An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
St Benet's Abbey, also known as St Benet's at Holme or St Benet Hulme, was a medieval monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict situated at Cow Holm in Horning, Norfolk, England. It lay on the River Bure within the Broads. St Benet is a medieval English version of the name of St Benedict of Nursia, hailed as the founder of western monasticism. At the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries the abbey's possessions were in effect seized by the crown and assigned to the diocese of Norwich. Though the monastery was supposed to continue as a community, within a few years at least the monks had dispersed. Today there remain only ruins.
Jervaulx Abbey in East Witton in North Yorkshire, 14 mi (23 km) north-west of the city of Ripon, was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, England, dedicated to St Mary in 1156. It is a Grade I listed building.
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Lord of Lewes, Seigneur de Varennes, was a Norman nobleman created Earl of Surrey under William II Rufus. He is among the few known from documents to have fought under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. At the time of Domesday Book in 1086 he held extensive lands in 13 counties, including the Rape of Lewes, a tract now divided between the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex.
Hugh, sometimes called Hugh the Great or Hugh of Semur, was the Abbot of Cluny from 1049 until his death. He was one of the most influential leaders of the monastic orders from the Middle Ages.
Gundred or Gundreda was the Flemish-born wife of an early Norman baron, William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. She and her husband established Lewes Priory in Sussex.
Cluny Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.
Bermondsey Abbey was an English Benedictine monastery. Although generally regarded as having been founded in the 11th century, it had a precursor mentioned in the early 8th century. It was centred on what is now Bermondsey Square, the site of Bermondsey Market, Bermondsey, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast London, England.
Sawley Abbey was an abbey of Cistercian monks in the village of Sawley, Lancashire, in England. Created as a daughter-house of Newminster Abbey, it existed from 1149 until its dissolution in 1536, during the reign of King Henry VIII.
Castle Acre is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated on the River Nar some 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the town of Swaffham. It is 15 miles (24 km) east of the town of King's Lynn, 33 miles (53 km) west of the city of Norwich, and 103 miles (166 km) from London.
Castle Acre Castle and town walls are a set of ruined medieval defences built in the village of Castle Acre, Norfolk. The castle was built soon after the Norman Conquest by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, at the intersection of the River Nar and the Peddars Way. William constructed a motte-and-bailey castle during the 1070s, protected by large earthwork ramparts, with a large country house in the centre of the motte. Soon after, a small community of Cluniac monks were given the castle's chapel in the outer bailey; under William, the second earl, the order was given land and estates to establish Castle Acre Priory alongside the castle. A deer park was created nearby for hunting.
Thetford Priory is a Cluniac monastic house in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Founded in 1103 by Roger Bigod of Norfolk, Thetford was one of the most important monasteries of East Anglia.
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
In the Middle Ages, from the 11th century, the Cluniac order established a number of religious houses in England, Wales, and Scotland.
Dudley Priory is a dissolved priory in Dudley, West Midlands, England. The ruins of the priory are located within Priory Park, alongside the Priory Estate, and is both a scheduled monument and Grade I listed. The ruins received this status on 14 September 1949.
Holy Sepulchre Church was a medieval monastic house in Thetford, Norfolk. The ruined nave of this 14th-century church are the only surviving remains in England of a priory of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who followed the Rule of Saint Augustine and aided pilgrims to Christ's tomb. It was later used as a barn, and is a Grade I listed building.
Reginald de Warenne was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and royal official. The third son of an earl, Reginald began his career as an administrator of his brother's estates and continued to manage them for his brother's successor, William, the second son of King Stephen. Reginald was involved in the process that led to the peaceful ascension of Henry fitzEmpress to the throne of England in 1154 and served the new king as a royal justice afterwards. He played a minor role in the Becket controversy in 1170, as a member of the party that met Becket on his return to England from exile in 1170.
The Warenne family is an English noble family founded by William de Warenne, who was created Earl of Surrey by William II Rufus in 1088. The family originated in Normandy and, as Earls, held land there and throughout England. William de Warenne was a cousin to William the Conqueror and was among his companions at the Battle of Hastings.
When the senior male-line ended in the mid-12th century, the two branches descended from their heiress adopted the Warenne surname, split the title and continued separately as Earls of Surrey and Earls of Warenne respectively. Several junior lines also held land or prominent offices in England and Normandy.
Sussex in the High Middle Ages includes the history of Sussex from the Norman Conquest in 1066 until the death of John, King of England, considered by some to be the last of the Angevin kings of England, in 1216. It was during the Norman period that Sussex achieved its greatest importance in comparison with other English counties. Throughout the High Middle Ages, Sussex was on the main route between England and Normandy, and the lands of the Anglo-Norman nobility in what is now western France. The growth in Sussex's population, the importance of its ports and the increased colonisation of the Weald were all part of changes as significant to Sussex as those brought by the neolithic period, by the Romans and the Saxons. Sussex also experienced the most radical and thorough reorganisation of land in England, as the Normans divided the county into five tracts of lands called rapes. Although Sussex may have been divided into rapes earlier in its history, under the Normans they were clearly administrative and fiscal units. Before the Norman Conquest Sussex had the greatest concentration of lands belonging to the family of Earl Godwin. To protect against rebellion or invasion, the scattered Saxon estates in Sussex were consolidated into the rapes as part of William the Conqueror's 'Channel march'.
Slevesholm Priory was a Cluniac priory in the civil parish of Methwold, Norfolk, England, that was dedicated to St. Mary and St. Giles. A cell of the Castle Acre Priory, Slevesholm Priory was either granted by William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey between 1222-6 or established during the reign of king Stephen (1135–1154), and dissolved in 1537 during the dissolution of the monasteries. There are no extant remains of the priory; Historic England undertook field research in 1976 and remarked: "There are no physical remains of this [priory] at the formerly published site which is now under plough; farm workers questioned had no knowledge of early finds or foundations. [There is] impression of early quarrying [while] no recognisable pattern is evident and there is no surface trace of building material."
