Cirencester Abbey was 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 ...
, dedicated to St Mary, in
Cirencester
Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...
,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
. It was founded as an
Augustinian monastery in 1117 on the site of an earlier church, the oldest-known Saxon church in England, which had itself been built on the site of a Roman structure. The church was greatly enlarged in the 14th century with addition of an
ambulatory
The ambulatory ( 'walking place') is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th century but by the 13t ...
to the east end. The abbot became
mitred 1416. The monastery was
suppressed in 1539 and presented to Roger Bassinge.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the abbey fostered the successful writers
Robert of Cricklade
Robert of Cricklade (–1174 × 1179) was a medieval English writer and prior of St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. He was a native of Cricklade and taught before becoming a cleric. He wrote several theological works as well as a lost biography ...
and
Alexander Neckam. They were supported in their work by other canons, including
Walter of Mileto and Alexander's nephew
Geoffrey Brito.
Burials
*
Regenbald
*
Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey and wife Joan Stafford (daughter of
Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford)
Post dissolution
A house called
Abbey House was built on the site in the late 16th century, remodelled in the 1780s, and then demolished in 1964 to be replaced by a block of flats. The area that contained the nucleus of the monastery is now a public park, and only the Norman Arch, an original gateway to the abbey, and parts of the precinct wall remain above ground.
The impressive and substantial three-storey porch of the parish church was built as an administrative building of the abbey and after 1539 the upper levels were used for some time as the town hall.
Bibliography
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Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, Vol.2, 1907, pp.79-84, The Abbey of Cirencester* New, Anthony. ''A Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales''. London: Constable. pp. 113–114.
* Platt, Colin. ''The Travellers Guide to Medieval England''. London: Secker & Warburg. pp. 110–112.
References
{{authority control
Monasteries in Gloucestershire
Augustinian monasteries in England
Christian monasteries established in the 1110s
Cirencester
1117 establishments in England
1539 disestablishments in England
Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation