College of All Saints (Maidstone)

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The entrance hall.

The College of All Saints was a collegiate college in Maidstone , Kent , England . It was founded by William Courtenay in 1395 and was part of the Archbishop's Palace . It was closed in 1546. The church of the college was the Church of All Saints . Some of the buildings have survived and are now listed as Scheduled Monument .

history

The college was founded in 1395 by Archbishop of Canterbury William Courtenay . Courtenay died the following year, and the college and church were completed by his successor, Thomas Arundel . Richard II enfeoffed the college with land and income from the Hospital of St Peter and St Paul at Maidstone and from the parishes of Linton , Farleigh , Sutton and Crundale . The college was also given church patronage for the parishes. In order to cover the construction costs, Courtenay had a papal bull issued, through which he was entitled to levy a tax of fourpence per pound on all ecclesiastical income in his archdiocese. As long as it was in existence, the college had staffed one Masters and six chaplains .

The Masters of the College were:

  • John Wootton (1395-1417)
  • John Holond (1418-19)
  • Roger Heron (1419-41)
  • John Darell (1441-44)
  • Peter Stackley (1450-58)
  • Thomas Boleyn (1458-70)
  • John Freestone (1470)
  • John Lee (1470-94)
  • John Comberton (1494–1506)
  • William Grocyn (1506-19)
  • Thomas Penyton (1519–?)
  • John Leffe (before 1535–46)

When the college closed in 1546 under the Chantries Act , its annual income was £ 208 6 s 2 d (adjusted for inflation today £ 98,430). estimated. Church and college were separated. The church became the parish church for all of Maidstone, and the college and its lands were sold. Sixteen members of the college were paid pensions totaling £ 100 17s. In 1549 the lands were sold to George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham for the sum of £ 1,081 18s 1d. Silverware and other valuables were sold for £ 200.

College farm, 1866. Most of the buildings still exist today. The kiln (oast house) left was demolished.

However, most of the lands returned to the Crown when the buyer's grandson, Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham , was convicted of treason in 1603 . He had the Main Plot against James I participated. Thereupon the college was loaned for life to Henry Brooke's widow, and at the same time promised for the future (reversion) to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , the husband of Baron Cobham's sister. The college remained with the Cecil family until 1697 when it was sold to Sir Robert Marsham of Mote House . Since then, the property has belonged to Marsham's heirs, the Earls of Romney .

The buildings were used for agriculture well into the 19th century, when Maidstone's expansion made it necessary to demolish them. Part of the site was still built on in the late 19th century with the Cutbush Almshouses , which are now under protection. The buildings are now owned by Maidstone Borough Council after they were donated to the borough by Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake , Mayor of the Borough in 1949-50. A commemorative plaque for this donation can be found in the gate passage of the gate house.

building

  • Attempted reconstruction

  • Plan of the College buildings in 1845

The college, like the Church of All Saints , was constructed from local (Kentish) slate in the Perpendicular Style . The two-story main building also has an attic . It was largely built in the 14th century and originally served as the master's house. Small changes were made in the 18th century and windows were added later. The building is wearing a collar beam roof and a staircase from the 16th century, and a stucco ceiling and a Aumbry -Wandregal. Poste reported in his History of the College in 1847 that some of the rooms had wall paintings.

  • The "Master's House"

  • The "Master's Tower"

  • The ruin of the gatehouse '.

The gatehouse to the north of the college is a three-story rectangular tower with a two-story gatehouse with a cross-ribbed vault . The passage is 2.7 m (8 ft 11 in) wide and has a pedestrian passage next to it that is 1.2 m (4 ft) wide. The room on the ground floor next to the passage was the bakery, where a large bakery oven stood until 1845. The room to the west of the passage was the porter's apartment. The roof of the tower has a hipped roof , which also spans a covered battlement . There is a small turret on the southwest corner. Adjacent to the tower is the two-story building that houses the actual college with a refectory , kitchen and scullery on the ground floor and a dormitory and an infirmary on the first floor. Poste records that were removed around 1845 different rooms and extensions and agricultural buildings, including a kiln (oast house). In the north-west corner of the building there is a small three-story tower, the so-called "River Tower" or Muniment Tower (protective tower). In 1847 the raised roof was replaced by a lower roof that no longer overlooks the battlement.

The two-story Master's Tower was the original access to the college from the river. A single-storey extension is located on the south side. The crumbling orhaus stands in the south, separated from the other buildings by the building of the Almshouse . According to Poste's records, it was still flanked by two barns in 1847. It consists of a pointed arch as a passage for carriages that is flanked by uneven boundary walls.

The gatehouse and refectory are listed as Grade I on the List of Historic Monuments, the Master's House is Grade II * and the Master's Tower and the crumbling gate are Grade II. in addition, the grounds of the college are also a scheduled monument to protect other destroyed structures from further destruction.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hasted, 1798 pp. 308-27
  2. ↑ Page, 1926 pp. 232-33
  3. ↑ Hasted 1798 pp. 308-27. The tax corresponded to 1.7% of the income.
  4. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 10
  5. ↑ a b Hasted 1798 pp. 308-27
  6. ↑ Page 1926 pp. 232-33
  7. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 35. The master's pension, at £ 48 16s 8d, made up almost half of the total.
  8. ↑ Hasted 1798 pp. 308-27; Poste 1847 p. 11
  9. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 11
  10. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 12
  11. ↑ Cutbush Almshouses [1266502] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England . Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  12. ↑ a b The College [1225072] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England. Retrieved June 26, 2011.
  13. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 22
  14. ↑ a b c The College Gateway (All Saints Parish Room) The College Tower [1336234] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England. Retrieved on June 26, 2011., see also Poste 1847 p. 17
  15. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 19
  16. ↑ a b Poste 1847 p. 13
  17. ↑ a b The Master's Tower [1086312] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  18. ↑ a b c The Ruined Gateway [1336235] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  19. ↑ Poste 1847 p. 28
  20. ↑ The College of All Saints [1011029] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England. Retrieved June 29, 2011.

literature

Commons : College of All Saints, Maidstone  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 12.4 "  N , 0 ° 31 ′ 18.1"  E