The Great Cloisters as they stand today were designed and built around 1400 by a Kentish Man, Stephen Lote, an associate of Yevele who was actually responsible for the destruction of the earlier Norman Cloisters when he rebuilt the Nave of the Cathedral. On the ceiling of the Cloisters are bosses that bear the arms of individuals who have donated money to the construction and decoration of the Cathedral. Most of these were put in place in the fifteenth century but were restored beginning in 1935 by the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral and completed three years later. There have been special additions to these arms since that time and those include, George VI, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mum, the present Queen, Elizabeth II, Her Sister, Princess Margaret and The Dowager Queen Mary. Later, the arms of Archbishop Robert Runcie and Pope John Paul II and Prince Charles were added to celebrate the Papal visit on the 29th May, 1982.

In the picture (left) you can see the low stone bench, just above floor level, to the left-hand side and against the wall where the monks would originally have sat and worked. It would have been a centre of monastic life with entrances to many of the other buildings being accessed from this area. In the distance, at the far end of this Southern section is the door (according to one version of the story) through which Thomas à Becket fled from his pursuers on that fateful evening in 1170 into the Chapel which is now known as The Martyrdom.