The Late Monastery of Boxley in the Countie of Kent

The Late Monastery of Boxley in the Countie of Kent: Court of AugmentationS accounts for the dissolving of Boxley Abbey

michael carter

On 29 January 1538 Abbot John Dobbes and his brethren at Boxley Abbey signed the deed surrendering their monastery to King Henry VIII. The dissolution of this Cistercian monastery is well described in contemporary sources, especially the letters of the royal commissioners to Thomas Cromwell, the King’s vice-regent in ecclesiastical affairs. The discovery during the abbey’s suppression of the mechanisms operating its famous Rood of Grace, an animated wooden sculpture of the crucified Christ and the focus of pilgrimage and popular veneration, became a cause célèbre of the evangelical cause, providing evidence of the role of the monasteries in fostering ‘superstition’ and thereby further justifying their dissolution, which was then in full swing.¹

This article provides an analysis and transcription (see Appendix) of an apparently hitherto overlooked source for the suppression of Boxley, financial accounts submitted to the Court of Augmentations by the dissolution commissioner, Geoffrey Chamber. These add significantly to what is known about the suppression of Boxley in the early months of 1538, providing new information about the people involved, the sale of the abbey’s goods, including its plate, the contents of the church, household furnishings and agricultural implements, the livestock and grain, and also the costs associated with dispersal of the community, paying off the servants, the settling of debts, melting the leads and the commissioners’ own expenses.²

Boxley Abbey

The monastery was founded in 1143/46 by William of Ypres, who held extensive estates in Kent, for a community of Cistercian monks sent from Clairvaux Abbey in France, the home of St Bernard, the Order’s greatest saint.³ Boxley was always a mid-ranking monastery and had buildings to match. There are now only scanty remains of the main claustral buildings, and the most significant survival from the abbey is its barn, which is largely thirteenth- and fourteenth-century in date (Fig. 1).⁴ The services of its abbot were, nevertheless, called upon by his own Order, the wider Church and the secular authorities. The Kent gentry were benefactors of the monastery, and well into the fifteenth century sought burial within its church.⁵ Boxley is most famous for the Rood of Grace, a sculpted image of Christ on the Cross which was believed to possess the power of miraculous movement and speech.⁶ This was the focus of veneration from the mid fourteenth century and badges sold to pilgrims testify to its popular appeal (Fig. 2).⁷ This extended well into the sixteenth century; the young Henry VIII prayed before and made an offering to the image in 1510.⁸

However, the monastery was soon to be caught up in the King’s reformation. In 1535 its income was assessed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus at a little over £208 net,⁹ just above the £200 threshold used to define the ‘lesser’ monasteries, the suppression of which was approved by act of parliament the following year. The ‘greater’ monasteries started to fall in 1537 and Boxley’s inevitable end came on 29 January 1538 when its abbot and ten monks formally surrendered their monastery to Walter Hendley, solicitor to the Court of Augmentations, which was founded in 1536 to administer the monastic properties and revenues confiscated by the Crown. Hendley, assisted by the Geoffrey Chamber and John Assheton, also officials of the Court, immediately set about surveying the monastery and inventorying its possessions.¹⁰ Chamber was entrusted with defacing its images, and it was during these duties that he discovered the mechanisms used to operate the Rood of Grace (though by his own admission these were much decayed). Also active during the abbey’s dissolution was Ralph Fane or Vane, a servant of Thomas Crowell of Kentish origin.¹¹ The commissioners were still active at Boxley in early March when Richard Southwell, attorney to the Court of Augmentations,¹² wrote to Cromwell concerning a jewel of the abbey which was on pledge, leases granted by the monks in the run up to the dissolution at knock-down rates and the sale of the abbey’s moveables.¹³ Additional information about the activities of these individuals and the abbey’s suppression is provided by the document that forms the subject of this article.

‘Accounts for the Dissolving of Boxley Abbey’

Now at the National Archives, the document is written over three membranes and occurs among a collection of miscellaneous papers, many relating to the activities of Geoffrey Chamber, the Receiver General of the Court of Augmentations.¹⁴ The preamble states that it was made by Chamber himself and represents the financial accounts for the dissolution commissioners active at the abbey between February and March 1538 (Fig. 3). The precise dates have been left blank, but the letters sent by the commissioners to Thomas Cromwell suggest they were present at the abbey from 1 February to at least 3 March.

