Boxley Abbey

Boxley Abbey stands in Sandling, near Maidstone in Kent, at the foot of the North Downs. Founded around 1146 by William of Ypres, it was a Cistercian monastery populated by monks from Clairvaux Abbey in France. The abbey’s permanent buildings were constructed in the mid-12th century under Abbot Thomas, elected in 1152 or 1153. In 1171, its abbot helped bury the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. The cloister was rebuilt in the late 14th century, as shown by a surviving contract with mason Stephen Lomherst from 1373. The abbey became infamous for the Rood of Grace, a wooden cross whose moving figure was once believed to perform miracles. In 1538, commissioner Geoffrey Chamber exposed the relic as a fraud, revealing levers and wires used to simulate movement. The rood was publicly destroyed in London after a mocking sermon by Bishop John Hilsey of Rochester. Another relic, an effigy of the infant Saint Rumbold, was said to lift only for the righteous, though monks manipulated a hidden bolt to exploit donations. The apostle Andrew’s finger, inlaid with silver, was pawned when pilgrims stopped coming. Today, the site holds fragmentary remains of the church, including a doorway in the south aisle. The west range and abbot’s house survive within a 19th-century house, while the south range contains the warming room and ruins of the refectory. Boxley Abbey Barn, a 13th-century stone building, still stands as the abbot’s hospitium. The precinct is surrounded by ruins of the wall and entered through a ruined gatehouse. The parish church of St Mary and All Saints was once linked to the abbey, and the former chapel of St Andrew is now being restored.