Thursday 4 January
Quite late the other night, we got chatting to a man at the bus stop in Balham. He told us we should get out of London because it’s rubbish and go to St Albans. So today we got out of London and went to St Albans, which is about 20 miles north(ish) of London. Once again London’s public transport was amazing - a bus to Streatham Station (not Streatham Hill) and a Thameslink train straight through to St Albans. No changing!
It was quite a walk from the station into the town centre but once we got there it was terrific, with lots of half timbered buildings and little alleyways.
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| St Albans |
We followed one of these to the cathedral, where Rob and I spent ages talking to a man who volunteers there and told us all about the building. Before he retired he was a structural engineer and worked on rescuing Christopher Wren’s “smaller masterpiece” (St Stephen Walbrook) from sliding into the river it stands beside. Apparently Wren wasn’t interested in foundations, only what you could see above ground!
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| The clock tower |
St Albans Cathedral is on the earliest site of Christianity in Britain. There has been a Cathedral there for a thousand years and there was a church for 400 years before that and another church for 400 years before that. Part of the cathedral is made of bricks from the Roman town of Verulamium the remains of which are in the valley below the town.
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| St Albans Cathedral |
After lunch we walked to the site of Verulamium, which is now parkland. On a very windy hill in the centre is a building protecting a Roman mosaic, which was part of a large villa. How amazing it must have been when they unearthed this mostly intact mosaic! You can see the hypocaust - under floor heating.
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| Mosaic floor |
Back down the hill was the museum, which had a wonderful display of artefacts and more mosaics. It also houses the Sandridge Hoard, a collection of Roman gold coins unearthed nearby, by a guy on his first outing with a metal detector.
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| Scallop shell mosaic in museum |
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| Roman god |
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| Roman glassware |
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| The Sandridge hoard |
A great day out and well worth a visit should you be anywhere in the vicinity.
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| The cathedral from the mosaic hill |
Wow definitely worth a visit. Bet you were thinking of Time Team digging up those amazing mosaics? Hot today- stinker tomorrow (41)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great day- the advantage of locals and their chat!
ReplyDeleteLove the scallop mosaic and its perspective touch. Clever Romans. Did I see lots of bicycles in the square? Keen beans in the cold. Still all sounding so much fun. K x
ReplyDeleteSo whats a sandridge hoard??? Heading to Windsor anytime soon? Sorry havent written as tablet played up and then went to Canberra to see Jonathan. I had a lovely day with him. Back at Kiama again and will stay for the weekend and head down the coast Monday.
ReplyDeleteA small but excellent museum and a good day out of London thanks to the man at the bus stop!
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