1027- The Return of Monastic Life
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.
The monks gained permission from the king to transfer St Mildred’s relics from Minster to their own monastery church in Canterbury. There they were enshrined in a place of honour behind the high altar, near the relics of Saints Augustine, Theodore and Hadrian. Countless pilgrims came to pray at her shrine for her intercession. The monastic grange at Minster in Thanet became important as a part of this pilgrimage. |
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 for the collection of the grain grown on monastery lands. These supplies were used for St. Augustine’s monastery, the pilgrims’ hospice in Canterbury and the leper hospice at St. Nicholas Harbledown. 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.
