Polsloe Priory, also known as St Katherine's Priory, [1] was a Benedictine priory for women (a nunnery) in Devon, England. It was founded in around 1159 on land to the east of Exeter, on a site that is now part of the city's suburb of Polsloe. [2] At the time it was the only religious house for women in Devon, [3] but two others were founded later: at Cornworthy and Canonsleigh Abbey. [4] The first prioress of whom any record survives was Avelina in 1218. [5] Amongst the holdings of the priory was the Church of St Mary, Marston Magna in Somerset. [6]
In common with most other Catholic institutions, it was dissolved by Henry VIII, in 1539, [2] even though it had paid a fine of £400 for exemption from the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535. [7] At dissolution it had 14 nuns, including the prioress and subprioress. [8]
Most of the buildings have been demolished, but one remains, built of the local red sandstone and believed to date from around 1320. [2] English Heritage have designated it a Grade II* listed building. [1] As of 2016 it is used by the local community association for occasional events, having passed from private to City Council hands in 1934. [2]
Sopwell Priory was a Benedictine nunnery founded around 1140 on the site of an ancient hermitage in Sopwell, Hertfordshire, England. After the Dissolution, the priory was torn down and a Tudor manor house constructed in its place.
Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. The Abbey was surrendered in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and St Rumon, was destroyed by Danish raiders in 997 and rebuilt under Lyfing, the second abbot. The church was further rebuilt in 1285 and the greater part of the abbey between 1457 and 1458.
Wonford is a former village, manor and ecclesiastical parish in Devon, England, now a part of the City of Exeter. The 13th century St Loye's Chapel situated within the parish now gives its name to the surrounding location. Wonford is situated next to the former parish of Heavitree, now both covered by the suburbs of Exeter.
Amesbury Priory was a Benedictine monastery at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, belonging to the Order of Fontevraud. It was founded in 1177 to replace the earlier Amesbury Abbey, a Saxon foundation established about the year 979. The Anglo-Norman Amesbury Priory was disbanded at the Dissolution of the monasteries and ceased to exist as a monastic house in 1539.
Tristram Risdon was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of Survey of the County of Devon. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated around interested people in several manuscript copies for almost 80 years before it was first published by Edmund Curll in a very inferior form. A full version was not published until 1811. Risdon also collected information about genealogy and heraldry in a note-book; this was edited and published in 1897.
The Benedictine Priory of St Nicholas or just St Nicholas Priory was a Benedictine monastery founded in Exeter, England, in 1087. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church and chapter house range were pulled down but the domestic buildings were left intact. Parts of the north and west ranges of the monastery survive with the west range now being a museum owned by Exeter Historic Buildings Trust.
Markyate Priory was a Benedictine priory in Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1145 and disestablished in 1537.
St Mary Magdalen Nunnery was a priory of Augustinian canonesses in Kingsdown, Bristol, England. It was founded c. 1173 and dissolved in 1536. St Mary Magdalen is remembered in the name of Maudlin Street; the nunnery was located near to the corner of Maudlin Street and St Michael's Hill, which was later the site of the King David Inn.
Various monasteries and other religious houses have existed at various times during the Middle Ages in the city of Exeter, Devon, England.
Kirklees Priory was a Cistercian nunnery whose site is in the present-day Kirklees Park, Clifton near Brighouse, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It was originally in the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Dewsbury. The priory dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St James was founded by Reiner le Fleming, Lord of the manor of Wath upon Dearne, in 1155 during the reign of Henry II.
Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.
From AD 1066, the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large feudal barony with its caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon, England. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed in the Middle Ages. In 1236 it comprised 56 knight's fees or individual member manors. The feudal service owed for half the barony in 1274 was the provision to the royal army of two knights or four sergeants for forty days per annum, later commuted to scutage.
Polsloe is a suburb of the city of Exeter in Devon, England. It lies to the east of the city centre and is served by Polsloe Bridge railway station.
Sir Thomas Denys of Holcombe Burnell, near Exeter, Devon, was a prominent lawyer who served as Sheriff of Devon nine times between 1507/8 to 1553/4 and as MP for Devon. He acquired large estates in Devon at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Monkleigh is a village, parish and former manor in north Devon, England. It is situated 2.5 miles (4.0 km) miles north-west of Great Torrington and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-east of Bideford. It forms part of the Monkleigh and Littleham electoral ward. The population at the 2011 census was 1,488.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Exeter, Devon, England.
Sybil Montagu or Montague or de Montague or Montacute was a daughter of John de Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu and his wife Margaret de Monthermer. At an unknown date she entered Amesbury Priory and became a nun, then in 1391 was elected the monastery's prioress. Her vigorous government led to a few stormy years in the monastery, in the period when the conflict between Richard II and his eventual successor Henry IV came to a head. She weathered that and later storms and died as prioress in 1420.
The Littlemore Priory scandals took place between 1517 and 1518. They involved accusations of sexual immorality and sometimes brutal violence among the Benedictine nuns and their prioress at St Nicholas' Priory in Littlemore, in Oxfordshire, England. The priory was very small and poor, and had a history of troubled relations with its bishops, dating back to the mid-1400s. The scandal that came to light in 1517, however, became enough of a cause célèbre to contribute to the priory's eventual suppression in 1525. Katherine Wells, the prioress of Littlemore at that time, ran the priory with strict and often violent discipline. She was accused of regularly putting nuns in the stocks for extended periods, as well as physically assaulting them. She also had a baby by the priory's chaplain and had pawned the priory's jewels to pay for the child's upbringing. She entertained men in her parlour, even after the bishop had been made aware of the accusations, which involved heavy drinking. At least one other nun also had a child. On one occasion a number of the nuns broke out of the priory through a window and escaped into the surrounding villages for some weeks.
Walter Gervais of the City of Exeter in Devon, England, was a wealthy merchant who served several times as Mayor of Exeter and who founded the Old Exe Bridge on the west side of the City crossing the River Exe. He is one of Prince's Worthies of Devon.