In 1131, King Henry
I granted a charter founding the Priory of St Martin
of Tours at Dover. The monastery stood on the site of
what is now Dover College, between Priory Road and
Dover
Priory Station. The church was longer than the churches
of
St James and
St
Mary placed end to end, being 285 feet long and
70 feet wide.
In addition to their monastic duties of prayer and worship,
the monks managed a large farm and provided well used
accommodation for pilgrims from Europe to the shrine
of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury, and for crusaders,
pilgrims and VIPs on their way to Europe and the Holy
Land. In 1203
Hubert
de Burgh built the
Maison
Dieu to ease the pressure on this accommodation
In 1154 King Stephen died while staying at the Priory
and in 1295 it was burnt by the French. On that occasion,
all the monks fled except for a very old monk, who was
found sitting on his bed in the dormitory, and when
he refused to tell the raiders where the treasures of
the monastery were hidden he was killed. There was an
attempt to have the monk, Thomas de la Hale canonised,
but the Prior of Canterbury gave an unfavourable report,
fearing that St Thomas of Dover might be a rival to
St Thomas of Canterbury!
In the autumn of 1535 the Priory was closed as part
of
Henry VIII’s
dissolution of the monasteries. The fact that it was
dissolved very soon after it had been visited by the
king's commissioners, could indicate that something
was seriously amiss. Before the government's scheme
for dissolving the smaller monasteries was put into
general operation in 1536, only the most indigent, corrupt
or otherwise decrepit houses were closed down immediately
following an official visitation.
After this the lands passed to the Archbishop of Canterbury
and were leased to various tenants. The church and Priory
buildings became a quarry for building materials, the
only ones to survive being those which found another
use, like the Refectory, which became a barn. In the
early part of the 19th Century the land started to be
leased for building purposes, parts of
Effingham
Street and Saxon Street stand over the transepts
and chancel of the Priory church.
In the 1870’s the remaining lands became the site of
Dover College, a preparatory school for boys. The remaining
Priory buildings were restored for use by the College.
The Refectory became the hall, the gatehouse was converted
into the library and the building thought to be the
Priory’s guest house became the College Chapel. Dover
College, which is now co-educational, occupies the same
site today and the original buildings are still in use.
