Our Pilgrimage to Canterbury--Part 2: St. Augustine's Abbey

Back to our Canterbury trip...

While DH stayed back at Canterbury Cathedral to listen to the evensong choral service, the boys and I braved the English weather to take a brief walk to nearby St. Augustine's Abbey.  We didn't know exactly what we'd find, and were pleasantly surprised.  We took a few minutes in the visitor's centre to familiarize ourselves with a bit of the history of the ruins, and then headed back out into the drizzle.

The Abbey was founded in the late 500s, and was used as a monastery until 1538, when King Henry VIII dissolved all of the monasteries across England.  The monks were evicted.  King Henry decided to convert the Abbey into a palace for his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

Though it may not look like much, the ruins cover a very substantial area, and in fact, at its heyday, the Abbey's church rivalled the nearby Cathedral in size.  It ended up not being used much by the royals, and was leased to a succession of nobles.  It was heavily damaged by a storm in the early 1700s.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend, but I was really glad we took the time to walk around a bit.  Even if we did end up pretty wet by the end!