A trip to St Albans

Last week John and I decided to visit St Albans, a cathedral city in Hertfordshire. If I have time I like to discover how a place got its name and the story is that its from Britain's first saint, Alban.  The story says that he lived sometime in the 3rd or 4th century in Verulamium. One day he met a Christian priest who was trying to get away from persecutors and he offered him shelter in his home. As a result of the meeting Alban converted to Christianity. Later his house was searched and Alban dressed in the priest clothes and gave himself up to the authorities. They punished him to try and get him to renounce Christianity but he refused and as a result he was executed.  Alban was canonised and became St Alban and gave his name to the area. Our plan for our outing was to visit the cathedral and Verulamium. Verulamium was a Roman city, the second largest in Roman Britain after Londinium, and was developed from a pre existing Iron Age settlement. I had visited St Albans several times as a child, as we had lived in a small village fairly near to it, however John had never been there.

We decided to start our visit at the cathedral as it was nearest to where we parked the car. This is the front of the cathedral. While we were visiting there was a wedding in the Lady Chapel.

Here is another view which shows the different eras of some of the cathedral. The day was perfect for a visit, and for a wedding.

We entered the cathedral by the west door and looked down the nave. The nave of St Albans is said to be the longest in Britain at 85 metres. When I took the photo I wasn't standing at the west end of the nave, so I'm sorry but you aren't getting the full effect of the length of the nave.

Looking back towards the main entrance I took a photo of the stained glass window. If you click on the image it will go full size. The detail in the window is beautiful.

Behind the altar on photo of the nave there was a screen with the saints in colour. Unfortunately I forgot to go back and take a picture. Behind that screen there was a storage area and we were able to enter the choir and the High Altar. This is the screen at the High Altar.

Turning to face the other way I was looking at the choir. 

To the left side of the choir as I was facing it, there was the bishop's chair It's called a cathedra from the Latin word for chair and it is the presence of the bishop's cathedra in a church that makes it a cathedral.

Standing in between the area to the High Altar and the choir I was at the transept of the nave.  Looking up towards the High Altar this is what I saw.

 Turning to my right from the choir I was looking at the north transept rose window.

Turning to face the other way the south transept led to the cafe but it also housed the old main doors of the cathedral. I took a photo of one and also the information board.

The Dean's cope was on display. This ceremonial cope was designed by Jacquie Binns in 1989 for the Dean of St Albans. This is an important piece of church vestment, made from beautiful fabric and heavily embroidered, depicting the story of St Alban. 

A close up of part of the embroidery.

We left the south transept and walked to the east end of the cathedral. We went to see the shrine of St Alban. The shrine is to Britain's first saint and is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain

Beyond the shrine at the east end of the cathedral is the Lady Chapel. This is where the wedding had been held.

This was the altar front in the Lady Chapel. I'm not sure I liked it but the embroidery was good.

This was one of the kneelers at the alter rail.

I liked the seat pads with the different flowers. There are 6 and all are different

One of the cathedral staff told me that during the building of the Lady Chapel women had been asked to bring their favourite flowers from their garden and these were used as a pattern for the carved masonry between the arches. I don't know if it's true but it's certainly a nice story.

I took photos of some of the kneelers in the lady chapel. I love that sewing accessories made it into some of the designs.

Other textile objects around the cathedral

I also like to consider the patterns on the floor as they often provide inspiration for quilts.

Along the wall of the north side aisle there was a beautiful collage to show the history of the cathedral and local school children were involved in the making of it. This was made in 1992 and 1998. There is an information board after this photo

We had planned to visit Verulamium once we had looked round the cathedra but instead we decided to take a walk around the city centre. We spotted this building and loved its quirkiness.

By the time we had walked round the city centre we were both beginning to flag and so we headed back to the car and made our way home. In the evening we had a reservation at our favourite restaurant near home to belatedly celebrate our 42 wedding anniversary which was back on July 2nd. Despite heavy traffic and being delayed by an accident on the motorway we made it home in time for a cup of tea and a short rest before we headed out for dinner. The evening was delightful and the food excellent as always. We both thoroughly enjoyed our day and we are now planning for some more day trips. Having finished writing this post I'm going to set up my machine and enjoy an afternoon of sewing.

Take care

Lyndsey