Coombe Abbey is a hotel which has been developed from a historic grade I listed building and former country house. It is located at Combe Fields in the Borough of Rugby, roughly midway between Coventry and Brinklow in the countryside of Warwickshire, England. The house's original grounds are now a country park known as Coombe Country Park and run by Coventry City Council.
During the 12th century, the building was known as the Abbey of Cumbe, and was the largest and most influential monastery in Warwickshire. [1] The land was given to the Cistercian monks by Richard de Camville, of Didleton Castle. They accepted the gift, and sent out an advance party of monks, who, living in temporary wooden buildings, began the building of a monastery dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Among these monks was one called Martin who was to be the first Abbot of the new House which opened in 1150. [2]
Numerous gifts of land were made to the monks during the four hundred years of their occupation and they owned land in many counties. In 1470 King Edward IV visited the Abbey. He was on his way from Leicester to Coventry, pursuing his enemy the Earl of Warwick in the Wars of the Roses and he rested awhile at Coombe. [3]
The monastery was well known for its generosity in distributing gifts to the poor. Every Maundy Thursday, money, ten quarters of rye bread, three quarters of malt beer and 300 herrings were given to the poor at the abbey gate.
The monks lost the Abbey in 1539 because of the dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII. Since then numerous alterations and additions have been made over the centuries. However, some of the cloisters have been preserved and can still be seen in the present building. [4]
After the Abbey had been seized in 1539 it was passed through numerous owners for the next forty years. In 1581 it came into the possession of Sir John Harington of Exton and he converted the abbey into one of the most substantial houses in the county. [5]
Harington was of Scottish descent, being a descendant of Robert Bruce. When James VI of Scotland became King of England, Harington used his ancestry to win favour. In 1603 James sent his daughter Princess Elizabeth to live at Coombe Abbey. The King issued a Privy Seal Order which declared "we have thought fit to commit the keeping and education of the Lady Elizabeth our daughter to Lord Harington and the Lady his wife". Elizabeth lived at the Abbey for the next five years. Her tutor and chaplain were Master John Tovey, the headmaster of the Free School at Coventry. Elizabeth's favourite childhood companion was Ann Dudley, a niece of Lord Harington, and with her, she formed a lasting friendship. [6]
In May 1604, the plague came to Coventry and Rugby, but Harington wrote to King James that Elizabeth was safe. [7] . Later in the year, the famous Gunpowder Plot was conceived. It was planned that King James and his two sons were to be killed, leaving Princess Elizabeth as Queen. Elizabeth was to be kidnapped and a Catholic Regent appointed to rule the country in her minority, during which time she was to be married to a Catholic and educated in Catholicism. To ensure that she was unguarded at Coombe Abbey a hunting match to which Harington was invited, was arranged by the Catholic gentry to take place on 6 November 1605 at Dunchurch, only a few miles from Coombe.
As the plotters marched to Coombe, Lord Harington received word of the rising that morning and had sent Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Holcroft into the walled city of Coventry. The Mayor and nine other citizens mounted guard, drawing bows, pikes and other weapons from the city armoury for this purpose. When the plotters arrived at Coombe they found Elizabeth gone and fled. Most of them were killed while trying to escape, but a few were captured and taken to London where they were executed. [8] On 14 February, Elizabeth married Frederick who later became King of Bohemia and she became the Queen.
John Harrington died in 1613 and after several changes of ownership, the Abbey was bought in 1622 by Lady Elizabeth Craven, widow of Sir William Craven, mayor of London who settled the property on her son. It remained in the Craven family for the next three hundred years. [9]
During the Craven ownership, the abbey was extensively developed, with various buildings added, such as the west wing in 1677. The first owner was the son of Lady Elizabeth Craven Lieutenant General William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven.
Lieutenant General William Craven (1608-1687) was a Royalist and at the age of 24 he enlisted to serve in the cause of restoring the King and Queen of Bohemia Frederick and Elizabeth (formerly Princess Elizabeth) to their throne in Germany. He spent most of his life in this cause and gained favour with her brother King Charles 1 and the subsequent Kings of England. [10]
In 1662, Elizabeth died and left William Craven her collection of Stuart Family paintings which included pictures by such masters as Rubens, Van Dyck and Honthorst. These pictures remained at Combe Abbey until the beginning of the present century. [11]
The Earl of Craven died unmarried in 1697 and was succeeded by his cousin's son as second Baron Craven. The Abbey was passed through successive generations until 1769 when it became the home of William Craven, 6th Baron Craven. In 1771 he commissioned the famous landscaper Capability Brown to modernise the landscaping around the property.
