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Faversham Abbey was a
The abbey was built from a mix of chalk, flint, ragstone, greensand, and Caen stone. The roofing material appears to have been slate from south Devon with matches to materials obtained from sites near Modbury and Slapton Sands.
Faversham Abbey was a Cluniac
The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wi ...
style monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...
immediately to the north-east of the town of Faversham
Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...
, in north Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England.
History
It was founded by King Stephen and his wifeMatilda of Boulogne
Matilda (c.1105 – 3 May 1152) was Countess of Boulogne in her own right from 1125 and Queen of England from the accession of her husband, Stephen, in 1136 until her death in 1152. She supported Stephen in his struggle for the English throne ...
in 1148. A party of monks from Bermondsey Abbey provided the nucleus and the first abbot.
At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Sir Thomas Cheney
Sir Thomas Cheney (or Cheyne) KG (c. 1485 – 16 December 1558) of the Blackfriars, City of London and Shurland, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, was an English administrator and diplomat, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in south-east England from 1 ...
assigned the abbey to Thomas Arden and it was considerably destroyed in 1538. Thereafter the site of the abbey came into the possession of the Sondes family and now lies within the grounds of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School.
The Abbey was the burial place of King Stephen, Queen Matilda, and their eldest son, Eustace IV of Boulogne
Eustace IV (c. 1129/1131 17 August 1153) ruled the County of Boulogne from 1146 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Stephen of England and Countess Matilda I of Boulogne. When his father seized the English throne on Henry I's death i ...
. Their bones were reportedly thrown into the nearby Faversham Creek when the abbey was demolished. Their empty tombs were unearthed in 1964 near what had been the centre of the choir. However, there is a canopy tomb with no contemporary inscription in the nearby Parish Church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
, where it is said that their bones were re-interred.
The Abbey was excavated in 1965 by a team led by the archaeologist Brian Philp. A full plan of the abbey was produced. At around in length, the abbey was shorter than Canterbury Cathedral, but longer than Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Medway, Rochester, Kent.
The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church o ...
. The cloister and monastic buildings were built on the northern side.
The abbey was built from a mix of chalk, flint, ragstone, greensand, and Caen stone. The roofing material appears to have been slate from south Devon with matches to materials obtained from sites near Modbury and Slapton Sands.
Archaeology
In May, 2019 Kent Archaeological Field School uncovered long by wide Roman building at Abbey Farm. According to the Dr Paul Wilkinson, the building contained broken stone walls. The walls covered huge amounts of box flue tiles, which were used to direct hot air up the indoor walls, glazedterracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
floors, an untouched underfloor with hypocaust heating and tons of ceramic roof tiles. Although the plaster painted from these walls were mostly white, plaster walls coloured with green, red and yellow panels were found in the hot sauna room on the north side of the building. The building was divided into two zones of activity – a bath house and a room for agricultural activity.
References