The first item concerns the sale of the abbey’s silver plate. This was divided into three categories according to the value, and included 190 ounces of gilt plate (valued at 4s. per ounce), 187 ounces of parcel-gilt plate (appraised at 3s. 8½d. per ounce) and 120 ounces of white silver at (3s. 4d. an ounce). A total of £94 4s. was raised from the sale of the plate, which was sold to ‘sondy persons’, the details recorded in ‘a book of particulars’, more detailed accounts which are not known to survive. A ‘mas’, possibly a quantity of unspecified metal or alternatively a mazer (drinking bowl), was bought by Ralph Vane for 13s. 4d. The accounts provide no information about the specific previous metal items in the possession of the abbey, but this would doubtless have comprised both liturgical and domestic silver. Nor is the inventory of the abbey’s possessions, which the commissioners were instructed to prepare, extant.¹⁵ Many monasteries had plate on pledge at the time of their suppression and Boxley was no exception. Southwell’s letter to Cromwell of 3 March mentions a relic of St Andrew’s finger encased in silver that the monks had pawned for £40, a sum which Southwell clearly regarded as excessive, stating that as he did not intend to redeem the item unless instructed to do so by Cromwell.¹⁶

The sale of the abbey’s vestment and ‘ornaments’ of the church raised £17 16s. Two suits of vestments (a suit included a chasuble for the priest, a dalmatic for the deacon and a tunicle for the subdeacon), together with copes, altar cloths, screen work and even gravestones are mentioned. An appendix to the accounts states that an unsold suit of vestments remained in the custody of the commissioners. This was made of velvet embroidered with ‘boxtres’ (box trees) of silk,¹⁷ a pun on the abbey’s name. The seal used by the abbey in 1336 was likewise decorated with box trees and there are many instances of monasteries using heraldic motifs that punned on their names.¹⁸ Other sources can leave little doubt about the sumptuousness of the vestments in the possession of Boxley. In 1373, the monastery spent £22 on the purchase of vestments and altar cloths, their materials including cloth of gold, green muslin, blue spangling and gold fringing.¹⁹

The Boxley dissolution accounts also mention the sale of ‘other necessaries and imploments of the churche’. Precisely what these consisted of is suggested by contemporary Dissolution-era inventories, including that from Rievaulx Abbey (North Riding) which describes altarpieces and images of saints.²⁰ The contents of the church at Sawtry Abbey (Cambridgeshire) included a lectern, lamps, censers and candlesticks, all of base metal, and also a pair of organs.²¹

The next item concerns the sale of the ‘implements of the house’. These included furnishings, brass and pewter vessels, harnesses and other ‘necessaryes for husbandory’.²² Their sale realised a total of £22 2s. 11d., a value consistent with a comment by Southwell in his letter to Cromwell about the poorness of the abbey’s ‘moveables’.²³ The accounts then move onto the sale of the monastery’s barley, wheat and hay, which made over £65,²⁴ and its stock, which included cattle, oxen, bulls, calves, hogs and horses, all of which were sold for £36 19s. 6d.

Materials recovered from the demolition of the abbey’s buildings included timber from the church, cloister and dormitory, tiles, and also stone, ironwork and glass from the church and cloister. These were sold to ‘sondry persons’ for £22 8s. 4d. The buildings were clearly worth plundering. There had been significant investment in the fabric of the monastery in the century and a half before its dissolution. In 1373, the abbot and convent entered into a contract with the mason Stephen Lomherst to rebuild their cloister.²⁵ Payments recorded in the bursars’ accounts show that these works were still underway six years later, and also that renovations to the dormitory and church were carried out in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. New tiled pavements were also laid and in 1385, the abbey was bequeathed £20 for the glazing of the ‘great window in front of the choir’.²⁶

The total obtained from the sale of the abbey’s possessions came to £257 12s. 4½d. However, set against this were the expenses incurred while extinguishing monastic life at Boxley. The first of these was the £19 15s. 2d. distributed among the monks to facilitate their departure from the monastery. This sum was on top of the pensions awarded to the community by the Court of Augmentations on 12 February.²⁷ The accounts record that £14 12s. 6d. was divided between the abbot and his brethren to buy ‘certayne necessarye apparell’, the secular clothes without which they were forbidden to leave the precincts of the monastery. A further £5 2s. 8d. was disbursed between them as a cash reward for their compliance, doubtless useful pocket money to help them on their way.

