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Kearsney Abbey, c.1900.
Following the Norman Conquest, the Manor
of Kearsney was granted to a Shropshire landowner , Jeffrey
de Say, in exchange for men from his estates to help maintain
and garrison Dover Castle.
It passed through various other owners before coming into
local hands. Its first local owner was Ralph Tokes, Mayor
of Dover from 1445-1449, and Member of Parliament for Dover
three times.
In 1790 the estate was purchased by the Fectors,
local merchants and bankers, for the sum of £72,000. In 1820
John Minet Fector (who was later to become M.P. for Dover)
decided to have a more spacious and impressive building erected,
which was completed by 1822. Much of the dressed stone work
was acquired from old buildings which had been demolished
for road widening in Dover, and possibly also from the mediaeval
town wall and gate
houses. John Minet Fector misleadingly called his new home
'Kearsney Abbey' despite the fact that it had never been a
monastic building.
After John Minet Fector's surprise defeat
in the mayoral election of 1837, the family decided to sell
the estate and move away from the area. The property changed
hands a number of times during the latter half of the 19th
century and the first half of the 20th, and was used at various
times as a private boarding school, an Augustinian convent
and a nursing home, as well as a private residence.
The last private owners were the Collier
family, who owned it until the beginning of the Second
World War, although they had made several attempts to
sell the property before the war. In 1937 the estate was listed
as comprising area of over 27 acres, the Abbey itself, laundry,
dairy, orangery, stables and garage, 10 cottages, farm buildings
and parkland. At that time the accommodation with in the Abbey
consisted of a hall, dining, drawing, breakfast and billiards
rooms, a library, study, boudoir, 15 bed and dressing rooms,
and 4 bathrooms.
During the Second
World War the Abbey was commandeered by the War Department
and used as an A.T.S. operations establishment and H.Q. of
No.2 Searchlight Regiment. After the war Dover Borough Council
bought the Abbey and 25 acres of land for the sum of £10,000.
In 1959 the advanced stages of dry rot were discovered in
the house and it was demolished, except for the billiards
room which survives as a café. The Abbey grounds were greatly
improved in the mid 1970s and it now provides a fine public
park on the outskirts of the town.
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