Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Strangers Hall of Dover Priory is located on the northern side of the complex, today it is in use as Dover College's chapel and is a GII* listed building. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BUILDING (Strangers hall, Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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The Strangers Hall of Dover Priory is located on the northern side of the complex and is today in use as Dover College's chapel and is a GII* listed building. A description of the above and below ground features associated with the priory given in 1861 notes that it was at the back of the farmhouse. 'It is divided externally by buttresses into six bays, with a turret, as if for a bell, at the south west angle, and there are doorways in the third and sixth bay. The walls are chiefly of kentish rag, with caen stone dressings. The windows are pointed in the early english style, with plain chamfers; but internally they have a semicircular arch. The building had been sub-divided into pens for cattle but would have originally been one room 85 feet long by 34 feet wide'. It is likely that this would have been the location of the 'strangers hall' as the Benedictine monks who occupied the priory, were required by the rules of their order to provide accomodation for large numbers of pilgrims who used to pass through dover on their way to and from France. (1)

<1> Rev. F. C. Plumptre, 1861, Archaeologia Cantiana: Some account of the remains of the Priory of St. Martins and the church of St. Martin-Le-Grand, at Dover. Vol 4 (Article in serial). SKE31811.

Sources and further reading

Related records