Paying off the servants accounted for £11 17s. The accounts note that their wages were between three and six months in arrears. The precise number of servants employed by the monastery at the time of the Dissolution is not recorded. However, among the servants mentioned in the abbey’s accounts from the fourteenth and fifteenth century are cooks, bakers, kitchen staff, gardeners, pages, grooms, and also a tailor and barber.²⁸

A little over £8 was needed to settle the monastery’s debts. This figure is consistent with the amount of debt quoted three years earlier in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, the great assessment of ecclesiastical wealth. At this time the total income of Boxley was £218 19s. 10d., which was reduced by approximately £10 to take account of the monastery’s outstanding liabilities.²⁹

A plumber from nearby Maidstone was paid £4 10s. 6½d. to melt the abbey’s lead which he cast into thirty-eight fothers (large bars). Notes appended to the accounts state that the lead was unsold and remained in the custody of the commissioners. In his letter to Cromwell, Southwell suggested the abbey’s lead was worth the enormous sum of £400 or £500.³⁰ The additions to the accounts also note that five bells, four large and one small, also remained unsold and in the care of the commissioners.³¹ The bursars’ account for 1364 record a payment of £50 for the casting of four bells. These were the ‘Great’, or Jesus bell, which cost £9 6s., the ‘High Bells’ called Mary and John, on which £8 12s. 4d. and £15 14s. was spent, respectively, and the ‘Quarter Bell’ called Catherine, on which £14 5s. 4d. was dispersed. An additional £2 17s. 4d. was paid to two carpenters and a smith to make the frame and chains needed to hang the bells.³² The bells would have been hung in the bell tower, which can be plausibly identified as the small extension added to the west front of the church sometime after the mid-fourteenth century, its foundations uncovered during excavations in the twentieth century (Fig. 4).³³

Finally, there are the costs of the commissioners who were given the task of surveying and dissolving the monastery. They are identified as Walter Henley, John Assheton and Geoffrey Chamber, all known officials of the Court of Augmentations, together with the aforementioned Ralf Vane and ‘diverse’ other unnamed individuals. Their expenses claim came to £10 10s. 8d.

A total of £54 13s. 5½d. was thus spent during the dissolving of Boxley, leaving a clear profit of £202 18s. 11d., approximately the abbey’s annual income. The King and Thomas Cromwell doubtless regarded the time and money expended terminating monastic life at Boxley as a wise investment: another monastery been brought down, a significant cash sum been netted for the Crown and the discrediting of the Rood of Grace provided powerful ammunition for religious reformers during their ongoing campaign against the monasteries and traditional religion.

appendix

The Late Monastery of Boxley in the Countie of Kent

Here ensuyth a particular accompte made by Geoffray Chambre receyvor generall of the kings purchased lands aswell of the sale of all and singular suche goodes and c[h]atalls as were appteyning to the same late monastery by him sold at the tyme of the dissolving therof as of all and allmaner of payments costs and expenses by him avanised [advanced] payde and layde out ffor and about the paymente of the detts due and owyng by the same late monasterye wth wag[e]s of servants and rewards and appareling of the monks at their departing ffrom there and also the costs and expens of the commyssyoners durying the tyme of the saide survey and for melting and casting of leade and taking downe of howses and otherwise ffrom the [blank] day of ffebruarye in the xxix yere of our sovereigne lord kyng henrye the eight [1538] unto the [blank] day of the same monthe then next ffolowing

Plate

The saide accomptute is charged aswell for ciiijxxx oz of plate all gilt at iiijs jd le oz as for ciiijxxvij oz d[itt]o of plate p[ar]cell gilt at iijsviijd ob. le oz and for cxx oz of plate sylver all white and not gilt at iijs iiijd le oz and for xiijs iiijd for the peice of one mas solde to mr Vane co[nve?]yng of the ornaments and goods of the saide late monastery by hym sold to sondry p[er]sons at the tyme of the saide dissolvyng as by a boke of p[ar]ticulars thereof it dothe appere

iiijxxxiiij li. iiijs vd ob. [£94 4s. 5½d.]

