Tonbridge Priory....

It's amazing how many people who see the coloured print of Tonbridge Priory, which hangs proudly on the wall in Mr. Books express disbelief that there ever was one and are amazed when I inform them that it used to stand roughly between the railway bridge and Sainsbury's petrol station. Once upon a time (actually around the year 1250) all you'd have been able to see from the top of Quarry Hill, walking down to towards Tonbridge would have been the Priory and it's grounds, then further along the Castle and its fortifications, which made up the very small hill fort town of Tonbridge, or was it Tunbridge or Tonebrigge in those days? The clues of course are all there: Priory Street, Priory Road, St. Augustine's Home for the elderly Priory vets etc. but we often just take all these place and street names for granted and don't really give them any significance. I've blogged about it before so I won't go on at length in this post but it was, by all accounts quite a structure; probably much bigger than the parish church, set in it's own sizeable grounds. It started to fall into ruin after its deconsecration (at the hands of Henry VIII and his hatchet man Cardinal Wollesey) and was left to the elements and local farmers until the 1840s when along came a new King, The Railway. What was left of it was then uncermoniously pulled down, foundations (and coffins) dug up to build the track, station and shunting yards. There's a good description and brief history here on the Tonbridge Historical Society web site....