feature INDEX & all that c. 0 AD: IRON MAN


The story of Canterbury really begins just over 2,000 years ago, towards the end of the Iron Age, with just a few simple wooden huts on the banks of the River Stour occupied by the Celtic Cantiaci tribe. Although they were frequently warring with neighbouring tribes, these ancient Britons living in ‘Durovernon’ were a cultured people, skilled in metal-working, jewellery-making, pottery and weaving.


43 AD: BATH TIME!


After two unsuccessful attempts by Julius Caesar in the previous century, the Romans invaded Britain. They took over Durovernon and rebuilt it, christening the new Roman garrison town ‘Durovernum Cantiacorum’. Over the course of the next hundred years or so, the Romans laid out gravel streets in a grid pattern and erected a series of impressive public buildings, including a theatre, town hall, temple, forum and bathhouses.


1170


Canterbury’s rich past shapes the way we live, work, play and move in the city today. But how much do you know of the city’s history? Best-selling local author Martyn Barr tells the Canterbury story in a series of snapshots, from the Iron Age to the present day.


c. 250 AD: RAIDERS AND


SETTLERS In the early third century the Romans built a wall around the city to protect it from raiders from continental Europe. Other parts of the Roman empire were also being targeted and in 410 the Romans left Durovernum for good. Without their protection, the magnifi cent Roman town was vulnerable to attack and fell into ruin. Eventually, some of these ‘Anglo-Saxon’ newcomers decided to set up home there in ‘Cantwaraburh’.


597 AD: MAN WITH A MISSION


In 597 the Pope sent Augustine and 40 monks to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons. The king of Kent, Ethelbert, was married to a Christian woman, which made the task easier. A year later Augustine and his monks built an abbey outside the walls of the old Roman town. In 602 he rededicated a deserted Roman church, which would eventually become the cathedral and the seat of the fi rst Archbishop of Canterbury.


16 www.indexmagazine.co.uk


St Martin’s Church which has been in use since late Roman times St Augustine’s Abbey which stood outside the Roman walls


Round houses in Iron Age Canterbury © Canterbury City Council Museums Service


Roman Canterbury c300AD © Canterbury City Council Museums Service


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