Time Team Forum Friends - Our Past History

St Augustine’s Abbey and Museum

report by Caz
photos by Corinne and Caz

After our first tour of the day, and a brief pause for some lunch en-route, Anne B. lead Co. Lauren and I across the nightmarishly busy ring road to the maze of narrow streets opposite the Cathedral, where we were to meet up with the rest of our party at the Abbey. Having been apprehensive from other people’s comments that a fair old hike was going to be in order I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our goal actually lay only a few short streets away, and immediately visible long before we reached the entrance to the Abbey grounds were a pair of magnificent Gatehouses (dated to the 12th and 14th centuries respectively). Impressive in themselves, they are now the most potent reminders above ground of this Abbey’s long reign and considerable wealth and importance (dare I even say ‘high status’?).

Continuing to prosper, the Abbey apparently amazingly emerged into the tenth century as the only surviving monastery in Kent, all the others having been sacked and destroyed by Viking invaders. As the centuries passed St. Peter and St. Paul’s grew.

Its buildings underwent several quite major enlargements and alterations with each new Abbot, including a re-dedication of the monastery to its founder in 978 and it was from this time on that the Abbey became formally known as St. Augustine’s. Many of those phases of development can still be seen among what remains today, from the humble Church of St. Pancras with its Saxon foundations, to the large, ambitious, and ornate Norman church which was created by co-joining St. Peter and St. Paul’s with St. Mary’s. The ruins of this building still comprise the bulk of the remaining foundations, and includes the vaults of Bishop Wulfric’s unfinished rotunda.

It was also during this time that extensive new monastic buildings were completed and aligned to the new church. Time continued to pass, and the Abbey was repeatedly added to and embellished. Today, even the small fragments of decorative stonework and painted plaster which were uncovered during excavation work (now on display in the museum) help to give us some idea of just how ornate and beautiful it must have become by the Norman era. As it expanded its lands and properties it also became increasingly wealthy, and was renowned both for its scholarship and scriptorium, which housed (by the time of the Dissolution) some 2000 volumes. Sadly, today of that great number only some 200 now remain.

By the 1500’s the Abbey had become fourteenth richest in the country.

Nonetheless, it and all its wealth and possessions were duly surrendered to the crown at the orders of Henry VIII on July 30th 1538. Treasures and relics were either dispersed or destroyed while the buildings themselves underwent a new phase of demolition and re-development into a Royal Palace, which Henry had prepared for the arrival of the new Queen, Anne of Cleves.

But after this, neither Henry VIII nor his successors made very much use of the building and it was eventually leased to a variety of Noblemen including Lord Cobham, and Edward, Lord Wotton.

It was Wotton who employed John Tradescant the elder to lay out the grounds, the design for which is now reputed to be the oldest surviving plan for a British garden (shown quite clearly in a fine illustration c. 1640).

From then onwards the Abbey/Palace buildings quietly declined, becoming increasingly ruinous and eventually succumbing to re-development in the Eighteenth century as parts were sold off for the construction of Canterbury Gaol and the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

Even though work at that time uncovered burials on the site, arousing the interest of local historians, it was not until A.J. Beresford Hope purchased it in 1848 that the remaining old buildings began to receive proper care and attention. Today the entire area, including parts of King’s School, the Cathedral, the Abbey remains and the Saxon Church of St. Martin’s (where Queen Bertha is thought to have worshipped) have all been declared a World Heritage site.

St. Augustine’s Abbey played an important role in the English Church, its foundation marking the introduction of Roman Catholicism into England.

The Museum and Visitor Center which now forms the entrance to the Abbey grounds opened in 1997 as part of the celebrations for the 1400th anniversary of St. Augustine’s arrival in Kent. It provides multimedia displays and contains some 250 objects, some of which are quite unique. Free (and very useful) interactive audio guides are available in six languages can be obtained on entry.

Today,much that the modern visitor sees are remains that date from the Norman era, and the museum indicates that surprisingly, relatively few artifacts were uncovered during excavation considering the long occupation of the site. However, as you look around the ruins there are tantalizing architectural hints from other periods such as Tudor brickwork from the former Royal Palace, and also a considerable amount of recycled Roman brick and tile among the walls – begging the question – from just whereabouts locally might they have been obtained……. Next stop, the Big Dig!