Brown was an expert at making serpentine lakes that looked like natural rivers. He dammed Smite Brook to create the main lake, Coombe Pool, and the smaller Top Pool. This sheet of water is 1.5 miles long, covers 90 acres and forms an L shape or ‘dog-leg’ that makes it appear endless. [12] He designed also seven other buildings on the estate with his son in law Henry Holland one of which was the boathouse which survives today. The menagerie in Coombe Park was also designed by Capability Brown. The hexagonal tower with a domed roof was inspired by King Louis XIV's Royal Menagerie at the Palace of Versailles. [13]
In 1825 William Craven, 2nd Earl of Craven succeeded to become the owner of Coombe Abbey. In 1860 he engaged William Eden Nesfield to carry out major alterations to the house at Combe. New servants quarters were built, the east wing and part of the north wing were demolished and rebuilt in a completely different style, and ornamental gardens were laid out including a moat. [14]
The last Earl of Craven to live in Coombe Abbey was William Craven, 4th Earl of Craven. When he died in 1921 his wife Cornelia Countess of Craven decided to sell the property. It was bought in 1923 by a builder named John Grey.
In November 1964 Coventry City Council bought Coombe Abbey with 150 acres (0.61 km2) of land. The park was opened to the public in 1966.
Coombe Abbey was used as the outside of the Mayor's house in the 2009 film Nativity! , starring Martin Freeman. It was also used for filming the pilot of The Wrong Funeral the feature comedy 4th Floor Of Singapore in 2013 and The Shimian in 2021.
Lancelot Brown, more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. He is remembered as "the last of the great English 18th-century artists to be accorded his due" and "England's greatest gardener".
Earl of Craven, in the County of York, is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Brinklow is a village and civil parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England. It is about halfway between Rugby and Coventry. The parish had a population of 1,120 at the 2021 Census.
Monks Kirby is a village and civil parish in north-eastern Warwickshire, England. The population of the parish is 445. Monks Kirby is located around one mile east of the Fosse Way, around 8 miles north-west of Rugby, seven miles north-east of Coventry and six miles west of Lutterworth. Administratively it forms part of the borough of Rugby. One of the largest and most important villages in this part of Warwickshire in the Anglo-Saxon and later medieval period, the village continued to be a local administrative centre into the early 20th century.
Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, the Bishop of Winchester.
William Craven, 2nd Baron Craven was an English nobleman.
Fulwar Craven, 4th Baron Craven was an English nobleman and sportsman.
William Craven, 5th Baron Craven was an English nobleman and Member of Parliament.
Combe Fields is a civil parish in the Rugby district, in the county of Warwickshire, England. The parish has no village, but contains Coombe Abbey, after which it is named, and a few isolated houses. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 114, increasing to 126 at the 2011 census, and 131 at the 2021 census.
William George Robert Craven, 4th Earl of Craven OBE, styled Viscount Uffington from 1868 to 1883, was a British peer and Liberal politician.
Major-General William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven was a British soldier.
Coombe Country Park is a country park located in Warwickshire, England. The park is only 4.5 miles east of Coventry city centre and is managed by Coventry City Council. The park has been developed from the grounds of an old Cistercian abbey, the buildings of which have now been converted into the Coombe Abbey hotel.
Coton House is a late 18th-century country house at Churchover, near Rugby, Warwickshire in England. It is a Grade II* listed building.
William Craven, 2nd Earl of Craven DL, styled Viscount Uffington until 1825, was a British peer.
John Harington, 2nd Baron Harington of Exton, of Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland was a young English peer and politician. He was the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland and Baron Harington of Exton.
Monks Kirby Priory was a Benedictine priory established in 1077 in Monks Kirby, Warwickshire, England. The priory was suppressed in 1415 when its estates and revenues were given to the Carthusian priory of Axholme in Lincolnshire, in whose possession they continued until the Reformation. Remains of the priory form part of Monks Kirby village church today.
St Mary's Priory and Cathedral was a Roman Catholic institution in Coventry, England, founded in the 12th century by transformation of the former monastery of St Mary, and destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the early 16th century. It was located on a site north of Holy Trinity and the former St Michael's parish churches in the centre of the city, on a site bordered by Priory Row to the south, Trinity Street to the west, and the River Sherbourne to the north. Excavated remains from the west end of the cathedral are open to the public.
There are 19 Grade I listed buildings in the City of Coventry. In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a building or structure of special historical or architectural importance. These buildings are legally protected from demolition, as well as from any extensions or alterations that would adversely affect the building's character or destroy historic features. Listed buildings in England and Wales are divided into three categories—Grade II buildings are buildings of special interest; Grade II* buildings are Grade II buildings of particular interest; and Grade I buildings, which are those of "exceptional" interest. Only around four per cent of listed buildings are given Grade I status.
Pipewell Hall in Northamptonshire, England, is a building of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built near the ruins of a Cistercian abbey in 1675. At this time it was owned by the Barons of Powis. The house was constructed from the stones of the abbey. The Hall was the home of many notable people over the next three centuries and is now a wedding venue.
Anne Keilway was an English courtier.
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