Day trip out to Rochester

A day trip to Rochester with Olivia Rowlands, Ruth Davis, Clare O’Neill & Elle Ramsey with phrase bingo and tea.

Charles Dickens spent his boyhood years in the town of Rochester and several of his book refer (Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, The Uncommercial Traveller, The Mystery of Edwin Drood) to his time spent living there. Rochester makes a big effort to make the Dickens references clear to the visitor as its selling point. If you like your fish and chip supper to be in the 'Dickensian' style, make Rochester your destination.

The Little Dorrit clothing shop.




The town crier greets us on entry to the town. In his address he advertises his entry into the City of London the week next, to take part in the Chinese Year Celebrations. Presumably, as s type of cultural ambassador for all that Rochester stands for.

Rochester’s Oxfam. The ladies are especially interested in the clothing emporium inside, where, if you wait long enough, female fashions of ages gone by come back in style. Claire finds an unusual children’s story book about a Bohemian donkey and his travails.





Gatetower.




















Olivia peruses the manufactures of the Town. Tarot reading was available here. Several small dogs curled up in front of electric heaters.

Some sights of the interior of Rochester’s Cathedral.


Pale Cathedral light.
“The Old Guard”

A monument to Richard Watts, for whose Travellers Inn see below.























The Traveller’s Inn
I quote from the excellent description of a Rochester walking route (http://www.london-walks.co.uk/39)

The Poor Travellers’ House. Its name derives from a bequest left by Richard Watts for ‘Six Poor Travellers, who not being ROGUES or PROCTORS’ were to be provided with ‘one Night Lodging, Entertainment, and Fourpence’. When Dickens visited the house in 1854, he stood in the street outside pondering that since ‘I know I am not a Proctor, I wonder whether I am a Rogue!’ Looking up, he noticed ‘a decent body, of a wholesome matronly appearance…’ watching him from one of the open lattice windows. This ‘matronly presence’ showed him around the property, and his visit subsequently became the subject of his Christmas story ‘The Seven Poor Travellers’, which appeared in Household Words that year. The house is now a delightful museum, which details the history of this property, and the rooms in which the poor travellers ate and slept until the house was closed on 20th July, 1940 can be visited.

Of especial interest to this author were the plastic foodstuffs and the column in the guest book for the visitor’s ‘occupations’. Olivia spent a moment admiring the plant and herb garden.

London Pageantry

When I first arrived here I tried to attend all the public events in London's civic calendar, being a faithful adherent of all-manner of pomp & circumstance. The following are in no particular chronological order:

Remembrance Day















The blessing of the Thames attended by the congreagations of Southwark Cathedral and St Magnus the Martyr London
Chinese New Year

Nelson's Column lighted for the Trafalgar Bicentennial Celebrations (or 'T c 2005' as advertised).


















The Lord Mayor's Show















The occasional protest march (Fathers 4 Justice and radical Islamism)

I started a new job in October 2005 as the Assistant Clerk at the Archbishop's Office of the Court of Faculties. It would be quite difficult to explain what this entails. The Faculty Office administers the dispensary powers of the Archbishop devolved from Rome under the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533. Its functions are perhaps best explained on the website

http://www.facultyoffice.org.uk

In addition to this, the Registrar of the Office is also Registrar of the Dioceses of Guildford, Ely and joint Registrar of the Diocese of Hereford. I do the secretarial jobs for these Dioceses (for instance, drawing up licences for the clergy) and review petitions for faculties (permissions granted by the Chancellor of the Diocese for new works done in churches in churchyards).

This is my office. However, normally there is a greater dispersal of paperwork.

















This is me outside the Office at 1, The Sanctuary, next to Westminster Abbey.













This is a notarial faculty (a licence for a public notary, ie someone who prepares and executes legal documents for use abroad and attests to the authenticity of deeds and writings and protests bills of exchange). These are folded into a square as they would have been in the past when they would have been delivered, as with other post, in saddle bags. I just have to watch where I rest my mug of coffee.













The Abbey and Parliament buildings.