Priory Cottages, Steventon

Last updated July 04, 2022

Priory Cottages (formerly Steventon Priory) is a 14th-century manor house and former monastic grange which had the status of a priory at Steventon in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire).

King Henry I gave the manor of Steventon to the priory of Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle in Rouen, a cell of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. It therefore became a cell of Bec and was given the status of a priory. However, a priory church and associated buildings were never built there. It always remained just a monastic grange, the building now called Priory Cottages, served by one or two monks. By the late 14th century, it was leased out to tenants. Later it belonged to Westminster Abbey.

The building is constructed around a central courtyard and its mighty hammer-beam is of architectural interest. It is also said to have a priest’s bolthole in the chimney.^[1]

In 1939 the cottages were endowed to the National Trust by a group of women philanthropists called Ferguson’s Gang.^[2] Ferguson’s Gang kept their identities secret and attracted publicity for the National Trust by delivering funds in spectacular ways. In July 1939 they invaded the National Trust’s AGM with what was reported to be ‘A Benificent Bomb’ but which was in fact a metal pineapple containing £100, which was their second down-payment for Priory Cottages. The five women of Ferguson’s Gang intended to use the cottages as their own living space but their plans were thwarted by the start of World War II, and the cottages are now tenanted privately.^[1]

The public can visit the cottages by written appointment with the tenant.

Related Research Articles

St Neots Priory was a Benedictine monastery beside the town of St Neots in the historic county of Huntingdonshire, now a non-metropolitan district in the English county of Cambridgeshire.

Shalford Mill is an 18th-century Grade II* listed watermill located on the River Tillingbourne in Shalford, near Guildford, Surrey, England. In 1932, the mill was endowed to the National Trust by a group of eccentric young female philanthropists called Ferguson's Gang.

Ferguson's Gang, formed during a picnic at Tothill Fields in London in 1927, was an anonymous and somewhat enigmatic group that raised funds for the National Trust during the period from 1930 until 1947.

Steventon is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 1,485.

Ince Manor or Ince Grange is a former monastic grange in the village of Ince in Cheshire, England. The remains of the manor house, consisting of the old hall and the monastery cottages, are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and a scheduled monument It is one of only two surviving monastic manorial buildings in Cheshire, the other being Saighton Grange Gatehouse.

Goldcliff Priory was a Benedictine monastery in Goldcliff, Newport, South Wales, founded in 1113 by Robert de Chandos and subject to the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. The priory was situated on the site now occupied by Hill Farm, to the south of the current farmhouse, on the prominent knoll of high ground next to the sea. As late as the 1950s Hando remarked that outlines of buildings which were probably part of the priory could still be seen in grass patterns or crop marks at certain times of the year. By the 1970s the only remaining physical remnant of the priory was to be found as part of a cellar in the farm house.

Sidmouth Priory was a priory in Devon, England.

Blakenham Priory was an estate in monastic ownership in the late Middle Ages, located at Great Blakenham in Suffolk, England.

Avebury Priory was an alien house of Benedictine monks in Wiltshire, England, between the early 12th century and the Dissolution.

John Eric Miers Macgregor FRIBA FSA OBE, was a conservation architect with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He was appointed an OBE in 1964 and the Esher Award in 1974 for his contribution to the repair of historic buildings.

Tittesworth is a civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands, in Staffordshire, England. It extends from the edge of the town of Leek in the south-west to Blackshaw Moor in the north-east. In the east is the village of Thorncliffe. To the west is the civil parish of Leekfrith, where the boundary is the River Churnet.To the east is the civil parish of Onecote. Tittesworth Brook runs westwards through the area from Thorncliffe, and flows into the Churnet.

Stoke-by-Clare Priory was a Benedictine monastery in Stoke-by-Clare, in Suffolk, an alien priory, dependent on Bec Abbey, in Normandy. Reinstituted in 1124, the Priory was suppressed in 1415.

References

1 2 Bagnall, Polly; Beck, Sally (2015). Ferguson's Gang: The Remarkable Story of the National Trust Gangsters. Pavilion Books. ISBN 978-1-909-88171-6.
↑ Bagnall, Polly (2012). Ferguson: Exhibition Catalogue.

Coordinates: 51°37′08″N1°19′42″W / 51.618896°N 1.32823°W / 51.618896; -1.32823 (Steventon Priory)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:0-1] 1 2 Bagnall, Polly; Beck, Sally (2015). Ferguson's Gang: The Remarkable Story of the National Trust Gangsters. Pavilion Books. ISBN 978-1-909-88171-6.

[2] Bagnall, Polly (2012). Ferguson: Exhibition Catalogue.

[1]

[2]