Tag: religious sites

Castle Acre Priory is a jewel of medieval architecture in Norfolk. It tells the story of power and piety of the Norman elite following the conquest of England in 1066.

The story of the priory begins in the early 1070s with William de Warenne, who was a Norman knight who fought alongside William I at the Battle of Hastings.

His reward for his loyalty was lands in Lewes in Sussex and Consibrough in Yorkshire.

William had already founded the first Cluniac monastery in Lewes, the main seat of his family. Having already built a castle at Acre in Norfolk, between 1081 and 1085 he brought a small number of monks from Lewes there and began work on a priory within the walls of his castle.

William died in 1088, and the following year his son William II de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey, granted the monks a new site within what was the castle grounds as the original site proved to be too small and inconvenient for the monks.

The construction of the priory was slow. It was 57 years before the church was consecrated, and a further 20 years before the west end was completed.

Over the next two centuries, the priory continued to receive endowments from the de Warennes. The last of which was made by the sixth earl in 1315.

Like many priories in England that were founded by the Cluniac and other French orders, Castle Acre suffered from restrictions and punitive taxation during the wars with France in the late 13th and 14th centuries.

The end came, as with approximately 800 other monasteries built in England over the previous almost thousand years, from Henry VIII’s Suppression of the Monasteries in the late 1530s.

Much of the church was immediately demolished. The site and surrounding lands were leased to John Howard in 1558. Around this time the monastic buildings were also being dismantled. Only the prior’s lodging was saved – it remained in use as a house well into the 17th century.

The site is maintained by English Heritage. If you visit, make sure you also visit Castle Acre Castle, less than a mile away in the village which took its name.

The story of Thetford Priory starts in the early 12th century, when a Norman knight, Roger Bigod, who was involved in the conquest of Britain, founded the priory under the umbrella of Cluny Abbey in France.

The priory sits on level ground on the banks of the Little Ouse river, just outside what would have been the extent of the town at the time.

From the mid-13th century the priory church housed a statue of the Blessed Virgin which was believed to work miracles, and as such it became a popular object of pilgrimage.

This made the Priory extremely rich, and enabled it to expand and rebuild parts of the church at an even greater scale.

An impressive new gatehouse was also built in the 14th century.

You might think that a place of solitude and contemplation would be the last place you would witness a murder. However, in 1248 a notorious and lecherous prior of Thetford called Stephen was stabbed during a quarrel with one of his monks. He died just outside the great west door of the church.

On the death of the last Roger Bigod in 1306, the family’s Norfolk estates passed to the Crown and then to the Dukes of Norfolk.

As with other abbeys and priories in the 16th century, Thetford was threatened with dissolution.

In 1536, the staunchly Catholic 3rd Duke of Norfolk petitioned Henry VIII to convert it into a college of secular canons. His claim was that he was preparing for not only his tomb, but that of Henry’s own illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, to be installed in the priory church.

A formal complaint was also raised by the Mayors and burgesses of Thetford to Thomas Cromwell in 1539, arguing that many of the town’s inhabitants would fall into extreme poverty because their livelihoods depended on pilgrims visiting the priory. 

Both petitions failed, and the last prior and 16 monks surrendered to the king’s commissioners on 16 February 1540.

The Priory was left to ruin, all apart from the Priors’ Lodging which continued to be occupied as a house for another 200 years, with further alterations being made to it – which can be seen in the variety of different window designs within the structure.

By 1820 this too was in ruins.

Thetford Priory is maintained by English Heritage, and is free to visit. There is a very small car park in Water Lane (probably only enough for 3-4 cars) – we were lucky enough to get a space on our visit, but had planned to use the car park in the town, which is only a few minutes walk away.

You can find information on visiting and directions from the English Heritage website.

Please do watch our video below for a quick tour of the ruins!

Just outside the town of Richmond in North Yorkshire sits Easby Abbey, a wonderfully preserved (in places!) Premonstratensian monastery.

The abbey of St Agatha was founded in about 1152 by Roald, who was the constable of nearby Richmond. It was a Premonstratensian monastery, only the third such house to be founded in England.

Roald granted a modest new endowment of land to Easby, in addition to the assets of the existing minster community. Easby’s endowment rose slowly over the centuries.

The abbey owned flocks of sheep from a very early stage, and sheep farming seems to have been one of its main means of support.

For more on the history of Easby Abbey, please watch our video tour, at the top of this page.

When visiting Easby Abbey there is a small car park on site, but only room for around ten vehicles. Alternatively, you could try a pleasant 30 minute walk from The Station at Richmond.

The site is managed by English Heritage, and it is free to enter. It would make a great day of exploring combining the Abbey with a visit to the imposing Richmond Castle.

Visitor details from English Heritage are here.