles away across the Strait
1. Known as the “Garden of England” for its fertile soil, abundance of crops, and orchards.
2. “One of the warmest parts of the UK.” On August 10, 2003 the temperature reached 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit. But the current record was set on July 19, 2022 in Lincolnshire at 104.5 degrees F.
3. “North Kent is heavily industrialized, with cement-making at Northfleet and Cuxton, brickmaking at Sittingbourne, shipbuilding on the Medway and Swale, engineering and aircraft design and construction at Rochester, chemicals at Dartford, papermaking at Swanley, and oil refining at Grain.”
NB: The capital (“county town”) of Kent is Maidstone. 32 miles from London, and the largest town (pop 110,000). The River Medway runs through the center of town. and links to the Thames estuary. “Maidstone played a key role during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The rebel priest, John Ball, had been imprisoned there and was freed by Kentish rebels under the command of Wat Tyler.”
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL — THE ARCHBISHOP IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND — The site of the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 by followers of King Henry II (1133–1189)
1. “Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt between 1070 and 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket.”
2. TS Eliot immortalized the assassination of Becket in his verse drama “Murder in the Cathedral” (1935).
3. The cathedral was originally part of a Benedictine monastic community but these were dissolved under Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541.
THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER — 350 feet high, stretch for 8 miles on both sides of the town of Dover — “on a clear day visible from France approximately 20 miles away” — an icon of freedom during the Second World War
1. “Formed from chalk accumulated which accumulated in a shallow sea over millions of years, mostly from the remains of tiny coccoliths (single-celled algae).”
2. “These chalk deposits were then uplifted by the earth’s crust and shaped by glacial waters and the sea, eventually forming the cliffs we see today.”
3. “Around 450,00 years ago a megaflood created the Strait of Dover that separates the UK and France today.”
NB: “During the Second World War, thousands of allied troops on the little ships in the Dunkirk evacuation saw the welcoming sight of the cliffs. In the summer of 1940, reporters gathered at Shakespeare Cliff to watch aerial dogfights between German and British aircraft during the Battle of Britain.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Cliffs_of_Dover
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Ports
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidstone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Tyler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ball_(priest)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Cliffs_of_Dover
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert?
Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
