New Romney Priory

Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, granted in 1264 the advowson of the Church of St Nicholas in New Romney to Pontigny Abbey in France, making Romney a cell of the abbey. It is thought that the "priory" was a monastic grange.[1]

During the 14th and 15th centuries there were wars with France; the possessions of Pontigny Abbey were taken into the King's custody, and were finally confiscated about 1414. In 1439 Henry VI granted the priory to All Souls College, Oxford.[1]

St John's Priory House, an 18th-century building on the corner of High Street and Ashford Road, together with an small two-storey medieval building on Ashford Road next to the house, and an adjoining wall along the road, are Grade II* listed.[2] Remains of the priory west of the wall are a scheduled monument.[1]

The small medieval building, of which the original purpose in not known, is of stone rubble. It has two pointed doorways, one of which is bricked up; there are three windows each with two lights, with a corbel-head in the spandrel between the lights. The adjacent wall is thought to be reconstructed from medieval stones; it has various windows and a bricked-up archway.[2][3] The remains of the priory in the large garden west of the wall include a wall and archway, of brick and medieval stone; further remains are preserved below ground. [1]