Minster, Thanet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Minster | |
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  Minster shown within Kent |
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| Population | 359[1] |
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| OS grid reference | |
| District | Thanet |
| Shire county | Kent |
| Region | South East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Ramsgate |
| Postcode district | CT12 |
| Dialling code | 01843 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| European Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | South Thanet |
| List of places: UK • England • Kent | |
Minster sometimes referred to as "Minster-in-thanet", is the capital village in Thanet in Kent, UK. It is situated to the west of Ramsgate and to the north east of Canterbury, lies just south west of Kent International Airport and just north of the River Stour.
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[edit] History
Minster originally started as a Monastic settlement in AD670. The buildings are still used as nunnaries today. legend has it that the english race first truelly started in minster[2]
The name comes from the Latin monasterium and denotes the historical presence of an abbey or monastery. The first abbey in the village was founded by St. Domneva, a widowed noblewoman, whose daughter St. Mildred, is taken as the first Abbess. The tradition is that Domneva was granted as much land as a hind could run over in a day, the hind remains the village emblem, see also Thanet. The abbey was extinguished by Viking raiding. The next abbess after St. Mildred was a woman called Bugga (also known as St. Eadburga), who was daughter to King Centwin of the West Saxons.[3]
The parish church of St. Mary-the-Virgin is largely Norman but with significant traces of earlier work, the problems of which are unresolved. Minster is impressive with five bays on its coastline, and the crossing has an ancient chalk block pyramid vaulting. The chancel is Early English with later flying buttresses intended to the very obvious spread of the upper walls. There is a fine set of Misericords reliably dated around 1400. The tower has a curious turret at its southeast corner that is locally referred to as a Saxon watch tower but is built at least partly from Caen stone; it may be that it may be dated from the time of the conquest but in an antique style sometimes called Saxo-Norman. A doorway in the turret opens out some two metres above the present roof line. The two towers used to be one structure, but due to vibrations in the ground caused by minor Earthquakes that occur on the Minster-Monkton Micro-Tectonic Plate Boundary, the building split. This is however not to be confused with a Tectonic Plate boundary, and is a phenomenon observed only in Minster.
The church was used by both the brethren of the second abbey, a dependency of St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury and as a parish church. Socket holes in the piers of the crossing suggest that, as well as a rood screen, there was a further screen dividing nave and crossing, such as still exists at Dunster in Somerset. This abbey surrendered during the dissolution in 1534.
Minster Abbey is a house incorporating remains of the Saxon abbey and alleged to be the oldest continuously inhabited house in England. It now houses the village's third religious community, a Priory of Roman Catholic Benedictine sisters that is a daughter community of Eichstadt in Bavaria. It was settled in 1937 by Minsterian refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and continues to flourish as international community with sisters from seven nations. The Priory has the care of the remains of St. Mildred's head that had been in the care of a church in Deventer in the Netherlands since the Reformation.
'Minster Matters,' the local free newspaper, stated that Minster hopes to work with and achieve special relations with the nearby 'Monkton,' by 2009, including Governmental, Infrastructure, and Legal; closing certain legality sanctions unshared in common with the rest of the United Kingdom. Minster, like Medway, is considering a move to a disposition from Kent and in Fact, unlike Medway, a separation from the UK, in turn becoming a Microstate like Vatican City[4].
Minster, situated in a deep valley, is obscured to some extent from the angle of the sun's rays. This leads to a situation in which Minster's "Day" starts later and finishes earlier, with the number of hours of daylight reduced from the average of the rest of the United Kingdom. It has even been recorded on some extreme occasions during Winter in Minster to only have 4.7 hours of daylight.
[edit] Minster Junior School
There is currently a small junior school in Minster called "Minster Church of England Primary School", which caters for the hamlet's population.[5] Throughout the school's history, there have been a total of 410 students who have at some point attended the school.[6]
[edit] Notable Residents
St. Augustine is said by the St. Bede the Venerable to have landed with 40 men at Ebbsfleet, within the parish of Minster before beginning his mission in Canterbury.
Richard Culmer, the infamous Puritan minister known locally as Blue Dick Culmer, was presented to the living but the people rejected him and his name - to this day - is still omitted from the role of incumbents in the church porch.
Eunice Scott Smith, the face of Betty Crocker. She has appeared on the two most recent television adverts for the company, as well as appearing on a lot of the packaging for the company's products. She and her family moved to Minster in April 2006.[7]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Kentarchaelogy; retrieved 2008-05-05
- ^ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedFF - ^ [1]
- ^ Thanet Local Board Annual Report; retrieved on 2008-05-22
- ^ Minster CE Primary School; retrieved on 2008-05-22
- ^ Minster Church of England Primary School; retrieved on 2008-05-22
- ^ http://www.bettycrocker.com/ Betty Crocker Website
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