The Gatehouse website record for Dartford Palace

In the civil parish of Dartford. In the historic county of Kent (Modern Authority of Kent, 1974 county of Kent).

Dominican Nunnery founded 1349, dissolved 1539, refounded 1558 until 1559. Dartford Priory stood on the site of Hall's Engineering Works. It was founded by Edward III about 1349 in the buildings of a former royal palace. New buildings had been erected by 1356. The priory was suppressed in 1538 and the buildings converted into a royal house which was at first occupied by Henry VIII, then granted to Anne of Cleves by Edward VI, later used by Queen Elizabeth but alienated by James I. The principal remains of this house consist of the Gatehouse which was built by Henry VIII between 1541 and 1545. It was reoccupied by the nuns between 1557-8. It was subsequently used as a farmhouse until taken over by Hall's Works. Six friars were attached to the nunnery in 1356, and the prior and friars are recorded in 1373. Three friars were documented there in 1535. The remains, all now within Hall's Works, include the Tudor gatehouse incorporated in the Royal manor house circa 1543, and the precinct wall remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TQ540746

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 411240
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is TQ 57 SW 126; MKE25549 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.