User:Vejlefjord/GreatGate - draft

On the night of 31 May 1942, a German air-raid so badly damaged the college that it could no longer operate and the few remaining students moved away. The air-raid spread shards of glass across the campus. Canon W. F. France, the last Warden of the Missionary College, spent his days picking up the glass shards. France knew that if the shards were ground in, the soil would be forever contaminated by them.

The Fyndon's Gate entrance to the college exemplied the damage: it had to be rebuilt. The rebuilt gate faces a small square known since the reign of Charles I as Lady Wootton's Green.” Statues of Æthelberht of Kent and Queen Bertha stand on the green.