Burton Abbey at Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, England, was founded in the 7th or 9th century by St Modwen or Modwenna. It was refounded in 1003 as a Benedictine abbey by the thegn Wulfric Spott. He was known to have been buried in the abbey cloister in 1010, alongside the grave of his wife.
Burton Abbey was mentioned in the Domesday book when it was said to control lands in Mickleover, Appleby Magna in Leicestershire, Winshill and Stapenhill in Staffordshire, Coton in the Elms, Caldwell and Ticknall. [2] [3] The abbey itself was neither large nor wealthy and in 1310 its monks claimed it to be the smallest and poorest Benedictine monastery in England. It suffered frequent financial troubles throughout its existence, often due to mismanagement and outright criminal behaviour, although the situation seems to have been resolved by the 16th century.
In the 13th to 14th centuries there were around thirty monks in residence. This had fallen to almost half that number by the 1520s. Despite this, the monastery was nevertheless the most important in Staffordshire and by the 1530s had the highest revenue. The abbot was both a secular lord and, "exercised an independent spiritual jurisdiction. He was a figure of some standing, regularly serving on papal and royal commissions and acting as a collector of clerical taxes within the diocese." At various times between 1295 and 1322, the abbot was summoned to attend the Parliament of England, and again in 1532. It is also known that there were frequent Royal visits to the abbey, including those by William I, Henry II and Edward I.
The Abbey's annals are an important source for thirteenth century political history, and the Abbey's major intellectual achievement. [4]
The abbey was dissolved in 1539, to be refounded in 1541 as a college for a dean (who had been the last abbot) and four prebendaries. It was again dissolved in 1545 and granted to Sir William Paget.
Parts of the abbey church were retained for parish use, however these were demolished and replaced by a new church, St Modwen's in 1719-28. Some fragments remain of the chapter house nearby but little of the rest remains either.
Two buildings were converted to residential use - a part known as the Manor House, and the former infirmary. The infirmary became known as The Abbey, and is now an Inn.
In around 1712 George Hayne opened the River Trent Navigation and leased the grounds of Burton Abbey to construct a wharf and other buildings in the precinct. This led to the development of Burton as the major town for brewing and exporting beer.
In 1967, contractors working on extensions to Burton Technical College uncovered two underground vaults which were thought to have been used as wine cellars. The larger of the two chambers was later used to house a student union disco aptly named The Vault [5]
Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, England. It was founded about AD 969 and dissolved in 1539.
Croxden Abbey, also known as "Abbey of the Vale of St. Mary at Croxden", was a Cistercian abbey at Croxden, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. A daughter house of the abbey in Aunay-sur-Odon, Normandy, the abbey was founded by Bertram III de Verdun of Alton Castle, Staffordshire, in the 12th century. The abbey was dissolved in 1538.
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The demonym for residents of the town is Burtonian. Burton is located 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Derby, 27 miles (43 km) north-west of Leicester, 28 miles (45 km) west-south-west of Nottingham and 20 miles (32 km) south of the southern entrance to the Peak District National Park.
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Shrewsbury is an ancient foundation in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England.
Abbotsbury Abbey, dedicated to Saint Peter, was a Benedictine monastery in the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. The abbey was founded in the 11th century by King Cnut's thegn Orc and his wife Tola, who handsomely endowed the monastery with lands in the area. The abbey prospered and became a local centre of power, controlling eight manor houses and villages. During the later Middle Ages, the abbey suffered much misfortune. In the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, the last abbot surrendered the abbey and the site became the property of Sir Giles Strangways.
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It adjoins Cheshire to the north west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south east, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The historic county of Staffordshire includes Wolverhampton, Walsall, and West Bromwich, these three being removed for administrative purposes in 1974 to the new West Midlands authority. The resulting administrative area of Staffordshire has a narrow southwards protrusion that runs west of West Midlands to the border of Worcestershire. The city of Stoke-on-Trent was removed from the admin area in the 1990s to form a unitary authority, but is still part of Staffordshire for ceremonial and traditional purposes.
Muchelney Abbey is an English Heritage property in the village of Muchelney in the Somerset Levels, England. The site consists of ruined walls showing the layout of the abbey buildings constructed from the 7th to 16th centuries, and the remaining intact Abbot's House. It is next to the parish church in which some of the fabric of the abbey has been reused.
Cerne Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 987 in the town now called Cerne Abbas, Dorset, by Æthelmær the Stout.
Dieulacres Abbey was a Cistercian monastery established by Ranulf, Earl of Chester at Poulton in Cheshire. It moved to the present site at Abbey Green near Leek, Staffordshire in 1214, possibly in part as a result from raids at the former site by the Welsh.
Abbey Hulton is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, named after the abbey that existed between the 13th and 16th centuries.
Modwenna, or Modwen, was a nun and saint in England, who founded Burton Abbey in Staffordshire in the 7th century.
St Modwen's is a Church of England parish church situated in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is part of the Diocese of Lichfield. The church is dedicated to St Modwen, or Modwenna, a nun who founded an abbey at Burton in the 7th century.
Wulfric, called Wulfric Spot or Spott, was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman. His will is an important document from the reign of King Æthelred the Unready. Wulfric was a patron of the Burton Abbey, around which the modern town of Burton on Trent later grew up, and may have refounded the Benedictine monastery there.
The Abbot of Burton was the head of Burton Abbey, the Benedictine monastery of St Mary and St Modwenna at Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Allegedly the church was begun by a wandering Irish holy woman, but it was actually founded c. 1003 as a Benedictine abbey by Wulfric Spott. A continuous series of abbots, which slight possible interruptions, can be traced thereafter until the English Reformation.
Lapley Priory was a priory in Staffordshire, England. Founded at the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period, it was an alien priory, a satellite house of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Remi or Saint-Rémy at Reims in Northern France. After great fluctuations in fortune, resulting from changing relations between the rulers of England and France, it was finally dissolved in 1415 and its assets transferred to the collegiate church at Tong, Shropshire.
Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and suffered considerably from mismanagement. It was dissolved in 1525 at the behest of Cardinal Wolsey – more than a decade before the main Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
Rocester Abbey was a medieval monastic house at Rocester, Staffordshire, England of which there is now no trace above ground level.
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.
Monks Bridge is a road bridge across the River Dove between Stretton, Staffordshire, and Egginton, Derbyshire. A bridge has existed here since the early 13th century, though much of the current structure dates to the 15th century. It formerly carried traffic on what is now the A38 road but a replacement structure was built to the north in 1926. It was formerly used as a slip road but is now out of use to vehicular traffic.
Coordinates: 52°48′02″N1°37′45″W / 52.8005°N 1.6291°W
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