the mid-1700s when Frazer Honeywood, a London banker, built a neo-gothic mansion and repaired the remaining medieval fabric. In 1892, the property was purchased by Charlotte Boyd whose life's work it was to create a trust to restore church property to its original use. She invited a small Anglican Benedictine community, the Community of Saints Mary and Scholastica, to settle at the abbey. This community had been founded by Fr Ignatius of Llanthony Abbey (Joseph Leycester Lyne) but had become independent of his rule in 1879, with Mother Hilda Stewart OSB as their abbess – the first Anglican Benedictine abbess since the English Reformation. This community left Malling Abbey in 1911, joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1913 and now resides at Curzon Park Abbey, Chester. Present The Anglican Benedictine community of nuns that has made its home at Malling Abbey since 1916 was founded in 1891 as an active parish sisterhood. The sisters worked among the poor in Edmonton, north London, until they became attracted to the Benedictine contemplative life through the preaching of Abbot Aelred Carlyle. In 1906, they moved to a farmhouse in Baltonsborough, a remote village in Somerset, to begin their enclosed monastic life under Benedictine vows. They were originally called the "Community of the Holy Comforter". In 1916, the trustees of Malling Abbey invited them to move to the more spacious and historic abbey and to continue its tradition of Benedictine prayer, worship, work, study and hospitality. St Augustine's College of Theology, a non-residential theological college, has been located at St Benedict's Centre at the Abbey since 2016. Buildings Little of the original building is now standing; the tower is Norman up to the first two storeys and Early English above. Attached to the tower are some remnants of the church, one of the transepts and a wall of the nave; the refectory is also standing. The cloisters were re-erected in the 14th century. There is also a Grade II* 1966 abbey church which is used by the community built by architects Maguire & Murray. Sources Malling Abbey Archives: for a collation of extant information and publications of the Vita Gundulfi and general histories. The National Archives: for Royal Grants and the 1538 Deed of Surrender. Kent Archives Office: for information about the Abbey's relationship to the Bishops and Diocese of Rochester, and local history. See also List of monastic houses in Kent List of