Vestime[n]ts and orname[n]ts of the church

Also he is charged wth the peyre of certayne vestyments cops altar clothis Gravestones percloses of tymber for chappells and other necessaries and imploments of the churche there sold by the same accomputis as by the saide boke of p[ar]ticulers it may appere

xviij li xvjd [£18 16d.]

Sale of sondry goods and catalle app[er]teynyng to the same late monast[ery] that is to say … Of Impleme[n]ts of household

Also he is charged wth the sale of certayne bedyng naperye brasse pewter brewyng vessells and other implements of household for meltyng and other wyse and for certayne carte harneyse ploughharneys yocks chaynes and other necessaryes for husbandory as by the sayde booke of p[ar]ticulars it may appere

xxj li. ijs xjd [£21 2s. 11d.]

Corn and hay

Also he is charged wth the sale aswell of lxx quarters of barlye at iijs iiijd le quarter as of lxij quarters of wheate at vs le quarter remaynyng in the barnes there and also for the sale of xxvj quarters and vj bushels of wheate at vs le quarter and xvj quarters of malt at iijs iiijd le quarter remayning redye thresshen in the Garners there and lxxij acr[e] of wheate redye some upin the ground at viijs le acre viij lodys of haye remaynyng in the barnes there xxxs by hym sold to sondry p[er]sons at the tyme of the saide dissolucion as by the sayde booke p[ar]ticulars it may appere

lxvj li. xvjs vd [£66 16s. 5d.]

Cattell

Also he is charged wth the sale of certayne cattall oxen bulls calves hoggs horses and other catell ffatt and leane app[er]teynying to the same late monasterye by him lykewise sold at the saide tyme as by the forsaide booke of p[ar]ticulers it may appere

xxxvj li. xvijs vjd [£36 17s. 6d.]

Olde howsing wth tyle yron and glasse

Also he is charged aswell wth the tymbr worke of the roff of the church cloyster and dorter of the saide late monasterye as for dyvers p[ar]cells of tyle stone yron and glasse in the saide churche and cloyster sold by the same accomp[u]tante to sondry p[er]sons as by the foresaide boke of p[ar]ic[u]ll[ar]s more p[ar]icularly it dothe appere

xxij li. viijs iiijd [£22 8s. 4d.]

Some totall of the charge of this accomp[u]t

cclvij li xijs iiij d ob. [£257 12s. 4½d.]

Of the whiche … Money payde ffor … Rewardes and certrayne necessary apparell geven to the monks at their departing

ffurste avannsed and paide by the saide Accomputing aswell for certayne necessarye xiiij li xijs vjd ob. apparell bought and provyded for thabbot and monks of the saide late monasterye at the dissolucon of the saide house as for certayn redye money v li ijs viijd gyven in rewards emong them at theur departing from thence as by the foresaide boke of particulars more at large dorth appere

xix li. xvs. ijd ob. [£19 15s. 2½d.]

Wagis of serv[a]nts

Also paide for the wage of the s[er]v[a]nts of the saide late monastery beyng behynde u[n]payde at the tyme of the saide dissolucon some of them for haulf a yere some for a quarter and some more as by the foresaide boke of p[ar]ticlers more playnly at large it dothe appere

xj li xvijs [£11 17s.]

Dettis owyng by the saide monast[ery]

Also paide unto sondry p[er]sons for detts owyng unto them by the saide late monasterye at the said tyme as by the saide accomputings book particularly it may appere

viij.li.ob. [£8½d.]

Melting of leade

Also paide to the plumber of Maidestone aswell for melting and casting of xxxviij ffuddere of leade as for taking downe of the same of the saide monasterye

iiij. li. xs. vj d ob. [£4 10s. 6½d.]

