Sandwell Priory

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.

Foundation and dedication

The founder of Sandwell Priory was William, son of Guy de Offeni. Guy is known to have held West Bromwich around 1140 and was still alive in 1155. William was in charge by 1166 and was succeeded by his son, Richard, by 1212, although he may have survived a little longer.

William Fitz Guy was a principal tenant of Gervase de Paynel or Pagnell, who held the lordship of Dudley, his grandfather having married Beatrice, daughter of William Fitz-Ansculf the great territorial magnate who held much of the Midlands after the Norman Conquest. The promotion of monasticism was evidently a shared interest of lord and tenants. When Gervase founded Dudley Priory around the middle of the 12th century as a daughter house to Wenlock Priory, Guy de Offeni, his wife Christiana and son William donated to it the church at Wombourne for the salvation of their own souls.

It seems that a hermitage''Monasticon Anglicanum'', p. 475.
/ref> stood at the site, next to the well which gives the place its name, for some time before the priory itself was established. However, it was William who firmly established a monastery there: a house of Benedictine monks dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The foundation date is generally given as 1190, although it could have been at least ten years earlier. Gervase's confirmation of William's grants is the main surviving evidence of the foundation and original endowments of Sandwell Priory.

Endowments

William gave the monks land at the hermitage by the Sandwell to build a monastery – a clear indication of an earlier religious use for the site. The Victoria County History chapter on the priory seems to suggest that William also gave them his share of the church and a house at Ellesborough in Buckinghamshire, although quoting a provision to the effect that it belonged to the barony of Dudley. The relevant volume on Buckinghamshire confirms that the advowson was a grant from Gervase de Paynel, subscribing to William's project as William had subscribed to his.

There were other examples of monasteries replacing earlier hermitages – notably Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire, founded by the powerful FitzAlan family, also in the 12th century. However, William's family were only fairly minor landowners and, although he gave generously from what he had, the priory was not well-endowed at the outset. He was able donate some of his own tenants at West Bromwich. He also gave various geographically-defined resources, not all of them now recognisable. There was ''Wavera'' in Handsworth – perhaps a water feature like a pond or weir; an assart or patch of farmland taken from the royal forest, called ''Ruworth''; ''Duddesrudding''; an area of land between ''Petulf Greene'' and the main road, apparently adjacent to the donation at Handsworth; a ''puteum'' – generally a well but possibly a pit - at West Bromwich; a watermill at ''Grete'' - by Greets Green, the other side of West Bromwich. William also granted the monks tithes of his own household's production – their breadmaking, hunting, mills, bread, ale, and ''ferculorum'' – of the very platters of food cooked in his kitchens table.; and wood for burning and building. A very valuable grant to the monks was pasture in all seasons and for whatever animals they wished in the manor of West Bromwich. The most important endowment was the block of land on the eastern side of West Bromwich parish, along the boundary with Handsworth, which formed the kernel of the priory's estates. The monks exercised manorial jurisdiction over the estates, with the right to hold a manorial court like other landowners.

The endowments of the priory grew piecemeal over the years and successive priors fought legal battles to maintain its rights and privileges. There were major contests between the priors and the Parles family of Handsworth in the 13th century - initially over land but later over advowson of the church at Handsworth, which the priory claimed it shared with Lenton Priory, near Nottingham.Collections for a History of Staffordshire, Volume 4, p. 77.
/ref> The net result of the compromises reached was that the priory lost any share of the advowson but gained a messuage (a house with its adjoining land) worth a mark or 13s. 4d. a year in Birmingham and rent of 20s. A year from a mill in Hamstead, on the River Tame. Another long-running but more intermittent struggle confirmed the priory's advowson at Ellesborough against the challenges of local landowners. Around 1230 Worcester Priory, the Benedictine chapter of Worcester Cathedral, farmed to Sandwell the church at West Bromwich in perpetuity. Sandwell thus took the revenues of the church but agreed to pay 6 marks, i.e. £4, annually to Worcester and to meet all the costs of the church. As with other monasteries, the constitutional crisis of Edward I's reign brought financial difficulties. In 1296 the king seized the temporalities of houses in response to the bull ''Clericis laicos'' and retained them until a subsidy of one fifth had been paid. A long list in a Close Roll of February 1297 records those restored on payment of the subsidy, including those belonging to the Prior of Sandwell, who had given the sum to the Sheriff of Staffordshire.

There was a further period of acquisitive activity in the second half of the 14th century, after the Black death had depressed land values. In 1365 Sandwell acquired property at Padbury in Buckinghamshire: a house and a virgate of land – nominally 30 acres. From 1388 there was an attempt to acquire the farm of Alberbury Priory in Shropshire. Alberbury was of the Grandmontine order, a dependency of the mother house in the Limousin, and so an alien priory subject to royal confiscation whenever there was war or even tension with France. It was available to farm at a rent of 20 marks but ultimately negotiations were fruitless. In 1398 the priory was able to appropriate its share of Ellesborough church, an acquisition which required authorisation from the Pope. This allowed to collect the tithes, so long as it made provision for a priest to serve the needs of the parish. The inevitable result was a gradual decline of provision and a decay of the church fabric while the priory used the funds for other purposes. At some point the priory acquired a fulling mill at Fazeley, which it leased out. By the time of its dissolution in 1525 the priory also had two watermills at West Bromwich, and lands in various places around the West Midlands, including Dudley, Tipton, Great Barr, Little Barr, Harborne, Coston Hackett, Wombourne, and Wednesbury.

