Tuesday morning and we are off to Canterbury for the day. Two reasons I have to admit to: the cathedral of course and the murder of Thomas Becket; and er... a comics shop... The comics shop comes later, for now let's have a look at the cathedral.

The gatehouse nestles between the other buildings in the centre of the city.

Below: inside the cathedral. The nave, font and pulpit and, right, the doorway leading through the screen from the nave.

Underneath the carving of the archbishop in his robes, a humbler, nude rendition of his corpse reposes within the shadows of the rich trappings of the figure above.

The solitary candle burns on the spot where Thomas Becket was killed by a sword blow to the head, that split open his skull.

Henry II had appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury expecting then to be able to interfere as much as he liked in the affairs of the Church.

Becket however defended the Church until, after he had excommunicated several royal servants, Henry said in exasperation 'Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?

Four knights who heard the King mistook his angry outburst for an order to murder Becket.

As the monks prepared the body of their leader for burial they found to their joy that underneath his vestements he wore a shirt of horse hair. Furthermore the shirt, in itself irritating to the skin, was full of lice - at the time the marks of a deeply religious man.

On hearing of Becket's death, King Henry was horrified and deeply repentant. He even had himself flogged.

A brilliant commander, he won many victories during the Hundred Years War with France.

His nickname, the Black Prince stemmed from his black armour, but was not given to him until many years after his death.

The brass ship's bell under the model comes from a later HMS Canterbury.

Right: Monument to King Henry IV and his second wife, Joan of Navarre.