Listed palace receives £300k grant for repairs

A medieval palace which has housed archbishops and hosted Henry VIII has received a £300,000 grant to help save and repair it.

Charing Palace, near Ashford, has been given the money to fund urgent repairs to the Grade I Listed Great Hall, which dates back to the 14th century.

The grant, from Historic England, will be used to repairs of roof timbers and fund a study to date the age of the timbers and better understand the building.

Katharine Maclean, project manager for The Spitalfields Trust who own the site, said she was "delighted" with the grant and "looks forward to the successful completion of the remainder of the project."

With parts of the site having roots dating back to the eighth century, Charing Palace provided accommodation for more than 50 Archbishops of Canterbury during the medieval period.

In 1520, Henry VIII stayed at the palace with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, while on his way to for the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between the Tudor king and King Francis I of .

Henry later acquired the site after the dissolution of the monasteries and it was later ed into private ownership.

A conservation project to save the site began in 2023.

Dan Cruickshank, architectural historian and chair of the trustees of The Spitalfields Trust, said: "The Archbishop's Palace at Charing in Kent is a marvellous architectural survival of intense historic interest embedded - in almost a secret manner - within one of the county's most attractive villages.

"The nation can boast few historic buildings comparable to the palace at Charing, and arguably none so bewitchingly beautiful, picturesque - and with such potential for careful repair, conservation and adaptation - all of which can give these ancient structures new lives."

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