Boxley Abbey in Kent was one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in England, housing the famous Rood of Grace — a crucifix with movable eyes and lips that was manipulated by hidden wires to impress pilgrims. When royal commissioners dissolved the abbey in 1538, the mechanism was exposed. The rood was displayed at Maidstone market and then at St Paul Cross in London as a demonstration of Catholic superstition. The dissolution of the great Kentish monasteries — Boxley, Leeds Priory, St Augustine's Canterbury — provoked significant local unrest.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
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