Chauffeur Tour - Canterbury

Canterbury - originally a Brythonic settlement, it was renamed Durovernum Cantiacorum by the Roman conquerors in the first century AD. After the Jutish settlement it became their chief city, whence it gained its English name Canterbury, from the English Cantwareburh ("Kent people's stronghold").

After the Kingdom of Kent's conversion to Christianity in 597, St Augustine founded an episcopal see in the city and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a position that now heads the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. Thomas Becket's murder at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 led to the cathedral becoming a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide.

This pilgrimage provided the theme for Geoffery Chaucer's 14th-century literary classic the Canterbury Tales. The literary heritage continued with the birth of the playwright Christopher Marlowe in the city in the 16th century.

Many historical structures remain in the city, 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 perhaps the oldest school in England, The King's School. Modern additions include the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, the Marlowe Theatre, and the St Lawrence Ground, home to Kent County Cricket Club.

People born in Canterbury include Christopher Marlowe, TV presenter Fiona Phillips, airline entrepreneur Sir Freddie Laker, boy singer and actor Joseph McManners and actor Orlando Bloom. Mary Tourtel, the creator of Rupert Bear, and the Victorian animal painter who taught her, Thomas Sidney Cooper, were both born and lived in the city. The Cricketer David Gower, physician William Harvey, writer W. Somerset Maugham and film director Michael Powell are among the former pupils of The King's School, Canterbury. Notable alumni of the University of Kent include comedian Alan Davies, newspaper editor Rosie Boycott, actor Tom Wilkinson, and Booker Prize winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.