Assignment Three

Hello.

I am so terrible at getting my assignments in for my writing course, I think calling this blog Damien Writes was a declaration of hope rather than a statement of fact.

Here is something I wrote for Hillsong Church London's magazine Abrupt, which they didn't publish (or even acknowledge), but it fits as suitable for my assignment. I must admit I find it easy to write, but hard to think like someone looking for a publishing deal, hence the delay in getting stuff submitted to Manchester.

I hope you like this,

Damien.

Daytrips from London.
There is life beyond the M25, and it is indeed life as you know it. Minus the crowds, minus the traffic; minus “mind the gap” there is a world of England that can be reached within an hour’s travelling on a local train. Some people from Hillsong Church London even live out here.

ROCHESTER-UPON-MEDWAY.
Rochester is one of two cathedral cities in the county of Kent, the other being the better known (but far more crowded and therefore less interesting) city of Canterbury. Rochester is the quintessential English city with its Norman Cathedral (still in use) and Castle (ruined, so not in use); yet also with a history beyond that which dates back from before the Romans until after the turn of the twenty-first century. In spite of this its greatest claim to fame is that it was the home city and chief inspiration of one Charles Dickens. (It is also the home town of Kelly Brook if you are interested in such things.)

Rochester is served by a British Rail station close to the centre of town, and is connected to both London Charing Cross and (a better option) London Victoria. The neighbouring town Chatham is host to the Dickens Experience, think Disneyland with chimneysweeps, and the Chatham Maritime which was once the Royal Navy’s premier ship-building port. Both towns are also easily accessible by road from London via the M25/A2(M).

ST ALBANS.
A Roman city, now a cathedral city, with more of the history of England than you can poke a stick at St Albans is less than thirty minutes by train from London. It is also home to two Hillsong Church London connect groups.

The Roman city of Verulamium was established within ten years of the arrival of the Roman occupying force, and was built upon the site of a town founded in 10AD which had been capital of the Celtic Catuvellaunii tribe. In 209AD legend has it that Alban, a merchant/civil servant of the town, helped to hide a Christian priest who was attempting to escape persecution. The priest converted Alban to Christianity, and was assisted to escape when Alban and the priest (known as Amphibalus, but that’s probably a fake name) swapped clothes. When the ruse was discovered Alban was offered the chance to make a token sacrifice to the local goddess, the Roman equivalent of an on-the-spot fine. Alban declined, stating somewhat heroically, “I am Alban and I worship the true and living God”. He was summarily tried and found guilty of treason, and was taken beyond the walls of Verulamium to a cemetery half way up the hill behind the town where he was beheaded. In so doing he became the first British person to suffer Christian martyrdom. In the decades and centuries following Alban was made a saint and the site of his death became a pilgrimage hotspot culminating in the establishment of an Abbey, St Alban’s, which later gave its name to the town which sprang up beside it to cater to the pilgrim crowd. Since mediaeval St Albans was built around the abbey, rather than on the old Roman city, the site of Verulamium is now a rather attractive city park with some above ground ruins beside a swan infested lake, and three nearby “ye olde quainte” style pubs.

For those of you who are interested in more recent History, St Albans was the site of two battles (including the very first) in the Wars of the Roses, the first conflict ever to be fought using flowers instead of arrows. (Ban the bulb!) It also saw action in the English Civil War during the 1640s when Oliver Cromwell himself visited and stayed in the Fighting Cocks, which claims to be England’s oldest pub.

St Albans is served by two British Rail stations, St Albans City (from St Pancras and London Bridge via the old Thameslink) and St Albans Abbey (from Euston or Milton Keynes, change at Watford Junction) and can be reached by road from Junction 6 on the M1. It has the necessary “Hillsong mix” for doing life (Nandos, Starbucks, Wagamama, and Pizza Express are all present); but if you want my two pence worth then Verulamium is a park that deserves a picnic.