St Mary's Church, Reculver, was founded in the 7th century as either a
minster or a
monastery on the site of a
Roman fort at
Reculver, which was then at the north-eastern extremity of
Kent in south-eastern England. In 669, the site of the fort was given for this purpose by King
Ecgberht of Kent to a priest named Bassa, beginning a connection with Kentish kings that led to King
Eadberht II of Kent being buried there in the 760s, and the church becoming very wealthy by the beginning of the 9th century. From the early 9th century to the 10th the church was treated as essentially a piece of property, with ownership passing between kings of
Mercia and
Wessex and the
archbishops of Canterbury.
Viking attacks may have extinguished the church's religious community in the 9th century, although an early 11th-century record indicates that the church was then in the hands of a
dean accompanied by
monks. By the time of
Domesday Book, completed in 1086, St Mary's was serving as a
parish church.