Tarrant Abbey

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Tarrant Abbey
Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, St Mary's Church - geograph.org.uk - 76622.jpg
St Mary's Church
Dorset UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Dorset
Monastery information
Full nameThe abbey of St Mary and All Saints
Order Cistercian
Established1186
Disestablished1539
People
Founder(s)Ralph de Kahaines
Important associated figures Queen Joan, Bishop Richard Poore
Architecture
Heritage designationScheduled Monument 1002715 - ruins
Grade I listed building 1110840 - church
Designated date26 June 1963
Site
Location Tarrant Crawford, Dorset
Coordinates 50°49′53″N2°07′20″W / 50.831431°N 2.122276°W / 50.831431; -2.122276

Tarrant Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, England. [1]

Contents

History

The abbey was founded as an independent monastery in 1186 by Ralph de Kahaines (of nearby Tarrant Keyneston) and has been identified as a possible site of "Camestrum", referred to by Gervase of Canterbury. [2] The abbey was then re-founded in either 1228 or 1233 as a Cistercian nunnery, later supposedly the richest in England.[ citation needed ]

Two famous people are associated with the abbey. The first is Queen Joan, the wife of Alexander II of Scotland and daughter of King John of England, who is buried in the graveyard (supposedly in a golden coffin). [3] The second is Bishop Richard Poore, builder of Salisbury Cathedral, who was baptised in the abbey church and later (in 1237) buried in it, as its second founder. [4]

The church of St Mary the Virgin, the parish church of Tarrant Crawford, is all that remains of Tarrant Abbey. [5] [6] It was the lay church of the abbey and was built in the 12th century. It has now been designated as a Grade I listed building [7] and is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. [8] The site of the abbey is a Scheduled monument containing mostly buried remains. [2]

Known Abbesses of Tarrant Abbey

References

  1. Anthony Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume 3, Southern England (Cambridge University Press, 2006) page 596
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Site of Tarrant Abbey (1002715)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  3. "Tarrant Crawford, St Mary's Church". Britain Express. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  4. "A Visit to Tarrant Crawford Church". Britain Express. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  5. Saint Marys Church, Tarrant Crawford, Dorset.
  6. Diocese of Salisbury: All Schemes, Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2011, p. 10, retrieved 31 March 2011.
  7. "Church of St Mary". historicengland.org.uk. English Heritage . Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  8. "St Mary the Virgin, Tarrant Crawford". Churches Conservation Trust . Retrieved 18 October 2010.[ permanent dead link ]
  9. Chart. R. 24 Hen. III, m. 3.
  10. Sarum Epis. Reg. Simon of Ghent, i, fol. 33.
  11. Cal. of Pap. Letters, iii, 407.
  12. Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. 1, m. 31.
  13. 3 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 17 d.
  14. 5 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 29d.
  15. en. VIII, ix, 236.
  16. 'House of Cistercian nuns: The abbey of Tarrant Kaines', A History of the County of Dorset: Volume 2 (1908), .ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40146 page 87.
  17. Deeds of Surrender, No. 233