St. Alban's Cathedral : Hertfordshire, 2017

Over the summer I spent a week in Cambridge with my parents. Initially we had considered going to the south of France but it became obvious over the course of the summer that the heat in England was difficult enough for me to deal with! So, we reconsidered and settled on Cambridge for our change of scene. However, the drive from our house to Cambridge is over two hours - a length I struggle with, so we decided to stop about halfway, in the city of St. Alban's, and take a look around St Alban's Cathedral.

St Alban's Cathedral, photo by H. Bailey

There wasn't much in the way of parking on site and, as I currently don't have a blue badge (working on it!), mum dropped me and dad outside and then drove into the city to park. We started by having lunch as we were quite hungry, before having a look around the cathedral, making use of one of their wheelchairs as we had left mine in the car.

Ceiling Detail, photo by H. Bailey

The Cathedral is named after Britain's first martyr: Saint Alban from the Romano-British period. He was executed over 1700 years ago for harbouring and protecting a Christian priest and was likely buried in the nearby Roman burial site. His grave quickly became a site of pilgrimage, transitioning into a church as make-shift buildings were constructed around the site. It is thought that this is the earliest permanent site of Christian worship in Britain. A monastery was built on the site in 793 and flourished from that time until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, under Henry VIII, when it was closed. You can still see today some of the damage inflicted during this period, as churches were literally torn apart. For a time the site became the local school, before eventually being rebuilt into the ecumenical* cathedral it is today, inside of which you can see a shrine to Saint Alban.

*ecumenical - ecumenism refers to efforts by Christians of different Church traditions to develop closer relationships and better understandings. At St. Alban's there are, among others, Roman Catholic Chaplaincy, German Lutheran Chaplaincy and Orthodox Chaplaincy.

Floor Detail, photo by H. Bailey

Norman Arches, photo by H. Bailey

Photo by H. Bailey

A lovely volunteer tour guide accompanied us on the first part of our wanderings and told us a charming story about Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who had fought at Agincourt and was actually brother to Henry V. Humphrey had been buried in the cathedral, but his burial was not the end of his adventures - the story's pretty gross so maybe don't read the next paragraph if you're squeamish!

The Saga of Humphrey's Coffin: Once upon a time (1703), during one of the cathedral's renovation periods, a lead-lined coffin was discovered. The coffin belonged to a certain Humphrey, younger brother of King Henry V, who had been Lord Protector of England after Henry's death in 1422. Lead-lined coffin? you ask. Was he a vampire? No, the coffin was lead as it was full of alcohol which was preserving Humphrey. Yep, Humphrey was perfectly intact. Now, in order to drum up some business at the cathedral it was decided that Humphrey's coffin would be put on display for visitors. People would come to the cathedral and queue up to see the preserved Humphrey. However, they began to notice that the alcohol was disappearing much quicker than evaporation would account for. The reason: yep, that's right - people were drinking the alcohol. Gross. Apparently they thought it might pass on some of its preserving powers to them...or they'd had a really boring day and fancied a drink. But...no alcohol means no Humphrey and so the poor man did eventually decay and yet they still kept him on display! It was only when they realised that his bones were going missing too (again, people wanting to steal a bit of Humphrey's luck) that they packed his coffin away for good. And now pieces of Humphrey are probably scattered all around the country from those pilgrims that took a piece of him as a good luck charm. Or they've been eaten by dogs, as was our lovely guide's personal opinion.

We were unable to view all of the cathedral as some of it was being set up for a graduation ceremony (which meant there was quite a bit of noise), but we saw pretty much all I was up to seeing, all of which was stunning - most cathedrals are!

Stained Glass Window, photo by H. Bailey

Wood Panel, photo by H. Bailey

The restored Wallingford Screen c. 1480, photo by H. Bailey

 

Stained Glass Window, photo by H. Bailey

Accessibility (1 = not very good; 5 = brilliant!):

Wheelchair 4/5: 
Although an incredibly old building with quite a few different levels, it was all accessible due to the use of permanent and moveable ramps. There were also quite a few wheelchairs on offer to borrow. This meant that I wasn't limited by my physical capability.

Sensory Input 2/5: 
A cathedral is a melee of artistic and architectural skill, by it's very nature. Most have various styles throughout from where they have expanded over time. All of this means that there is a lot to take in, and I mean A LOT. Because of this my brain quickly became very tired and started to struggle to process. This wasn't helped by the noise of the preparations for the graduation ceremony. Without these the rating would probably have been closer to 3/5.

Food and other Facilities 3/5:
The cafe was in a marquee on the side of the cathedral and the food was good. However, it closes relatively early and is very bright because of the white walls. There were toilets, of the temporary kind that look kind of like a trailer from the outside. I can't say that they were particularly pleasant to use.

Travel 3/5: 
From a brief bit of web searching it looks like public transport can get you fairly close but a 5-7 minute walk may be needed.

Overall 3/5:
The visit lasted around two hours and there was about one hour's travel time each way.

 *I currently have moderate ME, meaning I use a wheelchair pushed by someone else, and a walking stick. Please take into account your own physical capabilities when planning a trip, if you need to start small then start small. Look into what you can see nearby for when you're ready. Although, when at my best, I may be able to post every 1-2 weeks, that does not mean I am well enough to travel that frequently! Many of my posts come from a backlog of trips taken over the past few years.