Outdoor preaching in Kilburn...

It's been a while since I blogged on ye olde history of Kilburn and have been meaning for follow up this particular thread - the outdoor preaching of Kilburn Vale and links to religious fervour down the years.

This site has talked about the development of the priory and it's subsequent demolition during the disolution of the monasteries.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/yes-you-can-visit-kilburn-priory-today.html

Well I wondered about how these 'locations' remained religious over the years? The same principle/approach applies for post pagan England - there is considerable evidence that generally celtic religious sites became Roman ones and they in turn became Christian and so it continued in use.

So what happened in Kilburn after the fall of the priory and in the development of what we now see as the thriving Kilburn High Road?

Well, the strategic significance of the crossing of the Westbourne river remained - we have hermit place, the pubs (at least The Cock and the Red Lion and probably others) and the arterary road (old Watling Street) increasingly known as Edgware Road.

All the evidence points to Kilburn and in particular this point of the Kilburn High Road was a crucial staging post for travellers heading north.

Well I think an insight into what was happening in Kilburn is revealed by this old church hall (picture above) in Kilburn Vale - just opposite Hermit Place and near The Priory Tavern.


You can see the plaque on the left of the building on which is written

"Ebenezer Chapel was erected by Margaret Creswick in memory of her brother Thomas Creswick who departed this life August 31st 1868. He laboured daily among the sick and in the open air at Kilburn, St John's Wood and Primrose Hill. His first sermon was preached from a platform in the Abbey Fields 1859. His last sermon was delivered at the bridge near this spot one week before he fell asleep in Jesus. 'the memory of the just is blessed' This stone was laid July 18th 1870 John Fordham, builder"

The Abbey fields appear to have been behind the Red Lion pub - in Springfield Lane? http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/changing-of-street-names.html - and have been a gathering point for people, open air discourse, I suspect like a speakers corner but in Kilburn.

It would have been busy, lively, possibly some street traders, a real sense of hustle and bustle and have been a gathering point for travellers fefore heading north - a focus for local people in regency and then victorian Kilburn... and here in Kilburn Vale on the side of an old chapel (that feels dis-used?) is a plaque giving some hint of that open air tradition.

Yes, you can visit Kilburn Priory today...

I have wanted to write a post on Kilburn Priory for some time and it's only in the last few days that I have had the time to wander round getting the pictures I needed in order to illustrate the story. It's quite good and there is much more to see than people realise, so here goes...

Early in the 12th century there was a small hermitage - not that unsual - near the Kilburn river (Kilbourne and various other spellings) and prob also on the edge of the wooded area that led from Kilburn up to Shoot-up-Hill.

Amazingly Hermit Place still survives by Kilburn Vale (pictured right) and hints at the probable location of the hermitage - of course the strategic location is very good and is perhaps confirmed by the Kilburn High Road railway station - i.e. this a good place to stop and alight. The hermit was apparently called Godwyn - his existence is placed at the start of the 12th century in the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). Around this arose a community of religious - probably nuns - and in time a priory. The geography is important because this was a major crossing point for the river and for accessing Watling Street (later Edgware Road, the High Road Kilburn, now Kilburn High Road) which was the main road from London to St Albans - a major place of pilgrimage.

Today, three elements survive - Kilburn Grange Park, the Red Lion (now sadly The Westbury - pictured right - you can see the dating claim above the Red Lion itself) founded in 1444 and part of the series of inns that lined the travellers road north and also The Cock Tavern (first licensed in 1486 and boldly emblazoned on the front of the building - pic right).

It is likely that the Priory was founded under Henry's reign - there was something of a growth of religious patronage at this time - the nuns who settled there founded an Augustine community and this is dated to 1134. The Priory grew in size, but rarely in wealth and was dogged by financial problems. However, it was still a significant estate and had a number of elements - church, guesthouse (possibly on the site of the Bell Tavern today - this may even have been the original Red Lion), farmhouse as well as the associated outhouse for animals, grazing, harvest etc - some of these were thought to be on the edge of what is now Grange Park.

Precisely where the Priory itself lay is a little unclear and I have not had the time to sit down and examine archaeological reports for the area, but I have always been under the impression that much/most was on the now Camden side.

However the gem I recently discovered were the actual remains of the priory.

Just down Coventry Close opposite the Bell Inn, are the actual physical remains of the well (below left) and massive lumps of the priory - the story has always been that the priory was poor (financially) and yet looking at the surviving chunks of masonry you realise the massive scale of the building. Sure, it may have had low disposable income (to use modern jargon) but the resources to build it were not spared! I reckon these pics are pretty incredible and don't seem very widely known or recognised.

The Priory, of course, came to an end with the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII - an audit in 1535, full closure in 1536 and demolition soon after. many of the buildings will have survived and been used for other alternatives - apparently part survived until 1790 when it was finally taken down and the stone re-used.

I suspect that the remains we can see today are from the church/prioriy itself rather than the residential parts - i.e. demolished at the time of the dissolution which is why they lay unoticed until the construction of the current estate in the 1950's.

So enjoy one of the little seen and unknown treasures of Kilburn Priory - still visible, still massive and impressive - what else it there out there - I suspect much much more...