YOUR opinion matters!

Consultation on blue plaques for the Longport wall of St Augustine’s Abbey

CCS & the Canterbury Society, with permission from English Heritage, are placing seven blue plaques (circular, 500 mm diameter) on the wall of the St Augustine’s Abbey Museum, Longport.

These will commemorate significant individuals who played a part in the history of the Abbey site.

The Longport Wall

The Nubian Jak Community Trust is funding an eighth plaque to Hadrian (Abbot 669 – 710), the scholar of African origin who helped establish the “Canterbury School” and rebuild the institutions of the Anglo-Saxon church.

WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR THOUGHTS ON MEN AND WOMEN WHO MIGHT JOIN ABBOT HADRIAN ON THE WALL

Here are some suggestions:

St Augustine of Canterbury

Led the mission to Britain to convert King Ethelbert of Kent and his kingdom to Christianity, 596-597. Died c.604 and buried at the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul, subsequently St Augustine’s.

King Ethelbert of Kent

King of Kent (c. 589 – 616), converted to Christianity by St Augustine, and buried at the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul.

Queen Bertha of Kent

Christian Frankish Princess (c. 565 – c.601) married to King Ethelbert, worshipped at Martin’s church, Canterbury, and buried at the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul.

Abbot Scolland

Norman monk, Abbot 1070-1087, who began the rebuilding of the Anglo-Saxon monastery in the Norman style.

Henry VIII

Controversial monarch (1509-1517) and instigator of the English Reformation, who dissolved St Augustine’s Abbey in 1538 and converted it into a royal palace.

Lady Margaret Wotton

Gentlewoman (1581-1659) who rebuilt the St Augustine’s palace and employed John Tradescant the elder to lay out the gardens in the early modern style.

John Tradescant the Elder

Celebrated gardener (c.1570 -1638), naturalist, collector and traveller who laid out three palace gardens.

Sir Alexander Beresford Hope

Anglican benefactor (1820 -1887) who bought the St Augustine’s Abbey site (1844), rebuilt it as a college for missionary clergy, and oversaw the first archaeological excavations.

Nathaniel Cyril Kondile Mhala

South African student who entered St Augustine’s Missionary College (see above), in 1867 and became a founding member of the South African Native Congress (a forerunner of the ANC).

Lawrence Walcott

Black British student at St Augustine’s Missionary College (1901 onwards) who went on to become Vicar of St Helena in the South Atlantic.

 

Please send your thoughts and suggestions the Secretary of the Canterbury Commemoration Society secretary@cantcommsoc.co.uk by 30 April.

The feedback will be analysed by a team from CCS & CS, who will then submit the

names of the seven chosen candidates to English Heritage.

MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN – PLEASE RESPOND!

Thank you very much.