Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Guest Hall appears to have been built when the principal gates and the boundary wall along the western road frontage were constructed in the early 13th century, as part of Abbot Hugh I of Fleury's works of 1099-1124. The Structure survives still and was heavily restored in the 19th century.

Monument Types

• GUEST HOUSE (Now, Medieval to Unknown - 1280 AD?)

Full description

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The Guest Hall appears to have been built when the principal gates and the boundary wall along the western road frontage were constructed in the early 13th century, as part of Abbot Hugh I of Fleury's works of 1099-1124.

The Hall built over two floors, was rectangular in shape on a long N-S axis fronting Monastery Street, measuring about 80 feet long by about 30 feet wide. Access to the Guest Hall from outside the precincts was via the original gateway which was built at the same time and situated at the south-west corner of the Guest Hall. The Gate had a chapel above it. Another door at the south-east corner of the Hall led into the great Court within the precincts to the east.

Later, during the early 14th century, c. 1300-1309 a new gate the 'Great Gate' also known as Fyndon's Gate, was built onto the north end of the Guest Hall, incorporating part of the hall as a possible porters lodge or gate lodge. Meanwhile the earlier gateway was closed and blocked up.

The Structure survives still and was heavilly restored in the 19th century.

In 2012 "during (Phase 1) excavation of a foundation pit, a sequence of floor bedding and levelling deposits was revealed which could have been associated with the kitchen during its use as part of the abbey complex, part of the New Lodging constructed after the Dissolution, or part of an eighteenth-century public house. Cutting the sequence of deposits was a north–south aligned brick wall, perhaps constructed in the nineteenth century. Phase 2 of the excavations discovered an east-west wall that may have pre-dated the 13th century guest hall, and chalk foundations of the guest hall itself. Post-medieval and more recent features were also found

Removal of two areas of plaster rendering at two locations revealed that the internal walls investigated were constructed of brick. They are thought to represent partition walls constructed during renovation work by William Butterfield in the nineteenth century." (4)

Tatton-Brown, T., 1980, St Augustine's Abbey (Article in serial). SKE29810.

Tatton-Brown, T., 1985, Three Great Benedictine Houses in Kent: Their Buildings & Topography (Article in serial). SKE8094.

Roebuck, J., 2002, St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury (Monograph). SKE30293.

<4> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2012, The King's School Kitchen Guest Hall Investigation, Phase 1, Canterbury, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE51837.

Sources and further reading