Item 9 - Mr J G Kenyon to Bishop Riddell: Permission for a domestic chapel, longer term build a church

1843: born
1889: Inherited Gillingham estate
1914: died

John George Kenyon, a convert to Catholicism, inherited Gillingham Hall in 1889. On February 10th he wrote to Bishop Riddell stating his wish to have a “domestic chapel” for Mass and reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in his house – a large room would be easy to convert to this end. In due course he wanted to build a small permanent chapel. Dom Guy acted as the go-between and aided Mr Kenyon to realise his wishes.
Kenyon purchased the land in Beccles on which now stands St Benet’s Minster, St Benet’s School, the school playing fields, the hall and the presbytery bungalow. The buildings now on the site (except the Minster itself) were gradually constructed with the money given by John Kenyon, and the site was vested in Downside. The original intention was to establish a small Benedictine community (with four or five monks) in Beccles.
Private family worship for the Kenyons took place in their own small chapel inside Gillingham Hall, nearby. Eventually he built Our Lady of Perpetual Succour as a Chapel of Ease to allow Catholic families in the village of Gillingham, many of whom worked on his estate, to worship regularly without travelling to Beccles.
John Kenyon also bought a house in Grange Road, Beccles (near St Benets) for use by Dominican nuns, who staffed the school built by him.