🌾 Tithe Barn, Sturry

The Tithe Barn, Sturry, Kent, England is a barn dating from the early 16th century. The barn was built as the tithe barn for the grange of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. At the Dissolution of the monasteries, the grange came into the ownership of Thomas Smythe who converted some of the buildings into a country house, Sturry Court. The barn continued in use for agricultural storage. In the early 20th century, Sturry Court was the country home of Alfred Milner who renamed it Milner Court. On his death in 1925, his widow, Violet, gifted the estate to The King's School, Canterbury which operated a preparatory school on the site. The school was opened by Rudyard Kipling, a friend of the Milners, in 1929. The site is now the Junior School for The King's School and the tithe barn has been restored and repurposed as a performing arts centre. "Sturry's most memorable building", the tithe barn is a Grade I listed structure.