AG ANT FO MINSTER ABBEY

QT. MILDRED'S Benedictine Abbey at Minster in Thanet, and 450-year-old Coughton Court in Warwickshire, have each received a grant from the Ministry Of Works on the recommendation of the Historic Buildings Council of England.
Minster Abbey, bought by Benedictine nuns from Bavaria in 1937, stands probably on the second site of the Benedictine convent of SS. Peter and Paul which was founded about A.D. 740. destroyed by the Danes, and passed to the care of Sr. Augustine's Ahhey, Canterbury.
The abbey is not only remarkable in pian arid construction, hut is unusually complete for the remains of a monastic grange.
The grant is towards recent extensive repairs.
The whole of the north wing and the vaulted passage of the west wing is open to visitors, as is also the chapel. Last year Bishop Cowderoy granted 100 days' Indulgence to pilgrims who visit the shrine of Our Lady of Minster and pray there.
At Christmas, 1953. part of a relic of St. Mildred, 8th-century Abbess of Minster, which had been in Deventer, Holland, for 882 years. was brought back to Thanet by a Dutch priest, In 1027. King Canute had given permission to the monks of St.
Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury :sr to transfer the relics to their abbey where they would be safer: : Thanet was not a very safe place in those days.
The monks expected opposition from the local inhabitants so, to divert (heir attention, Abbot Alfstan gave a banquet. Meanwhile, two monks lifted the tombstone and removed the body.
When the " theft " was discovered the monks were chased and only just managed to escape to the mainland.
When Abbot Elgesin fled to Holland in 1071 he took part of the relic with him to Deventer. A small part was returned in 1882.
During Mary's Year the nuns built a new %Mine to Our Lady of Minster in their 12th-century crypt.
Coughton Court, near Alcester, Warwickshire, was the home of the Throckmorton family for nearly 450 years and figured prominently in the stormy period after the Reformation.
The house, with its magnificent gatehouse, Georgian Gothic stone wings, gables in Elizaheth halftimber, and many interesting pielitres and relics, is now owned by the National Trust and is on lease to Sir Robert Throckmorton, the 11th baronet.