The priory buildings

The priory buildings stood in a rectangular enclosure, with boundary ditches on at least three sides. Initially there were two wooden domestic buildings, adjoining a stone church, which later became the chancel as the nave was extended westwards from it. The wooden buildings were rebuilt in stone within a few decades and then partially rebuilt again a century later.

The church in its completed form was oriented to the east. It had a crossing, with north and south transepts. The chancel had an apsidal east end. The crossing was surmounted by a rectangular belfry. There were pairs of chapels to both north and south. In the 15th century the church was reduced in size – understandably in view of the small size of the community. A survey of 1526 measured the chancel at 41 feet long and 18 feet wide and the nave at 57 × 18 feet, so it was probably well over 100 feet or 30 metres at its largest.

The cloister and residential buildings stretched to the north of the church. Large, two-storey buildings surrounded the cloister, including the kitchens and stores. In addition to the main complex, there was a gatehouse with guardroom, a large barn 72 × 24 and a hayhouse, a kilnhouse, a stable, and a thatched watermill.

To the north of the buildings were at least two fishponds. The spring to the south was channelled to supply the priory with water for the kitchens and to flush the reredorter or latrine, and also to fill the ponds.

Sandwell - church from east.JPG, The priory church from the east.
Sandwell - cloister.JPG, The outline of the cloister.
Sandwell - north chapels.JPG, Remains of the north chapels.
Sandwell - north transept and sacristy.JPG, Remains of north transept with sacristy beyond.
Sandwell - presbytery.JPG, The presbytery or chancel, photographed from the west.
Sandwell - south chapels 02.JPG, Remains of the south chapels photographed from the chancel.
Sandwell - south transept and chapels.JPG, The south transept and south chapels.
Sandwell - tomb.JPG, Tomb in the chancel.

Conflict and disorder

Sandwell Priory seems to have had a turbulent history and to have lacked real vigour as a community. There were serious tensions within the priory, between the monks and lay people, and between the priory and other ecclesiastical institutions.

Parles disputes

The priory was soon involved in a series of disputes with the Parles family that lasted for several decades. In 1211 William de Parles sued the prior for 10 acres in Sandwell and in 1212 for 10 acres in Handsworth. The precise connection of the Parles family with Handsworth, to the south-east of the priory, is unclear. The manor had been part of William Fitz-Ansculf's huge holdings and would have passed via the Paynels to their successors, the de Somery family, as part of the lordship of Dudley. However, not until 1242 is there clear evidence that John de Parles held Handsworth from Roger de Somery as an under-tenant. It is possible that Pain de Parles acquired a foothold at Handsworth in the 12th century through his wife, Alice, but documentation is no longer extant. William de Parles claimed lands in Handsworth by right of Pain and Alice. The lay advocate of the priory was now Richard, son of the founder and grandson of Guy de Offeni. The prior called upon him to vindicate the priory's claim to the land. The result of the case is unknown. William de Parles seems to have adhered to the rebel side against King John in the First Barons' War. In 1216 his Handsworth lands were confiscated and granted to Robert de Teneray.Collections for a History of Staffordshire, Volume 1, p. 195.
/ref> In 1222 he gave up his claim to the Sandwell land in return for £5, given to him by the advocate, Richard. However, Richard died without issue shortly after and was succeeded by his brother, William, who survived for only two more years. In June 1224 William de Parles took advantage of a perceived weakness to claim half the advowson of the priory, alleging that it was he who had presented Prior Reynold during the reign of King John. William the advocate died before the case could be settled, leaving a young son, William, as heir. The case was adjourned sine die.

William de Parles himself was dead by 1227. In 1230 John de Parles claimed half the advowson of Handsworth from the priory, the other half remaining with Lenton Priory. The prior remitted his claim, and in return John gave the priory a house in Birmingham. The disputes with the Parles family abated for thirty years. However, in 1260 William de Parles and eleven of his men attacked the prior, who barely escaped with his life. The miscreants did not turn up for the court hearing. It seems that violence was for William a way of life and he was subsequently hanged for his crimes. An inquisition held at Wolverhampton in April 1280 uncovered his erratic property dealings and found that he had in his later years granted to the prior of Sandwell 20s. rent annually from his mill at Hamstead.

Indiscipline and decline

In 1324, the newly elected Richard de Eselberg sought to establish his authority with support from Roger Northburgh, a vigorous, reforming the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. Northburgh wrote to the monks personally, urging obedience to the prior and denouncing one of the community for wandering about in secular dress. About the same time, he excommunicated on behalf of the priory a group of laymen who had been removing or sequestering its property. In 1339 a letter from the Papal Curia in Avignon referred to Robert Ingheram, a monk of Sandwell, who had apparently left his order and wished to be reconciled.

However, priors were sometimes themselves in serious trouble. In 1341 the prior Richard le Warde intervened in a dispute at Tettenhall, where there was conflict over the status of the College of St Michael as a royal chapel. The dean had made an appointment in the regular way of Louis de Cherleton as prebendary of Codsall. It was then alleged that the Pope, with the support of other ecclesiastical authorities, was contesting the appointment and sought to impose a different candidate through papal provision. Edward III, forbade any further proceedings against Cherleton on 8 March 1341 and again on 10 May. On 10 October Prior Richard and his chaplain Edmund were included in a list of those planning to remove Cherleton in contravention of the king's earlier decrees. The arrest of all of them was ordered. They failed to appear before the King's Bench in Stafford and the Sheriff was ordered to attach the prior and arrest the others to appear in Hilary term

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