St Augustine's College (Kent)

[7] The gate was the entrance to a brewery, the kitchen was a public house, the grounds were used for dancing and fireworks.

[7] This condition was the culmination of the abbey's dismantling and sale of material that began in 1541 after its closure by the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the English Reformation.

Funds were raised with Hope as the principal donor along with many other contributors including Queen Victoria.

Hope was determined to restore the ancient appearance as much as possible and, in accordance with Hope’s desires, “pains were taken to preserve as much as possible of the old work that seemed worth preserving.”[citation needed] The Great Gate was refurbished and the college library was built over the foundation of what had been the abbey’s refectory.

Beneath the library, the remains of an abbey crypt were restored and used for teaching carpentry and other handicrafts needed when the missionary graduates ventured into primitive conditions.

Over time, hundreds of young men, mostly from humble homes, enrolled and attained high standards of education.

[12] Besides religious courses, students were taught practical medicine, Oriental languages, and handicrafts.

[19][20] On the night of 31 May 1942, a German air-raid so badly damaged the college that it could no longer operate and the few remaining students moved away.

Canon W. F. France, the last warden of the Missionary College, spent his days picking up the glass shards.

[22] One factor in the college’s permanent closure was the extensive and costly repairs that would be required to make the buildings again usable.

They came from the United States, Nigeria, the West Indies, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, India, Pakistan, Japan and other parts of the Anglican Communion.

A diploma was also contingent on satisfactory academic work coupled with participation in the common life and faithfulness in worship.

[32] After the Central College closed in 1967, the first warden, by then the Bishop Sansbury, laid the basic reason for its closure on "a failure of some in positions of ultimate authority to keep fresh the vision of what the Central College was intended to be, and what in great measure it succeeded in being.

"[33] From 1969–1976 St Augustine's was used by King's College, London, for a fourth year of pastoral theological training for its ordinands.

The King's School, Canterbury, has used the St Augustine's College site (excluding the abbey ruins) since 1976.