Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell was on her way to see a showing of this film with her husband when she was hit by a speeding car. She was knocked out, and died five days later, having never recovered consciousness.
James Tamsitt had a haircut to make him look tidy before he went to London with Leonard Smith and David Todd to do some scenes at Denham Studio. But his new haircut didn't match the unruly mop he had in scenes filmed on location. So he had to wear a wig.
Among the various books and pictures seen in Colpepper's sitting room is a photograph of the Shetland Island of Foula, the location of director Michael Powell's first acclaimed feature film The Edge of the World.
Because Canterbury Cathedral's windows had been taken out because of the air raids, the interior of the cathedral was rebuilt in Denham Studio.
By 2004, the shop window overlooking the street from which John Sweet watches the parade in the film's final scene (adjacent to the Cathedral) belonged to a Starbuck's.
On the 19th September 2007, 'A Canterbury Tale' became the first film ever to be projected to an audience in Canterbury Cathedral and was shown as a fund-raising event to pay for repairs to the cathedral caused by WW2 bomb damage.
The boys in the river battle were paid £9 each for two weeks work. £1 10/- when on standby and £3 per day when working.
The Cathedral bells seen in the opening and closing shots were a miniature replica of Canterbury's Bell Harry Tower to allow the camera to track up to and through them. The bells were "rung" by bell ringers from the Cathedral who pulled the strings with finger and thumb to a playback of the real bells.
The engraving on the Culpeper Insitute plaque, "Not heaven itself upon the past has power; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour", is from 'Imitation of Horace' by 'John Dryden' (Book iii. Ode 29, Line 71).
The organ music had to be played on the St. Alban's cathedral organ because the one at Canterbury Cathedral had been dismantled and stored away for the duration of the war.
Upon arriving in Canterbury, Sgt. Gibbs goes to the Police Station and asks to speak to Superintendant Hall. George Hall was the real-life Superintendant of the Canterbury Police at the time (1944). The Police Station was also real.