St Mary's Abbey: a Benedictine abbey north and east of Water Lane

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes the known extent of the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary's situated in the town of West Malling. Much of the medieval abbey, which survives as upstanding masonry, has been incorporated into the post- Dissolution buildings which have been reused by, and purposely built for, the modern nunnery which began at the end of the 19th century. The upstanding medieval remains include the 14th-century gatehouse and chapel positioned on the north side of the precinct, the Norman tower, the 13th- century arcade of the south cloisters, the south wall and south transept of the church and various other upstanding remains of the east range comprising parts of the chapter house and dorter undercroft. These are situated in the northern part of the precinct which, when founded, covered an area of 4.8ha. In the southern part of the precinct is a medieval tithe barn converted in 1936-7 for use as a chapel. To the west of the main claustral complex lies the site of the 15th-century guest house. This is believed to have had an associated outer court of which no above-ground remains survive. Further buildings to the south include what are believed to be an infirmary or abbess's apartments, which survive as buried foundations. A stream runs from south to north through the precinct and feeds a fishpond to the south of the guest house. The nunnery was founded c.1090 by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester. Two earlier dates for the foundation of an abbey at Malling have been put forward, 688 and 944, the latter by King Edmund, but neither has been proved. The land is known to have been in the possession of the Bishop of Rochester in 945 but was then lost to the Church and recovered by Lanfranc in 1076. The church was dedicated in 1106 but in 1190 the abbey and nearly all the town

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.