Old Buckenham Priory was an Augustinian priory built on the site of
Old Buckenham Castle at
Old Buckenham
Old Buckenham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, approximately south-west of Norwich.
It covers an area of and had a population of 1,294 in 658 households at the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census falling to a ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
.
The priory was founded circa 1146 by
William de Albini and his wife
Queen Adeliza (widow of
King Henry I). The foundation charter endowed the priory with the site of the
old Buckenham castle and the rectories of All Saints and St. Andrews in the manor of Buckenham. The priory was dedicated to St Mary, St James, and All Saints, and the canons were to follow the rule of the order of
St Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
.
Following further donations of land and other benefactions the abbey, by 1291, held property in 42 Norfolk parishes. The fraternity consisted of the prior and between eight and ten canons, supported by a number of temporal staff. The priory was suppressed in 1537 as part of the
Dissolution of the Monasteries carried out under
King Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
. Following the closure Sir Edmund Knevett, of Buckenham Castle, was granted a lease of the priory lands. The site is now part of Abbey Farm.
All that remains above ground of the priory itself is a single lump of mortared flint.
Burials
*
Warin de Munchensy and wife Agnes FitzPayn
References
*
Monasteries in Norfolk
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