| Minster | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Mary the Virgin, Minster-in-Thanet | |
  Minster Location withinKent | |
| Population | 3,569 (2011)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TR308645 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | RAMSGATE |
| Postcode district | CT12 |
| Dialling code | 01843 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
51°20′02″N1°18′54″E / 51.334°N 1.315°E /51.334; 1.315  Minster with Cursus Cerve (St Mildred’s Lynch)[2] | |
Minster, also known asMinster-in-Thanet, is a village andcivil parish in theThanet District ofKent, England. It is the site ofMinster in Thanet Priory. The village is west ofRamsgate (which is thepost town) and to the north east ofCanterbury; it lies just south west ofManston Airport and just north of theRiver Stour. Minster is also the "ancient capital of Thanet".[3] At the 2011 Census the hamlet ofEbbsfleet was included.
The name ultimately comes from theMedieval Latinmonasterium, denoting the historical presence of anabbey ormonastery; such names are common in England and indeed throughoutEurope.
Archaeology has shown aBronze Age settlement at Minster-in-Thanet.[4] The area became part of theRoman Empire under theemperorClaudius. Around 450AD, theJutes arrived in the Minster area and established a settlement.[5]
In 597Augustine of Canterbury is said, by theVenerable Bede, to have landed with 40 men at nearbyEbbsfleet, in the parish of Minster-in-Thanet, before founding amonastery inCanterbury; a cross marks the spot of his landing.
Minster itself originally started as amonastic settlement in 670 AD. The buildings are still used as nunneries today.[3] The first abbey in the village was founded by StDomneva, a widowed noblewoman, whose daughter StMildred, is taken as the firstabbess. The tradition is that Domneva was granted as much land as a hind could run over in a day, the hind remains the village emblem, see alsoKentish Royal Legend. The boundary defined by the hind was known asCursus Cerve or St Mildred’s Lynch.[2][6] The abbey was extinguished byViking raiding. The next abbess after St Mildred wasSt Edburga daughter of KingCentwine of the West Saxons.[7]
The third known abbess was Sigeburh, who was active[8] around 762AD and is known from theSecganhagiography and fromRoyal charters.[9] In 761ADOffa, king of theMercians, granted Sigeburh a toll-exemption which kingÆthelbald had previously granted toAbbessMildrith. Again in about 763ADEadberht II,king of Kent, granted the remission of toll on two ships atSarre and on a third atFordwich.[10] It has been stated that in gaining these privileges, she may have been taking advantage of Æthelbald's political weakness.[11]
Vikings attacked the surrounding area in 850 AD.[12]
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The parish church ofSt Mary-the-Virgin is largelyNorman but with significant traces of earlier work, the problems of which are unresolved. Thenave is impressive with fivebays, and thecrossing has an ancient chalk blockvaulting. Thechancel is Early English with laterflying buttresses intended to halt the very obvious spread of the upper walls. There is a fine set ofmisericords reliably dated around 1400. The tower has a curious turret at its southeast corner that is locally referred to as aSaxon watch tower, but is built at least partly fromCaen stone; it may be that it dates from the time of theNorman Conquest in 1066, but it is built in an antique style sometimes called Saxo-Norman. A doorway in the turret opens out some two metres above the present roof line.
Thechurch was used by both the brethren of the secondabbey, a dependency ofSt Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, and as aparish church. Socket holes in the piers of the crossing suggest that, as well as arood screen, there was a further screen dividingnave andcrossing, such as still exists atDunster inSomerset. This abbey surrendered during theDissolution of the Monasteries in 1534.
The 1876Ordnance Survey Great Britain County Series map[13] shows aMethodist (Wesleyan) chapel in St Mildred's Road; on the 1898 OS map[14] it has becomeRoman Catholic and been renamed "St Mildred's R.C. chapel", also being referred to as "St Mildred's church andpresbytery". It later closed but as permission to demolish it and build houses on the site was denied in 2010,[15] it was converted into a private residence.[16]
Minster Abbey is a house incorporating remains of theAnglo-Saxon abbey and alleged to be the oldest continuously inhabited house in England. It now houses the village's third religious community, apriory ofRoman CatholicBenedictine sisters that is a daughter community of St. Walburg,Eichstätt inBavaria. It was settled in 1937 byrefugees fleeingNazi Germany and continues to flourish as an international community.[17] The Priory has the care of a relic of St Mildred that had been in the care of a church inDeventer in theNetherlands since theReformation.[18]
Generally a flat landscape, the area's main features includemarshes,farms andrivers.Thanet District Council has, however, assessed Minster Marshes, south of the village, as being unstable,[19] and some areas of Minster, particularly in the south of the village, have suffered from flooding.[20]
Land reclamation has had a strong history in Minster and Monkton, where the original reclamation was done by the monks themselves.[21]
ThePrimary School is called "Minster Church of England Primary School", which caters for the village's population.[22] As of 2022, there are 383 pupils attending the school.[23]
Minster railway station lies to the south of the village, on the line fromCanterbury West toRamsgate and on the junction to theKent Coast Line.
Bus services are provided byStagecoach.
Minster has a war memorial dedicated to those lost in World War I and World War II and this is located in St Mary's church.
In 2013, Minster hosted a memorial forJean de Selys Longchamps, a Belgian fighter pilot who is buried in Minster cemetery. This event was hosted by Minster & Monkton Royal British Legion in conjunction with Minster Parish Council and was attended by such dignitaries as The Lord Lieutenant of Kent and the Chief of the Belgian Air Defense.[citation needed]
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