Ansty Preceptory was a medieval monastic house in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England, founded by the

Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

History

A manor at Ansty was granted to the Knights Hospitallers by Walter De Turberville in 1210–1211. At that time Ansty would have been one of only a handful of places where the holy observances were still celebrated, since the Knights Hospitallers, who answered directly to Rome, were excluded from

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...

's interdict (1208–1214). The Hospitallers founded a

preceptory A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition. Buddhist monastic orders Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...

in the parish. By 1275 they had property in

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

, and they later had lands in the adjacent parish of Swallowcliffe, undertaking in 1333 to provide a chaplain for the church there. Little is known of the later history of the preceptory. In 1540–1541, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the properties were granted to John Zouche. Queen Mary after her accession in 1553 restored the order in England and returned all its property, including that of the preceptory of Ansty; however, it was suppressed during the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

Legacy

The remains of the preceptory and fishpond are in the grounds of Manor Farm, Ansty. Pevsner suggests that the 16th-century Manor House (formerly Manor Farmhouse) has traces of the main building. The preceptory's 16th-century guest house, at the roadside near the church, survived until 1927 when it was damaged in a fire; it is now used as a workshop. The William Salt Library, Stafford, holds an 1817 watercolour of the building by John Buckler titled 'Monastic Remains at Ansty'.

References

Monasteries in Wiltshire Preceptories of the Knights Hospitaller in England 10th-century religious buildings and structures 10th-century establishments in England {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub