December
1265-Present. Burnham Abbey, Burnham, Buckinghamshire, UK—Founded by Richard, the 1st
Earl of Cornwall & Brother of King Edward III; 10 Nuns Left When Dissolved 19 Sept
1539; Granted to William Tyldesly,
1544; Transferred to Anglican
Augustinian Society of Precious Blood, 1916; 26 miles due west of London.
Burnham Abbey
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Burnham Abbey, the chapel on the right
Burnham Abbey
It was originally founded as a
house of Augustinian nuns by Richard, 1st
Earl of Cornwall. The Medieval community consisted of around twenty nuns at the outset, but
was never especially wealthy and by the time of the dissolution in 1539 there
were only ten.
Contents
History
The Abbey was founded in
1265/6 by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, styled King of the
Romans,[1] the brother of King Edward
III. Richard endowed it with several
manors, including the manor of Burnham, and 'land appurtenant to the manor of Cippenhamwith a mill, fishery and other rights'. [2] The Abbey was situated about a half mile from
Burnham.[3] A complaint was made shortly after the foundation
that Richard had diverted a watercourse to the abbey that had been used by a
nearby village and that he also had given 20 acres (81,000 m2)
of common land to the monastery. It is unknown as to whether this issue was
resolved.
Ruins of Burnham Abbey from The New British Traveller (1819)
In 1311 a nun, Margery of
Hedsor, left the monastery and her vows and was subsequently excommunicated. This sentence was renewed periodically for some
years until it was cancelled by the Bishop for reasons unknown. A serious legal
dispute occurred in 1330. This was concerning the ownership of the manor ofBulstrode, which had been granted to the abbey but was
claimed by a Geoffrey de Bulstrode, who in protest proceeded to vandalise the
property and harass the servants of the abbess. Eventually a commission found
in favour of the abbey but by then, substantial losses had been accrued.
Being of little wealth,
Burnham Abbey should have been closed in the first wave of the dissolution in 1536, but a petition by local commissioners
delayed its end to 1539. The document of surrender, dated 19 September 1539,
was signed byAlice Baldwin, as Abbess, and the nine remaining nuns. At the
dissolution, the Abbey’s revenues were valued at £51 2s 4-1/2d.[3] Baldwin was granted a small pension[4] and appears to have spent her remaining years at
Aylesbury at the home of her father, Sir John
Baldwin.[5]
After the surrender it was
leased to William Tyldesley and his death, it passed through his widow to Paul Wentworth. The church was demolished in about 1570 and a
house formed from much of the remaining buildings. By 1719, it was a farm with
some of the buildings such as the refectory having become ruinous. In 1913 it
was purchased by James Lawrence Bissley, an architect and surveyor, who
restored the remaining buildings and converted the original chapter house into a chapel.
In 1916 James Bissley sold the
property to the Society of
the Precious Blood, a community of Anglican Augustinian nuns, who took possession and began to restore and
extend the abbey for their use.[6]
Buildings
The Abbey is a Grade I
listed building[7] and the associated walls and structures are Grade
II. The Chapter House, Sacristy, and parts of Frater and Infirmary remain of the Medieval convent.
References
1. Jump up^ 'Parishes: Burnham with Lower Boveney', A History of the County of
Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 165-184 Retrieved 12 May 2013.
2. Jump up^ 'House of Austin nuns: The abbey of Burnham', A History of the County of
Buckingham: Volume 1 (1905), pp. 382-384 Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- 'House of Austin nuns: The abbey of Burnham', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 1 (1905), pp. 382–84.
- Anthony New; A Guide to the Abbeys of England And Wales, p88-90. Constable.
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