Village Signs Eastry - Kent.
Posted by: 
MeerRescue
N 51° 15.105 E 001° 18.732
31U E 382213 N 5679174
A pair of Village signs, erected for the Diamond Jubilee, in Eastry, Kent.
Waymark Code: WMEQXH
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/29/2012
Views: 2
A pair of new village
signs have been erected in Eastry to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Elizabeth II. Sited either end of the Sandwich Road through the
village of Eastry, this one is double sided and sits beside Sandwich
Road north of the village, near the junction with Poison Cross. The
other is single sided and sited to the South of the village, at
Buttsole Pond in Lower Street and can be found at N51 14.375, E001
18.452.
The sign depicts St
Mary The Virgin Church with what I presume to be the figures of King
Ecgberht of Kent and Archbishop Thomas Becket.
St Mary
the Virgin Church
dates from c.1230. It was built lavishly in the early English style
of architecture by the monks of Christ Church Abbey, Canterbury who
owned the Eastry Manor at that time. This Norman church almost
certainly replaced a Saxon building, since Eastry boasted a Royal
Palace for the Kings of Kent as early as 660 AD.
King Ecgberht of Kent who reigned between 664 and 673, had his
Royal Palace here in Eastry, and ancient site believed now to be
occupied by Eastry Court, alongside St Mary's Church, although a 2006
visit by TV 'Time Team' dig failed to locate it. King Ecgberht had
previously provided escorts for one of Becket's predecessors,
Archbishop Theodore, and Abbott Adrian of St Augustine's Abbey in
Canterbury on their travels to Gaul. However, one of Kent's oldest
legends concerns King Ecgberht. It was said he had his cousins
Ethelred and Ethelbert murdered at his Palace in Eastry, and according
to the legend his royal palace was passed to the Priory of
Christchurch in Canterbury as penance for the crime.
Archbishop Thomas Becket
was summoned by King Henry II to appear before a great council at
Northampton Castle in October 1164, to answer allegations of
contempt of royal authority and malfeasance in the Chancellor's
office, a post that Becket held in 1155, before being nominated in
1162 Archbishop of Canterbury. Convicted on the charges,
Becket stormed out of the trial and fled to the Continent. Eastry
history
recounts that Archbishop Thomas Becket hid in Eastry Caves for eight
days waiting to escape before fleeing in a fishing boat from Sandwich
to France.