UK – Rochester

2018 September 22 —–

On Sunday before we were to depart, Len suggested that we go to Rochester. He said he had seen the town through the train window on many occasions and it looked interesting. Good enough for me! We took the kids and off we went to Kent on that cold and rainy day.

Rochester has a very long history, with neolithic remains left by Celts, Romans and Saxons. In more recent history it saw the building of the current cathedral in 1080-1130. The Dioceses was founded in 604. The Castle was built in 1087-1089 (recent history is relative in the UK) The Castle, built on a high hill, was built to guard the river crossing. The Cathedral is directly behind it.

The town itself was old, old, old. There was a pub called The Deaf Cat. There were building with plaques dating from the 1500’s. Interestingly, one building had a plaque commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of the French Hospital for the relief of poor French Protestant refugees. The French Protestant were refugees?? There was a stone horse watering trough in front of a Nail Salon. There were boot scrapers built into the wall on either side of the door of another building. So many practical, everyday things from another era. Julian and Freya had no concept of them.

They were hungry and cold, and tired (not really, but they complained enough that we relented). We took them to an old pub and had chips. We also hoped that the rain might also relent while we ate. It didn’t.

We made our way to the Rochester Cathedral. We went in through a side door and discovered there was a mass in progress. We told the kids to talk in hushed voices and walk quietly. Although they did not understand the proceedings, they were quietly respectful and I was very proud of them for it. I didn’t understand the special mass, myself. They had a blue sash coming down some steps from the altar, representing water. The parishioners were taking lighted candles to place on either side of the blue sash. One thing that stuck with me were transparent banners hanging from the arches. They were covered in poppies. We really felt like we were intruding so basically made our way to the front doors of the church and went to leave. However, a member of the church came up to the kids and gave them each a big sticker with a bird on it, that said Rochester Cathedral. They were tickled pink.

Directly across the street was the back side of the Castle. A doorway in the wall caught Julian’s eye and he scampered off to check it out, only to find it was locked. On the way back he discovered some old tombstones. The kids did not seem bothered at all when we told them the dead people were buried under them.

We had to walk completely around the walls in order to gain entry to the Castle. As luck would have it we passed an ice cream stand. The kids immediately were hungry again. We bought them each an ice cream. We also passed a very crooked house. The top of the house was nearly touching the straight house next door. We wondered if it were falling over but then noticed that the windows were actually straight. Later, when we were heading back to the train, we specifically walked between it and the straight house to check it out closer. The door jam was crooked but the door was straight, making it sit lopsided in the jam. In the end, we really couldn’t figure out if it was built that way, and if it was, why? And if not, how is it still standing? And being used as a shop?

We walked near the water’s edge and saw where the bridge used to be. Then we walked along the vine-covered stone wall until we came to what is left of the Castle and bought our tickets to enter. Inside the Castle, we climbed lots of steps to various levels. Amazingly the kids didn’t complain and were, in fact, quite eager to climb.

A personal note here: My grandchildren are growing up in a country that is filled to the brim with castles, cathedrals, historical artifacts, and history. To them, this was just another day out with Daddy and Grandma, whereas children from Canada would be gob-smacked. Yet, these two little ones are too young to appreciate they can see history by climbing old castle steps, whereas children in Canada can only read about it.

One level had a diorama of what the original Castle would have looked like. Also included was a brief history of the castle, the reigning Kings of the day, sieges and besiegers, and subsequent pleasure garden. We made our way to the very top of the 100 foot castle (that is 10 storeys!). The building was in incredible shape. It was not hard to envision someone replacing the timbers to support floors, put up a new roof and Bob’s your Uncle, have a working castle again.

We met a man who was with his son and telling him amazing details about the Castle and history. We unashamedly eavesdropped and began to ask questions. He said he was raised in Rochester and used to come on school field trips here. That is why he knew so much. He pointed out areas that were breached in a siege and explained how the Castle defended itself. We were fortunate to run into him.

As we were heading back down to leave, our attention was drawn to some people down in a small room just off from the exit. What was this about? It was the Castle toilet. We couldn’t figure out if there was a sort of plumbing system that dropped the waste down via gravity or if it was brought down in buckets. Either way, it was a fairly big space that definitely had to be cleaned out by hand by some poor bloke.

It was getting late, and it was time to head back to London.