Last Sunday a friend of ours came up to St Albans to join us for Sunday lunch. After being well fed on a fantastic pub roast dinner we took a walk around the city centre to show him some of the sights. One must do venue was the Abbey. It's one of my favourite parts of St Albans and the building itself is quite spectacular.
I'd like to share two of my favourite features with you.
Firstly, the ceiling of the tower which dates from the sixteenth century. The middle four panels show the arms of St Alban, England, St George and Edward the Confessor. Surrounding these four panels are the roses of York and Lancaster that signify the importance of St Albans in the War of the Roses. Two battles that were part or the War of the Roses took place in St Albans in 1455 and 1461 and many believe that the 1455 battle was actually the opening battle between the Lancastrians and Yorkists.
Apologies for the poor photograph quality, but I can never cease to be amazed by the colours in the rose window. The window in the north transept was designed by Lord Grimthorpe in the late nineteenth century, but the glass in it was designed by Alan Younger and unveiled in 1989.
This photograph doesn't do real justice to the colours; the blue in particular is incredibly rich and like nothing I've ever seen before.
I can't pretend to know all these facts myself though – I've recently been reading St Albans: A History
by Mark Freeman and it's providing me with some fantastic detail into the history of the city and many of the fantastic historic buildings. I like knowing about and understanding the history of where I am living and in London this was relatively easy to do. Not as much is written about St Albans, but this book is certainly a real gem – and the only one I've seen that covers everything in the city rather than just a specific thing.
by Mark Freeman and it's providing me with some fantastic detail into the history of the city and many of the fantastic historic buildings. I like knowing about and understanding the history of where I am living and in London this was relatively easy to do. Not as much is written about St Albans, but this book is certainly a real gem – and the only one I've seen that covers everything in the city rather than just a specific thing.
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