Marham Abbey was situated in the village of

Marham Marham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, approximate away from King's Lynn. An RAF station, RAF Marham, is situated nearby at Upper Marham.Ordnance Survey (1999). ''OS Explorer Map 236 - King's Lynn, Downham Mar ...

, southeast of

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

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 ...

. It was founded by Isabel, Countess of Arundel, in 1249 as a monastery for

Cistercian nuns Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order of the Catholic Church. History The Cistercian Order was initially a male order. Cistercian female monasteries began to appear by 1125. The first Cistercian monastery ...

and dedicated to St Mary, St Barbara and St Edmund. Being of little wealth or status, in 1536 the monastery was in the first wave of closures during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was reportedly in considerable disarray, with the inhabitants accused of disreputable behaviour. The site was granted to Sir Nicholas and John Hare, residents of London. What little remains of the complex is on private land and consists of some stretches of walling of the church, visible from a nearby main road.

References

* Anthony New, ''A Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales'' (London: Constable, 1985), pp. 256–57. * Cistercian nunneries in England Monasteries in Norfolk 1249 establishments in England 1536 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 1240s {{Religious-struct-stub