Aylesford Priory

An old religious site near Maidstone in Kent, a centre for prayer and contemplation since the Middle Ages, its also known as “The Frairs”. I visited Aylesford Priory in September 2012 with my friends Austin and Guiseppe. I am not a religious person but i am very interested in religious history and religious imagery and there is plenty of interest to see at Aylesford Priory. It’s well worth a visit, though unfortunately many of the original buildings were badly damaged by fire in the 1930’s.

Extensive rebuilding work was undertaken in the 1960’s to bring us the site as it is today. According to an employee at the priory a large posse of itinerant irish workers from a nearby building site were cajoled into helping with the restoration of the priory. They were  persuaded to work for free by the religious hierarchy who pointed out they were doing gods work and since the workmen were good irish catholics they couldn’t possibly be paid for their labours! I’m sure the boys were supplied with plenty of cups of tea though and got free use of the confessions box!

[flexiblemap address=”Aylesford Priory, near Aylesford, ME20 7BX” width=”100%” height=”220″ id=”map” showinfo=”false” scrollwheel=”true”]

More info can be found at the friars website .