St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate

St Augustine’s Abbey stands in Ramsgate, a former Benedictine monastery built in 1860 by Augustus Pugin. It was the first such house raised in England since the Reformation and became an independent abbey in 1876. The monks ran a school on the site from 1865 until 1995. In 2010 the community moved to Chilworth in Surrey, and the Ramsgate buildings were sold to the Vincentian Congregation from Kerala. Across the road, St Augustine’s Church now serves as a shrine to St Augustine of Canterbury. The abbey’s design came from Edward Pugin and Peter Paul Pugin, sons of Augustus, after Bishop Thomas Grant invited the Subiaco Cassinese Benedictines to Kent. The house achieved abbey status in 1896 under Pope Leo XIII. Abbots such as James Alcock and Anselm Thatcher led the community through the 19th and 20th centuries. A priory of Benedictine nuns was later founded nearby at Minster-in-Thanet. Visitors find the Grade II listed abbey building and the adjoining church. The church contains a relic of St Augustine placed there in 2012. The site now hosts Catholic retreats organised by the Vincentian Congregation. The monks’ former home, The Grange, and the original St Augustine’s Church remain close by.