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King Stephen and the Kentish Market Town

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King Stephen and the Kentish Market Town

Faversham

“You may be wondering reading this blog, thinking to yourself what on earth does a Kentish Market town and a King of England have in common? Well let me tell you… I am from a small market town in Kent called Faversham; a small, tranquil and uneventful town” – In this blog second year history student, Josh Geary, reveals the facts about Faversham’s fascinating royal connections as discovered through the library and online resources.

King Stephen was a medieval king who reigned over England from 1135 to 1154 during a period now called the Anarchy, where he fought in a drawn-out civil war for the English throne against his first cousin Matilda. The market town of Faversham is where King Stephen was buried after his death in 1154, alongside his wife Matilda (BTW, Matilda was a very common name at the time) and his son Eustace who had both died in the preceding two years. You can see The Four Norman King Manuscripts which depicts Stephen in the bottom right hand segment, holding Faversham Abbey in his right hand, at the British Library.

Why Faversham?

It is not known for certain why Stephen and Matilda chose the town of Faversham, but likely reasons are that the creek provided a convenient landing place for Stephen, whose hometown was Boulogne; and that the family owned land in the surrounding area. If you are interested in the geography of the Abbey, Digimap is an excellent source as you are able to see a detailed ordinance survey of the area, as well as the remains of the Abbey. This means that you can get an indepth feel for the local topography, which for me was helpful to visualise the Abbey as a living breathing place in the community.

However, Digmap does require you to login through an institution and this is not possible for non-academic readers. Therefore, an alternate source I would recommend is Bing Maps, as you are able to access the ordinance surveys of areas for free without logging into any account, so it is readily available for anyone to use at their leisure.

After looking at the maps of the Abbey remains, I became curious about the Abbey itself, so I went onto Library Search and typed in simply ‘Faversham Abbey’ and to my delight I found the 1965 excavation report for the Abbey.

Excavations at Faversham, 1965 : the royal abbey, Roman villa and Belgic farmstead / by Brian Philp.

Soon after, I visited Augustine House (one of Canterbury Christ Church University’s libraries) to see if I could find the report in the history section. I wrote down the classmark for the book which was 913.4223 PHI, however it was nowhere to be seen. After looking frantically for about half an hour I realised I had only been looking at books that had a 7-day loan or shorter, so I asked a member of library staff if there were any more history books and they showed me an area near the back of the library where the 4-week loan books were stored (I had previously mistaken this area as merely moving book shelves with all the same books). However, when I looked in there, I quickly found an unscathed copy of the excavation report I had so desperately been searching for.

Students working during 24/7
Students working during 24/7

There is more information about the layout of Augustine House on the Library website, as I was to find out and the staff were incredibly helpful, so don’t be afraid to ask someone.

I borrowed the report and took it home. To my delight I found out some more information why the Abbey was in Faversham; for instance, Faversham was an important trading port during the 12th century, meaning it was a profitable place for development.

Even after reading this report I was interested to find out more about the Abbey, so I decided to do some research online. I discovered that there had been a Medieval Faversham Exhibition, in 2018 organised by the Centre for Kent History and Heritage, which included a coin dating from around the time of the founding of the Abbey c.1147/8. The coin is significant as it depicts Matilda as Stephen’s co-ruler as opposed to his consort, demonstrating her importance in the foundation of the Abbey. In addition to this, the exhibition stated that Matilda had stayed in Canterbury during the initial Abbey construction.

How significant was Stephen’s Abbey to Faversham?

After researching why Faversham was chosen for the site of the Abbey, I wanted to find out the Abbey’s significance and contributions to the town’s history. Again, I did this by going online and researching the Abbey, which brought me to Paul Wilkinson’s The Historical Development of the Port of Faversham, 1580 – 1780. Here I discovered that the Abbey’s construction contributed to the prosperity of the town, which answered my question.

As a result of this, I was reminded of the surviving Abbey Gatehouse aka Arden’s house that featured prominently in the sixteenth century play Arden of Faversham. It was evidence within popular culture of the Abbey’s significance, showing how central it had been to the town’s history.

Arden House by Josh Geary
Arden House. Copyright Josh Geary

The play depicts the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife and her lover. It’s author is unknown, but there are many theories about who wrote it, including one that it was written by Shakespeare!

Arden, cheer up thy spirits, and droop no more! My gracious Lord, the Duke of Somerset, Hath freely given to thee and to thy heirs, By letters patents from his Majesty, All the lands of the Abbey of Feversham. Here are the deeds,

Arden of Faversham, 1592

Without the Abbey’s economic injection of wealth into the town by Stephen, it is uncertain whether Thomas Arden would have even bought the gatehouse in Faversham, possibly resulting in the play not taking place there and greatly enhancing the status of the town in literature. Likewise, place names in the town would be different such as Abbey Street (Arden’s house location) and the local high school simply called the Abbey School.

From researching King Stephen and Faversham Abbey I found out many new things about my hometown. This was fascinating as it allowed me to see how important and eventful Faversham was in the past, compared with its peaceful uneventful nature today.

As a result of writing this blog, I feel encouraged to research more about local towns and important people from the past and discover their unexpected connections. If you are a student at CCCU check out Library Search if you would like to carry out something like this yourself and access similar sources to me. There are some fantastic guides to help you, such as the guide to local studies material in the collection and the history subject guide and online sources that allow you to research famous Kentish people such as The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The Applied Humanities: Employablity in Practice module and writing this blog has opened my eyes to the vast amount of career opportunities that are available with a history degree. For instance, working in the library as part of my placement, I discovered you can work write blogs, and use social media and graphic design tools to promote collections. The British Library, for example has an amazing blog. As a result of this placement, I am considering doing a job which involves using my skills as an historian due its wide scope of opportunities and exciting different roles. The Careers and Enterprise Hub will be my next stop to find out more.

The library would like to thank Josh for his hard work compiling this blog post and wish him well with his future career.

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2 comments on “King Stephen and the Kentish Market Town

  1. As a history lover I found this blog fascinating. I had no idea about Stephen and Matilda’s connection with Faversham. Thank you Josh!

  2. I’m glad you enjoyed it Angela. If there are any other local history stories you’d be interested in reading let us know

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