Swineshead Abbey
Encyclopedia
Swineshead Abbey was an abbey in Swineshead
, Lincolnshire
, England
.
The Abbey of St Mary, a Cistercian monastery
, was founded in 1134 by Robert de Gresley. Gresley and his son, Albert, endowed the Abbey with 240 acres of land and other gifts. The Abbey was originally Savigniac and populated with monks from Furness Abbey, but was absorbed into the Cistercian order along with all the other Savigniac Houses in 1147. In 1170 the Abbot of Swineshead was reprimanded for owning villages, churches and serfs. King John
spent a short time in the Abbey after losing his baggage in the fens, and just before his death in 1216. It was dissolved in 1536 with the first Act Of Suppression, its last Abbot being John Haddingham.
The first documented reuse of the site dating from 1607 when a farmhouse, Abbey House, was built out of the abbey ruins by Sir John Lockton. The Abbey House is a Grade II listed building.
The abbey occupied a slightly raised area in the marshland 1km north east of Swineshead. In the raised area in the north-eastern part of the monument, partly overlain by Abbey House, are the buried remains of the abbey's inner court where the church, cloister and dorter would have been located. Adjacent to the west is another raised area where the remains of the outer court are located; these would include stables, barns and other agricultural and service buildings, together with the principal gatehouse of the abbey. The foundations of stone walls and fragments of medieval artefacts have been located in the outer court.
Swineshead
Swineshead may refer to:* Richard Swineshead , an English mathematician, logician, and natural philosopher.* Swineshead, Bedfordshire * Swineshead, LincolnshireSwineshead may refer to:...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The Abbey of St Mary, a Cistercian monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
, was founded in 1134 by Robert de Gresley. Gresley and his son, Albert, endowed the Abbey with 240 acres of land and other gifts. The Abbey was originally Savigniac and populated with monks from Furness Abbey, but was absorbed into the Cistercian order along with all the other Savigniac Houses in 1147. In 1170 the Abbot of Swineshead was reprimanded for owning villages, churches and serfs. King John
King John
The Life and Death of King John, a history play by William Shakespeare, dramatises the reign of John, King of England , son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Henry III of England...
spent a short time in the Abbey after losing his baggage in the fens, and just before his death in 1216. It was dissolved in 1536 with the first Act Of Suppression, its last Abbot being John Haddingham.
The first documented reuse of the site dating from 1607 when a farmhouse, Abbey House, was built out of the abbey ruins by Sir John Lockton. The Abbey House is a Grade II listed building.
The abbey occupied a slightly raised area in the marshland 1km north east of Swineshead. In the raised area in the north-eastern part of the monument, partly overlain by Abbey House, are the buried remains of the abbey's inner court where the church, cloister and dorter would have been located. Adjacent to the west is another raised area where the remains of the outer court are located; these would include stables, barns and other agricultural and service buildings, together with the principal gatehouse of the abbey. The foundations of stone walls and fragments of medieval artefacts have been located in the outer court.