Expensis of the Commiss[ioner]s

Also for the costs and expensis of Walter Henley Esquyer John Assheton and Geffrey Chamber Commyssyoners appointed for the dyssolvyng of the saide late monastery and surveying of the lands and possessyons belonging unto the same ryding thither and there tarying during the tyme of the Survey and retorning to london againe and for the costs of Raufe Vane and diverse other to them resorting during the tyme of the saide survey as by a boke of p[ar]ticulers therof made By the sayde accomputings here upon […] it may appere

x li xs viijd [£10 10s. 8d.]

Some of all the sayde payments

liiij li. xiij s. vd.ob. [£54 13s. 5½d.]

And so remayneth

ccij li. xviijs xjd [£202 18s. 11d.]

in comp Galfridi Chamber de officio suo rec. general

que cron’als [coronatores?] hic eo quod onerantur superius in compoto supradicti Galfridi Chambre de officis suo [scriptor?] general terr[arum] domini regis pro quibus prout in titulo Ffor[yto] in eodem compoto apparet

(the account of Geoffrey Chamber in his office as Receiver General

which are not charged here because they are charged above in the account of the aforesaid Geoffrey Chamber of his Office of Receiver General of lands of the lord king as profits as appears under the heading Foreign Receipts in the same account)

acknowledgements

With thanks to Jeremy Ashbee, Elizabeth Eastlake and Tom Olding for their comments and assistance.

endnotes

¹ Letters and Papers Henry VIII (L&P Henry VIII) 13 (I), 173, 195, 231, 407. The use of the Rood of Grace to further the case of the reformers is discussed by P. Marshall, ‘The Rood of Boxley, the Blood of Hailes and the Defence of the Henrician Church’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 46 (1995), 689-96. For the role of monasteries at this time as custodians of relics, see M. Heale, ‘Training in Superstition? Monasteries and Popular Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 58 (2007), 417-39.

² The National Archives (TNA): Public Records Office (PRO), SC 6/HenryVIII/6119.

³ For a summary of the abbey’s history, see ‘Houses of Cistercian Monks: The Abbey of Boxley’, in A History of the County of Kent: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1926), pp. 153-155. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/kent/vol٢/pp١٥٣-١٥٥ [accessed ٢١ April ٢٠٢٠].

⁴ There are now only scanty remains of the main buildings, for which see, F.C. Elliston-Erwood, ‘Plans of, and Brief Architectural Notes, on Kent Churches’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 66 (1953), 45-51; P.J. Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 88 (1973), 129-58; P. Fergusson, Architecture of Solitude: Cistercian abbeys in twelfth-century England (London, 1984), pp. 114-15; and D. Robinson (ed.), The Cistercian Abbeys of Britain: far from the concourse of men’, pp. 73-74.

⁵ For discussion of which, see the excellent doctoral thesis on the abbey by E. Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance: Boxley 1146-1538. A Lesser Cistercian House in Southern England’, unpubl. University of Winchester ph.d. thesis, 2014, esp. pp. 67-71, 149.

⁶ Sculptures of this type were found across medieval Europe; see K. Kopania, Animated Sculptures of the Crucified Christ in the Religious Culture of the Latin West (Warsaw, 2010), with discussion of the Rood of Grace at pp. 284-85.

⁷ Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance’, p. 123, noting that financial evidence for veneration of the image first emerges in 1361. For pilgrim badges, see B. Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, Medieval Finds from Excavations in London, 7 (Woodbridge, 2010), pp. 164-66.

⁸ G.W. Bernard, The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the remaking of the English Church (London, 2007), p. 233.

⁹ Valor Ecclesiasticus Temp. Henr. VIII Auctoritate Regia Institutis, I, ed. J. Caley (London, 1825), 79.

¹⁰ Letter from Hendley to Thomas Cromwell, dated 1 February 1538, L&P Henry VIII, 195. For Chamber’s role at the Court of Augmentations, see W.C. Richardson, History of the Court of Augmentations, 1536-1554 (Baton Rouge, 1961), pp. 53, 453. Assheton was a Lancashire gentleman and an auditor at the Court of Augmentations; see C. Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), p. 105.

¹¹ L&P Henry VIII, 13(I), pp. viii, 229. See also, J.A. Löwe, ‘Fane, Sir Ralph (b. before 1510, d. 1552)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), online edition, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/9141 [last accessed, 21 April 2020].

