St Augustine's Cross
Hidden on the outskirts of Ramsgate in our stomping ground of Kent, is a plot of land that is said to have been the place where St Augustine met King Ethelbert for the very first time. This spot is marked by the St Augustine's Cross.
You'd like to think that after so many sites have been named after the saint in Canterbury, the dedications would have ended there. But no, back in 1884 Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville decided to mark the spot after he learned of the tradition where an oak tree called Augustine's Oak was the place where the saint met the King. Well the Oak was felled and so he decided that a new marker would need to be placed, and this was a fairly important man, he was the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs as well as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
So he commissioned the cross. John Roddis of Birmingham sourced the same stone that was used to build Glastonbury Abbey and set to work carving it into a design that was based on the Sandbach Crosses from Cheshire.
Now the idea of this all came from way back in 595. Pope Gregory chose the monk Augustine to lead a mission to convert the Anglo Saxons in Kent to Christianity. The Gregorian Mission hit our shores in 597 and obviously the port back then was in Thanet, not Dover, so that is where they ended up. King Ethelbert obviously came to meet him, and then was baptised himself by the monk not long after!
Of course St Augustine was successful in his mission as Christianity spread like wildfire among the people of England and thus he ended up a saint, but we'll be covering him next year.
The site itself is a little underwhelming. We travelled 45 minutes from our house to view this spot and while the Celtic design is very pretty and the idea behind the cross as well as its history very much needs remembering, there is no point making a special trip, so we'd recommend stopping by only if you're in the area!
DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images are ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source..
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