Mystery
The Rood of Grace
Its eyes moved, until someone found the wires.
Private, don't visit
- What's there
- Ruins on private land; see from the lane only
- Legend from
- Pre-Reformation miracle cult; Lambarde (1570s)
- Tone
- Curious
Boxley's crucifix rolled its eyes at pilgrims, until Henry's men found the wires.
Boxley Abbey owned a famous crucifix called the Rood of Grace, which pilgrims believed could move its eyes and lips. Lambarde's story is that an English carpenter made it while a prisoner abroad, then tied it to a stray horse that wandered to Boxley and refused to leave, so the monks kept the figure as a miracle. In 1538 Henry VIII's commissioners claimed to have found hidden wires and rods that worked the face. The rood was shown off to crowds in Maidstone and London, then burned. The abbey ruins now stand on private land.