Bayham Old Abbey is an

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

property, located near

Lamberhurst Lamberhurst ( is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish contains the hamlets of The Down and Hook Green. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 1,491, increasing to 1,706 at the 2011 Census. ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. Founded c. 1208 through a combination of the failing

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...

monasteries of

Otham Otham () is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone, Maidstone district of Kent, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 523, with 204 dwellings. Buildings The village itself has been in existence sin ...

and

Brockley Brockley is a district and an wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham south-east of Charing Cross. It has been named the best area of London to live in. It is an area rich in Vi ...

, Bayham functioned as an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

until its dissolution in the 16th century. The ruins were partially modified in the late 18th century, to provide a better landscape feature during landscaping of the new Bayham Abbey mansion park, and were donated to the state in 1961.

Location

Bayham Abbey lies within the valley of the

River Teise The River Teise ( , ) is a tributary of the River Medway in Kent, England. Course The source of the Teise is in Dunorlan Park in Tunbridge Wells. From there the river flows eastwards past Bayham Abbey and then through Lamberhurst. downstream ...

. Premonstratensian canons often preferred secluded areas for their monasteries, and Bayham was such a location. The river provided a water supply and adequate drainage. As Bayham was founded through the conjunction of two abbeys with different mother houses – Sulby having founded Brockley and perhaps Durford being the mother house of Otham –

Prémontré Abbey Prémontré Abbey was the mother house of the Premonstratensian Order and was located at Prémontré about twelve miles west of Laon, ''département'' of Aisne, France. History It was founded by Saint Norbert of Xanten in 1120 on waste land tha ...

became the mother church of Bayham Abbey, which then assumed the prestige proper to a daughter of Prémontré.

The Abbey today

The abbey ruins are currently maintained by English Heritage. They largely consist of partial walls, though the room layouts can still be seen, and there remain many examples of ornate capitals and other carved stonework; including stone frameworks from the three giant windows comprising the nave. The quality of the work is particularly fine for a late thirteenth-century Premonstratensian abbey. The abbey is sited on the Kent/

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

border and is presumed to have had an entrance in each county. The ruins of a gatehouse, known as the Kentish gate, is situated nearby on the grounds. No trace has been found of the corresponding Sussex gate. Other buildings, normally associated with abbeys, such as stables and barns, are yet to be located.

Abbey history

Bayham Abbey was founded c. 1208 by the merger of two monasteries,

(Sussex) and

(Kent), under the authority of Robert of Thurnham. The former abbey had been founded c. 1180 by Ralph de Dene, a Norman landowner, who endowed the abbey in conjunction with his son Robert de Dene, and especially his daughter Ela de Dene, wife, first, of Jordan de Sackville, and, second, of William de Marci. Over the years, the Sackville family became primary supporters of Otham and, for generations, chose the site for their family burials. Other benefactors of the abbey included members of the Brade family, whose name derived from the Broad estate in

Hellingly Hellingly ( ) is a village, and can also refer to a civil parish, and to a district ward, in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. Geography Hellingly contains the confluence of the River Cuckmere and one of its tributaries, the Bull ...

, East Sussex (some family members added “de Helling” to their surnames). The abbey was built from local sandstone in the first half of the 13th century by Premonstratensian canons. By the 15th century the original design had been enlarged with new

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

s, though the original transepts are still visible within the structure. The Abbey was home to Premonstratensian canons regular: that is to say they followed the life ascribed to

St Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

, keeping the Augustinian rule in its purity. The abbey was suppressed by

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( ; – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling f ...

in 1525 in his attempt to gain funding for two of his new colleges which led to a riot and occupation by local villagers, before falling into the hands of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

in 1538. Once Bayham was under the King's control, it was leased to

Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, Order of the Bath, KB, Privy Council of England, PC (29 November 1528 – 19 October 1592) was an English peerage of England, peer during the Tudor period. He was a staunch Roman Catholic, but unswervingly l ...

, until

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen B ...

sold the estate outright. Following various changes in ownership, Bayham was finally sold to Sir John Pratt in 1714, and remained in that family until 1961, when it was donated to English Heritage. A brief archaeological survey was published in ''Journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology'' 10 (1966:181-182). The Camden family, descended from the Pratts, built the

Dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish estate (house), estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house fr ...

(otherwise known as Bayham Old Abbey House), on the estate as the old residence. The new grounds were landscaped by

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great designer of the classic phase of the English landscape garden, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. His style is thought of as the precursor of the more intric ...

, who included within his plans the old abbey, which

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (18 January 1733 – 14 April 1794)''The Gentleman's Magazine'', 1794, p399 was an 18th-century Swiss landscape artist who worked in oils (until 1764), watercolours, and pen and ink media. Grimm specialised in documenti ...

had sketched about 1785, emphasising the grand scale and picturesque character of its ivy-clad walls. Some modifications were made to the abbey during this time, memorialised in one of Repton's most complete "Red Books", with the inscription "Application of Gardening and Architecture united, in the formation of a new place".Garden Visit guide: Bayham Abbey
; the ruins wer
engraved for Amsink's ''Tunbridge Wells'', 1809
In 1872, the Camden family moved to the other side of the Teise valley, into the newly built Bayham Abbey House. The abbey remains as a picturesque landscape feature, and has been used for family infant burials.

Notes

References

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External links