Davington Priory was a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

on the north

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

coast of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It sits on Davington Hill, now a northern suburb of

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...

but then an isolated rural location.

History

A Benedictine nunnery was built at Davington in 1153. It managed to avoid the violence of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by a natural decline in the early 16th century – the last nun died in 1535. The priory passed to the Crown, who sold it to Sir

Thomas Cheney Sir Thomas Cheney (or Cheyne) KG (c. 1485 – 16 December 1558) of the Blackfriars, City of London and Shurland, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, was an English administrator and diplomat, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in south-east England from 1 ...

(Cheyney). Cheney was a favourite of Henry VIII's second wife,

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

, and was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1536. The nave of the Norman church continues to this day as the parish church, which is dedicated to St Mary Magdalene and

St Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman ...

– unusually it was privately owned until the Church of England bought it in 1931. The choir of the church was demolished by 1580 to provide building stone, and one of the twin towers had gone by 1692.

Modern history

Part of the cloister and nuns' domestic quarters were converted into a house, which was bought by the Church of England in 1931 and sold as a private residence to the antiques dealer and collector

Christopher Gibbs Christopher Henry Gibbs (29 July 1938 – 28 July 2018) was a British antiques dealer and collector who was also an influential figure in men's fashion and interior design in 1960s London. He has been credited with inventing Swinging London, an ...

in 1972, and he in turn sold it in 1982. It was at Davington Priory that David Litvinoff lived from 1972 until 1975, when he ended his life through an overdose of pills.David Litvinoff and the Teifiside blues.
Geoff Ballinger, BBC Wales, 19 April 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2014. The Priory is now owned by Bob Geldof, who bought it from his friend Gibbs.New York Times
At Home With: Christopher Gibbs; A Parting Embrace For a Lifetime's Quirks - New York Times
accessdate: 08/09/2014Sinclair, Iain. (2000) "Who cares for the caretaker?" in In 2013, it was reported that Geldof had lived there for 30 years.kentonline.co.uk
Boomtown Spat: Superstar Bob Geldof in bitter row with neighbour over new gate near Davington home
accessdate: 08/09/2014 According to one local, retired publican Terence Boulton, "He's eldofvery approachable and doesn't act like a superstar. He talks to people and is often seen walking around the town".

References

{{coord , 51, 19, 10, N, 0, 53, 4, E, type:landmark_region:GB-KEN, display=title Monasteries in Kent Grade II* listed buildings in Kent Buildings and structures in Faversham category:Churches in Faversham