All Saints Church and College

All Saints Church and College. . Earliest records show that this site was originally populated during the Anglo-Saxon Period by the Church of St Mary. In 1395, Archbishop Courtenay received the authority of Pope Boniface IX to make the parish church collegiate. The church was serviced by a body of clerics living in a residential college and supported by an endowment., A New Church , Building of the new church started in June 1396 when Archbishop Courtenay received royal permission to conscript 48 local masons. Therefore All Saints, unlike many parish churches which tend to evolve over time, was conceived and built in its entirety. It may be the work of the master mason Henry Yevele (one of the few Medieval "architects" known to us by name) who was working on Canterbury Cathedral at the time. The church was complete by 1398, and has remained, externally, relatively unchanged. It did formerly possess a spire which was burned down after being struck by lightning in November 1730., College of All Saints , The College was built around the same time as the Church, again under the direction of Archbishop Courtenay and possibly to the designs of Yevele. However, the Master's House seems to incorporate an earlier building from around 1300., The College housed a Master and several canons, as well as a number of chaplains, singing men and choristers. The buildings included a kitchen, scullery and refectory on the ground floor and a dormitory, and infirmary above. The first Master, Sir John Wotton, has an impressive tomb in All Saints Church., The College fell victim to Henry VIII in 1547 when the property went to the Crown and the Master and priests were pensioned off. Sold into private ownership in 1549, the College was much neglected by the late 17th Century. Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake (twelve times Mayor of Maidstone) purchased the College in 1949 and presented it to the Borough Council. The buildings were restored in 1956 and the Master's house has since been used by the Kent Music School., Knightrider Street and the Horseway , This was the original ford crossing of the River Medway and joined the town to the deer park at Lockmeadow. Knightrider Street was a favoured area of the town where the gentry built town houses in the 16th/17th Century. Knightrider House was the home of William Shipley who founded the Royal Society of Arts and is buried in All Saints churchyard., In the mid-17th Century, Lawrence Washington, an ancestor of George Washington, lived in Knightrider Street. He is buried in All Saints Church where his monument displays the family coat of arms, showing three stars and two strips which is said to be the inspiration behind the design of the American flag.