Geoffrey Chaucer

England's greatest medieval poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, was born circa 1345 the son of a wealthy London vintner. He grew up to be a court official, often working abroad, and was richly fêted for his writing, in which he pioneered the use of English as the language of literature in place of the more usual Latin or French.

Despite travelling widely and leaving a number of notable works, Chaucer is best remembered for one journey and one incomplete 17,000-line masterpiece. The Canterbury Tales follows a band of unforgettably rumbustious pilgrims on their way from London's Southwark to St Thomas Becket's shrine in Canterbury. The poet was no doubt familiar with their trail because he travelled through the Kent countryside as the county's justice of the peace, knight of the shire and member of parliament. When he wrote his verses between 1387 and 1392 such pilgrimages were the height of the medieval tourism industry: 

‘Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote / The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, / And bathed every veyne in swich licour / Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.’  

For Chaucer, the landscape prompted the question: how to while away a long journey? His pilgrims told their colourful stories, some of which can be relived at The Canterbury Tales visitor attraction in Canterbury. Modern day tourists with comfortable transport and easy roads at their disposal see Kent's Garden of England differently: a breath of fresh air next door to London where walkers find a superb array of short and long distance paths. The 156-mile (246 km) North Downs Way, in places following the ancient Pilgrim's Way from Winchester to Canterbury, traverses grasslands and woods full of varied wildlife; sections of bridleway are open to cyclists and horse-riders, too. The Kent Downs area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is also home to rare butterflies and orchids.

Further information

Online guide to the City of Canterbury (www.canterbury.co.uk)