Boxley Abbey

The abbey was founded in around 1146 by William of Ypres, leader of King Stephen of England's Flemish mercenaries, and populated by monks from Clairvaux Abbey in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, France. In the mid-12th century, it appears that the permanent abbey buildings were constructed, under the abbacy of Thomas, elected in 1152 or 1153. In 1171, the then abbot was one of those responsible for the burial of the murdered archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. In 1193 the abbots of Boxley and Robertsbridge journeyed to the continent to search for King Richard I, finally locating him in Bavaria. The cloister was rebuilt in the late 14th century, as is known from the surviving contract of 1373…

pilgrims' badge (showing front and back) depicting the Rood]]The abbey was famous, and later infamous, for a relic known as the Rood of Grace, a wooden cross, the figure upon which was supposed to miraculously move and speak. In 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries one Geoffrey Chamber, a "commissioner" employed by Thomas Cromwell to oversee the closure of the institution, examined the famed relic and discovered it to be a fake, observing the levers and wires that enacted the so-called miracles. The rood was taken down and displayed in Maidstone market so as to demonstrate the fraud. Finally, it was sent to London and to the accompaniment of a mocking sermon from John Hilsey,…