Chacombe Priory (or Chalcombe Priory) was a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

of Augustinian canons at Chacombe,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England. Hugh of Chalcombe, lord of the manor of Chacombe, founded the priory in the reign of Henry II (1154–89). on low-lying land just west of the village close to the stream. Hugh gave the priory endowments including a

yardland The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...

at South Newington. In about 1225 the priory's property included eight

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

s in Banbury, seven of which it retained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. By the time of the

Hundred Rolls The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are named after the hundreds by which most returns were recorded. Th ...

in 1279 the priory owned a tenement in

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and W ...

, where it expanded its holdings until it owned a substantial number of tenements and cottages by the time of the Dissolution. On 27 September 1535 Sir

John Tregonwell Sir John Tregonwell (died 1565) was an Cornish jurist, a principal agent of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1524 to 1536.C.S. Gilbert, ''An Historica ...

reported to

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the kin ...

''At Chacombe the prior is newly come, and is competently well learned in Holy Scripture. He is bringing into some order his canons, who are rude and unlearned. I am only afraid that he is too familiar and easy with them.''

When the priory was suppressed in 1536 its property included land at Boddington, Northamptonshire, Rotherby, Leicestershire and

Wardington Wardington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Banbury. The village consists of two parts: Wardington and Upper Wardington. The village is on a stream that rises in Upper Wardington and flows north to join the Rive ...

, Oxfordshire, and a tenement at

Thorpe Mandeville Thorpe Mandeville is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England about northeast of Banbury in neighbouring Oxfordshire. The hamlet of Lower Thorpe is just north of the village. The village's name means 'Outlying farm/settle ...

. Today the only visible remains of the priory are a small chapel apparently built in the 13th century and a set of mediaeval fishponds. However, at least three medieval stone coffin slabs, including one from the 13th century, have been found in the priory grounds. Part of the priory site is now occupied by a house, also called Chacombe Priory. The house has a large

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personif ...

porch and a late 17th-century staircase, and was remodelled in the Georgian era. The house is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

Burials at the Priory

Nicholas de Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave Nicholas Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave (also Seagrave; c. 1238 – bef. 12 November 1295) was an English baronial leader. Nicholas was grandson of Stephen de Segrave. Segrave was one of the most prominent baronial leaders during the reign of King H ...

and his wife Maud *

John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave ( 1256 – 1325) was an English commander in the First War of Scottish Independence. Segrave commanded the English in the battles of Roslin and Happrew. He also was involved with the execution of William Walla ...

*Stephen de Segrave, 3rd Baron Segrave (d. 1325)

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * 12th-century establishments in England 1536 disestablishments in England Augustinian monasteries in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Monasteries in Northamptonshire {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub