Blue Plaques in Canterbury are multiplying!

All over Canterbury there are blue plaques. The most recent addition are the eight blue plaques on the exterior wall of St Augustine’s Abbey, Longport. These commemorate people associated with the long history of the Abbey, from the end of the 6^th century all the way to the 20^th century. The plaques include St Augustine, St Hadrian, the North African abbot of the Abbey in the Anglo-Saxon period, John Tradescant the Elder, the famous gardener, and Nathaniel Mhala, a founding member of the South African Native Congress, a forerunner of the African National Congress. The Abbey project was probably a world first – a series of plaques on one building. The Society worked with the Canterbury Society and the Nubian Jak Trust to bring it about.

In 2022-4, the Society helped the Canterbury Society to add 15 plaques to the city and its environs, including Aphra Behn, the 17^th century dramatist, Michael Powell, the film maker, and Ian Dury, the musical artist.