Creake Abbey is a ruined

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 ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, situated alongside the River Burn and a mile to the north of the village of

North Creake North Creake is a village and civil parish in the north west of the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 414 in 184 households at the 2001 census, reducing to 386 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of loca ...

. The abbey church was dedicated to

Saint Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

. The ruins are Grade I listed, and form part of a Scheduled Monument site.

History

The site was originally occupied by an

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

for the poor, and was founded by the

Augustinians Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

as a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

in the 12th century. Voluntary grants of alms by the leading families of Nerford and Creake and by the faithful of the neighbourhood seem to have built up resources sufficiently to warrant elevation from Hospital to Priory and thence to Abbey, which happened in 1231. Henry III made a number of grants to Creake in its early years. Gifts of parish churches included Hapton and

Wreningham Wreningham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some south east of Wymondham and south west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of 6.24 square kilometres and in 2001 had a population of 493 in ...

Gateley Gateley is a village and civil parish in the Breckland district of the English county of Norfolk. Gateley is located north of the town of Dereham and north-west of the city of Norwich, along the course of the River Wensum. History Gatele ...

and St Martin at Quarles and later in 1365 of St Andrew, Great Ringstead. The heyday of the Abbey was during the fourteenth century when there were but six canons, though the Rule required in addition to the abbot, prior and cellarer, a cantor, sacrist and kitchener, refectorian, infirmarian, almoner, master of novices and guest master. According to AL Bedingfield, these posts may have been filled in rotation or plurality. There will have been junior canons and, from time to time, novices. There would finally be numerous servants, tailors, laundresses and their assistants, the messor (harvest reaper), shepherds and cowherds for the farm, as well as residents of the hospital. Unlike some of the abbeys in the region, it was still fulfilling its hospital function as late as 1397. In 1483, a fire swept through the abbey, damaging the church and several of the other buildings, such that it was beyond the capacity of the convent to restore it. The abbot appealed to the king as patron of the house, and

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

, 'moved with pite' gave the abbey by way of alms towards the rebuilding of the handsome sum of £46 13s.4d., to be paid out the revenues of the lordship of

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north-west of Norwich. The town is at the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to N ...

. Robert Walsingham, appointed abbot in 1491, began extensive rebuilding of the quire and presbytery, and Sir

William Calthorpe Sir William Calthorpe {{post-nominals, country=GBR, KB (30 January 1410 – 15 November 1494) was an English knight and Lord of the Manors of Burnham Thorpe and Ludham in Norfolk. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, ...

left £74 towards the completion of the work. By 1503 the work was well advanced and lands given by Walter Aslake were used for the completion of the north side of the quire. By this time the abbot was Giles Sherington. However, in 1506 an outbreak of the '

sweating sickness Sweating sickness, also known as the sweats, English sweating sickness, English sweat or ''sudor anglicus'' in Latin, was a mysterious and contagious disease that struck England and later continental Europe in a series of epidemics beginning i ...

' wiped out the monastic community, the abbot himself being the last to die. The abbey site and estate was given to

Lady Margaret Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort ( ; 31 May 1443 – 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late 15th century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first House of Tudor, Tudor monarch. She was also a second cousin o ...

in 1507, and ended up in the ownership of Christ's College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Ruins

A few sections of the church walls remain standing, and demonstrate their traditional Norfolk flintwork. There are some remaining carved details in the window arches and doorways. However, little else survives apart from foundations. The site is now in the care of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

, and freely accessible to the public. The abbey ruins are

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

listed, originally listed as St Mary's Abbey. Four bays of the 6-bay chancel survive to roof height. There were some restorations in 1864 by RM Phipson, Chief Architect of the

Diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church of England, forming part of the Province of Canterbury in England. Its origins trace back to the early medieval bishopric of See of Elmham, Elmham and Thetford, which were ...

. They form part of a wider heritage site, which is a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

. Within that wider site there are two further Grade I listings: the mixed mediaeval-19th-century farmhouse called Creake Abbey Farmhouse (but which was originally itself listed as Creake Abbey) and the garden walls between the abbey ruins and Creake Abbey Farmhouse. There is a separate commercial enterprise, adjacent to the abbey ruins and Creake Abbey Farmhouse, which is called Creake Abbey. This is a café and farm shop, and hosts a farmers' market on the first Saturday of each month.

References

* The Heritage Trail (1998–2005).
Creake Abbey
'. Retrieved October 21, 2005.

External links

The Abbey of Creake
-

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

a
British History OnlineCreake Abbey
- the abbey a
PastScape.org

Abbey Farmhouse
- includes remains of the abbey's domestic buildings, a
PastScape.org

Visitor information and research: English Heritage
{{Authority control Augustinian monasteries in England English Heritage sites in Norfolk Ruins in Norfolk Monasteries in Norfolk 1231 establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 1230s 1500s disestablishments in England Scheduled monuments in Norfolk

History

Ruins

References

Further reading

External links