¹² For details of Southwell’s career, see J.H. Baker, ‘Southwell, Sir Robert (c.1506-1559)’, ODNB, online edition, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/26063 [last accessed, 21 April, 2020] and Richardson, History of the Court of Augmentations, pp. 42-43, 44, 50, 79, 492.

¹³ L&P Henry VIII, 13 (I), 407. In July 1540 the site of the monastery and its manors at Boxley, Hoo and Newnham Court were granted to Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42), the courtier and poet; see L&P Henry VIII, 15, 942 (49).

¹⁴ The accounts immediately preceding those under discussion here are for the dissolution of Furness Abbey in the spring and summer of 1537, for which see M. Carter, ‘The Dissolution of Furness Abbey: the Court of Augmentations accounts’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological and Antiquarian Society, 3rd series, XXI (2021).

¹⁵ The inventory of Sawtry Abbey (Cambridgeshire) gives an idea of the type and range of silver plate at a smaller Cistercian monastery at this time; see M.E.C. Walcott, ‘Inventories and Valuations of Religious Houses at the Time of the Dissolution’, Archaeologia, 43 (1871), 239-40.

¹⁶ L&P Henry VIII, 13 (I), 407.

¹⁷ ‘Sute vestiments de le velvet embroidered cum lez boxtres de serico’.

¹⁸ W. de G. Birch, Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1887), I, 453-54. The use of punning heraldry by monasteries is discussed by M. Carter, ‘Azure, three horseshoes or’: the arms of Fountains Abbey, an enduring puzzle’, Notes and Queries, 64 (2017), 234-42 and J.A. Goodall, ‘The Use of the Rebus on Medieval Seals and Monuments’, Antiquaries Journal, 83 (2003), 448-71.

¹⁹ Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance’, p. 133.

²⁰ G. Coppack, ‘Suppression Documents’, in P. Fergusson and S. Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey: community, architecture, memory (London, 1999), pp. 226-31.

²¹ Walcott, ‘Inventories and Valuations of Religious Houses’, 239-40.

²² An inventory of the office of the abbey’s sub-cellarer in 1351 mentions large brass pots, saltcellars and mortars. Harness, halters and collars for horses and other draught animals are mentioned elsewhere in the obedientary accounts; see Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance’, pp. 79, 148, 151.

²³ L&P Henry VIII, 13(I), 407.

²⁴ The abbey’s assessment in 1535 specifically mentions 25 quarters of barley; see Valor Ecclesiasticus, I, ed. Caley, 79.

²⁵ A translation of the contract is printed in Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, 153-55. For discussion of the cloister within its wider Cistercian context, see D.M. Robinson and S. Harrison, ‘Cistercian Cloisters in England and Wales Part 1. Essay’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 159 (2006), 149, 169-70.

²⁶ Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance’, p. 133. For tiles from the monastery, see Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, 133, 134, 144-46, 148.

²⁷ L&P Henry VIII, 13 (I), p. 583.

²⁸ Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance’, pp. 133, 137, 139, 153, 156, 158, 173, 177.

²⁹ Valor Ecclesiasticus, I, ed. Carley, 79.

³⁰ L&P Henry VIII, 13 (I), 407.

³¹ ‘v campanis iiij magnis et j p[a]va’.

³² Eastlake, ‘Redressing the Balance’, p. 132.

³³ Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, 134-35. Early Cistercian legislation forbidding elaborate bell towers had ceased to apply by c.1300. For a discussion of their presence and uses at late medieval Cistercian monasteries, see M. Carter, The Art and Architecture of the Cistercians in Northern England, c.1300-1540 (Turnhout, 2019), pp. 16-18, 93-100.

Fig. 1 Boxley Abbey’s surviving thirteenth-/fourteenth-century barn. (Photo courtesy of Maidstone Museum Collections.)

Fig. 2 Rood of Grace pilgrim badge, fifteenth-century (private collection).

Fig. 3 Preamble to the Court of Augmentations accounts for the dissolving of Boxley Abbey

(The National Archives (TNA): Public Records Office (PRO), SC 6/Henry VIII/6119).

Fig. 4 Boxley Abbey layout traced by excavation 1971-2; surveyed and drawn by J.E.L. Caiger. From P.J. Tester,

‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, Archaeologia Cantiana, lxxxviii (1973), opp. p. 130.