Ancient History 2

The Viking Invasion

During the time of the 4th Abbess Sigeburg, the Vikings began to raid the South-East of England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the Isle of Thanet was repeatedly attacked and plundered. The first recorded invasion was in 753, and Viking raids were to continue to plague the country for more than two centuries. Several times the community of nuns and the villagers crossed the Wantsum to take refuge in the fortified city of Canterbury – to return and rebuild Minster when the immediate danger had passed. However, when Canterbury fell to the invading Danes at the end of the 10th century the traces of the Minster community of nuns were finally lost and the monastery lands lay deserted.

The First Re-foundation of Minster

Barely a generation later, in 1027, the monks of St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury petitioned the Danish King Canute (1017-1035), now king of the South-East of England, to grant the property in Thanet to the monks. With his permission they built a small grange or courthouse on the site as a residence for those who were to administer the estate; the name Minster Court dates from this time. Realising that the tomb of St Mildred was already a centre for prayer and pilgrimage, they gained permission from the king to transfer St Mildred’s relics to their own monastery church in Canterbury where they were enshrined in a place of honour behind the high altar, near those of SS Augustine, Theodore and Hadrian. For centuries her tomb was a focus for pilgrimage. Goscelin, the chronicler of St. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, writing in 1097, enthusiastically describes St. Mildred as "the fairest lily of the English, the one jewel of our fathers” and adds, ”Who is there who is blind or deaf or dumb, or ailing from whatever cause in mind or body, who has failed to obtain relief through her intercession?”

Following the Norman Conquest, the buildings at Minster were extended. The monastery church of SS Peter and Paul was rebuilt, as was the old church of St. Mary the Virgin which now served as the Parish Church. From Minster the monks took on the pastoral care of the people of Thanet. Over the next few decades a further eight churches were built on the island.

A listing in the Doomsday Book of 1088 shows that with the grange at Minster the abbots of St. Augustine held great tracts of arable land on Thanet. In the 12th century a vast tithe barn was erected near the fish ponds for the collection of the grain grown on monastery lands. The monastery also had two salt-works on the marshes. During the 13th century the ‘Abbot’s Dyke’ was constructed to prevent flooding of arable land.

From the Dissolution of the Monasteries to the 20th Century

For 500 years the monks served the people of Thanet. At the time of the Dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry VIII, St. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, and with it the estates on the Isle of Thanet, fell to the crown. The monastery church and many of the other buildings were either pulled down or allowed to fall into ruins. It is said that the stones were taken to Deal and used in part for construction of Walmer Castle. The west and north wings of Minster Abbey still remain intact.

In 1602 King James I. granted the former monastic property to Sir Philip Carey, William Pitt and John Williams. The estate was divided between them. In 1688 Sir John Williams' widowed granddaughter, carried the Minster Court property in marriage to Col. William Conyngham. Towards the end of Charles II reign he was succeeded by his son Henry who was created Baron Conyngham (of Mt Charles, Donegal) by George II in 1753, and Viscount, Earl Conyngham, in 1780. From 1787 Minster Court was leased to the Swinford family and their descendants, the Collards.
In 1928, the manor house and 10 acres of land were put on the market and acquired by Mr. C. H. Senior. He had archaeological investigations done on the south lawn, particularly the area previously occupied by the monastic church. The foundations of both the Saxon and the Norman churches were uncovered, and the site of St. Mildred's 8th century tomb in the apse of the church.

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