Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Almonry dating from the mid 12thC, later becoming a school room and dormitory in the late 16thC. It was finally demolished in 1859

Monument Types

• SITE (Unknown date)
• ALMONRY (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1150 AD to 1573 AD)
• CHAPEL (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1573 AD)
• DORMITORY (Post Medieval - 1573 AD to 1859 AD)
• SCHOOLROOM (Post Medieval - 1573 AD to 1859 AD)

Full description

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Site of Almonary just outside the main gate of Christchurch Priory. Probably the site of a mid 12thC Almonary Hall, a new chapel was begun in 1324 (completed 1328) under the great Prior Henry of Eastry and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Thomas of Canterbury. A staff of six priests under a Dean celebrated masses daily for the souls of Kings Edward I and II and Archbishops Lanfranc and Wincheslsey, and administered to the poor in the new building which was also their home. (the chapel was at the east end and the priests lodged in the western part.

Upon dissolution of the Cathedral Priory in 1540, the Chapel became Royal property. In 1557, it was given by Queen Mary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Pole, to be his private chapel, since the episcopal palace and chapel had been burnt down accidentally in 1544.

The Archbishop died in 1544 and on the 30th July of the following year the chapel was conveyed by his friend and executor to the Dean and Chapter to be held for 500 years at a peppercorn rent "for the sole purpose and intention that they should find and maintain therein a school, in which boys should receive instruction and good learning". At first this school was quartered in the "Aula Nova" (New Hall) , but was moved in 1573 after pertition to the Almonry Chapel due to the inconvenience of the schools proximity to the furnaces of the Mint in the S_E corner of the yard. The chapel became the school room and dormitory of such illustrious schoolbys as Christopher Marlowe and Willian Harvey, while the old priests lodgings became the headmasters house. By 1859 the Kings School had expanded to such an extent that the delapidated chapel was demolished.

The site was excavated in 1979 by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. The chapel occupied the entire northern side of the present roadway, leading from "The Borough" to the Green Court Gate. Its east end almost abutted upon the western face of the Gate House. There was no entrance on the South side of the chapel, only a plain buttressed wall with a few small windows set high up in it. The entrance was on the north side of the building and access to the Mint Yard from the west side was gained by means of a gate which led into the Yard directly from "The Borough". The gate was rebuilt in 1546 (see date in carved brick which still exsists above the blocked-up gate) and finally blocked up in the 19thC. The east end of the church of St. Mary Northgate extended over the street to the north-west corner of the Mint Yard. (1)
From Register of Scheduled Monuments:

The scheduling [for Christchurch Priory and Archbishop's Palace] includes…the site of the almonry chapel.

<1> Unknown, 1979, The Mint Yard (Unpublished document). SKE6717.

Sources and further reading

Related records