Gundulf of Rochester
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Gundulf was a Norman monk who came to England following the Conquest. He was appointed Bishop of Rochester and Prior of the Cathedral Priory there; built castles including Rochester, Colchester and the White Tower of the Tower of London and the Priory and Cathedral Church of Rochester.
Gundulf, a friend, pupil and also chamberlain of Lanfranc, Prior of Caen, came to England in 1070, as one of several clergy from the abbey in Bec, Normandy. He was one of the most important of those chosen by Lanfranc to help him with the reorganisation of English monasticism, as Lanfranc had been charged to do, following his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury by King William I.
In 1075 at Lanfranc's instigation, King William I agreed to the appointment of Gundulf as bishop of Rochester and the enthronement followed in 1077. Earlier that year Lanfranc had recovered much of the lands once belonging to St. Andrews Church at Rochester from the Kings half-brother Odo and when Gundulf was enthroned Lanfranc endowed much of this property back to the church. This restored income enabled Gundulf to start reconstruction work on the almost derelict church building in 1080.
In 1078 King William used Gundulf's skill in the construction of the White Tower: the keep of the Tower of London; also the castle at Colchester which was started around 1080. Sometime around 1092 Gundulf founded the abbey of St Mary's, at West Malling, Kent for Benedictine nuns. He was also responsible for the founding of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in Rochester.
In 1083 the Cathedral Priory of St. Andrew the Apostle was founded at Rochester with Gundulf as Prior. He personally purchased a great deal of property for his house and also acquired other properties as the Priory found continued favour with the Norman kings. Together with Archbishop Lanfranc he began the construction of the monastery buildings and continued work on the church. Later Gundulf had the relics of St. Paulinus, a previous Bishop of Rochester, housed in a silver shrine at the church. By the time of Gundulf's death on the 7th March 1108 the nave and western front of the church had been completed.
