Brushing up on your Chaucer
News item
As painting and decorating jobs go, keeping one of Kent’s most popular visitor attractions looking its best is an unusual task.
When The Canterbury Tales closed for annual maintenance the paint brushes and toolbox came out to make sure the Wife of Bath, The Miller, The Pardoner and all the other Geoffrey Chaucer pilgrims were spruced up for another busy season of entertaining visitors to the St Margaret’s Street attraction.
General manager Lyndsay Ridley says: “The Canterbury Tales celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013 with tens of thousands of visitors through the doors each year our reconstruction of medieval life comes in for a lot of wear and tear.
“Repair work and painting of the pilgrims plus the city streetscapes and the settings is a painstaking job and requires lots of patience and a steady hand. We’ve even had to renovate a naked bottom which makes an appearance in one of Chaucer’s more saucy tales!” adds Lyndsay.
“All the renovation work is now complete and we are ready for another exciting year. We are further expanding on our costumed character element of the experience and events programme, including open-air theatre performances of Shakespeare’s Two Noble Kinsmen.”
The Canterbury Tales provides an excellent introduction to the historic cathedral city and its famous literary connection as well as being a hugely entertaining and enjoyable day out for the whole family.
It brings to life five of Geoffrey Chaucer’s best loved stories with tales of love, romance, jealousy and trickery, vividly recreated with all the fun and excitement of Chaucer's original tales. Its stunningly accurate reconstruction of 14th century England, set inside the former St Margaret’s Church, gives visitors the opportunity to step back in time and experience the sights, smells and sounds of medieval times.
Having welcomed more than two million visitors from all over the world it has proved to be a reliable favourite for the city and remains one of the ‘must do, must see’ attractions in Kent. For details call us or visit www.canterburytales.org.uk