St. Faith's Priory, Horsham, otherwise Horsham St. Faith Priory, was a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery in Horsham St Faith,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England.

History

The monastery was founded at Kirkscroft in Horsford in 1105 by Robert Fitz-Walter and Sybil his wife, daughter and heiress of Ralph de Cheney, as a dependent priory of Conques Abbey in

Midi-Pyrénées Midi-Pyrénées (; oc, Miègjorn-Pirenèus or ; es, Mediodía-Pirineos) is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Occitania. It was the largest region of Metropolitan France by ar ...

, and, like the abbey, dedicated to

Saint Faith Saint Faith or Saint Faith of Conques (Latin: Sancta Fides; French: Sainte-Foy; Spanish: Santa Fe) is a saint who is said to have been a girl or young woman of Agen in Aquitaine. Her legend recounts how she was arrested during persecution of Chri ...

. It was thus an alien priory. The site in Horsford proved unsatisfactory, and the foundation moved to Horsham instead. The priory was endowed with income from an unusually high number of churches (23 in Norfolk, 14 in Suffolk, and one in London).British History Online: Victoria County History - 'Houses of Benedictine monks: The priory of St Faith, Horsham', in ''A History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 2'', ed. William Page (London, 1906), pp. 346–349
/ref> In 1390, the prior and the 8 monks that formed the then community were granted denization, and the priory from that time forwards was independent of Conques and regarded as an English house. For this reason it was not affected by the Act of 1414 that enabled

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1 ...

to confiscate the alien priories but survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536.

Description

The church and other buildings are no longer extant but the

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the Lat ...

(or frater) was converted into a house and survives as Abbey Farmhouse.Heritage Gateway: Historic England Research Records - St Faith's Priory
/ref>

History

Description

References

See also