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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.
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| THOMAS
TALLIS
In
the 1530s Dover College was home to Thomas
Tallis the famous Rennaissance composer. |
DOVER
COLLEGE
The Priory gate today houses the College Library.
The present College Chapel is thought to be in the building
that once formed the Priory's guest house.
The Refrectory of the old Priory continued its original
role, now serving as the College Refrectory.
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