We climbed up the top of the early 15th century clock tower.
I have grown so much this trip. I am now as tall as most doors.
Views from the top of the tower
The cathedral was the abbey church and it wasn't destroyed by Henry but sold by Henry to the townsfolk for 400 pounds to be their parish church. We went on a lengthy tour by a volunteer which was very informative
Shrine of St Albans
Early version of CCTV. The monks built this loft so they could keep an eye on the shrine to protect it.
Henry had all the paintings in the church white washed over. This had now been removed and some ancient paintings have emerged.
This is the Norman tower. The ceiling had to be repaired but it has been painted in the original colours
This ceiling is the original and has not been re painted!
One of the screens.
One of the original ceiling tiles
Beautiful vaulted ceilings in the side chapels
Beautiful window but it is not really old
Recycled Roman columns. Most of the stone used in the cathedral is recycled from the ruins and covered over.
We were lucky enough to be in the cathedral when an orchestra was rehearsing for a concert that was being held that night. The sound was amazing without any microphones.
More original ceiling panels.
Original Norman columns
Supposedly the oldest pub in Britain.
The town is first recorded as Verlamion, a Celtic British Iron Age settlement whose name means 'the settlement above the marsh'. After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, it developed as Verulamium and became one of the largest towns in Roman Britain but was later destroyed during the revolt of Boudicca in AD 60-61 before being rebuilt.
Remains of Roman walls. Geoff acquired a small piece of the wall off the ground to take home.
Geoff amongst the buttercups
Excavated remains of a roman town house.
One of the most significant events in the town’s history and its namesake was the execution of Alban in around AD 250. Alban was a Romano Briton soldier living in Verulamium who was converted to Christianity when he sheltered a Christian priest. The legend goes that Alban switched cloaks with the priest and was arrested in his stead by Roman soldiers and was executed for his faith. The Roman City of Verulamium slowly declined and fell into decay after the departure of the Roman Army in AD 410. However, the ruined buildings provided materials to build the new Norman Abbey and the Roman bricks removed from Verulamium are still evident in the Cathedral today. In 793, King Offa of Mercia further endowed an existing Benedictine monastic abbey. The current church was begun in 1077 by Paul de Caen, the 1st Norman Abbot and was consecrated in 1115.
The head of the abbey was created as the premier abbot in England in 1154. In the same year, Nicholas Breakspear, who was born near St Albans and trained in France, became the first and currently only English Pope, elected as Pope Adrian IV. The abbey was extended in the 1190’s and again between 1257 and 1320. The first draft of the Magna Carta was possibly drawn up in the Abbey in August 1213.
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 hit St Albans when local townspeople stormed the Abbey and demanded a charter for the freedom of St Albans from the Abbot. However, once the 14-year-old king, Richard II, had regained control of the capital the leaders were executed.
The opening conflict of the Wars of the Roses happened in St Albans. On 22nd May 1455, the First Battle of St Albans resulted in a Lancastrian defeat after King Henry VI occupied the town but was ousted by Yorkist forces led by the Earl of Warwick after a skirmish in the town centre. Other battles later occurred around this town.
The abbey was destroyed in the dissolution and the abbey church was in later centuries expanded to become a cathedral. The town continued to grow in 18th And 19th centuries and had important industry and trade. Between the wars it became a centre for aerospace with De Havilland industries there.
After the war there was further expansion of the city and it is now a commuter suburb for London.
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