Ramsey Abbey was a
Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
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 ...
in
Ramsey,
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...
(now part of
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...
), England. It was founded about AD 969 and
dissolved in 1539.
The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now 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 ...
. Most of the abbey's buildings were demolished after the dissolution but surviving structures are
Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings.
Ramsey Abbey Gatehouse is in the care of the
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
and the
Church of St Thomas à Becket, Ramsey was one of the buildings of the abbey.
The Abbey
Ramsey Abbey was founded in 969 by
Oswald,
Bishop of Worcester
The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary (officer), head of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Worcester, Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the ...
on land donated by
Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia (Earl Ailwyn), where he had already built a wooden chapel for three monks. The foundation was part of the mid-10th-century
English Benedictine reform
The English Benedictine Reform or Monastic Reform of the Anglo-Saxon Christianity, English church in the late tenth century was a religious and intellectual movement in the later History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon period. In the mid-te ...
, in which
Ely and
Peterborough
Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...
were also refounded. Æthelwine gave the new foundation properties including an estate at nearby Bodsey and
Houghton Mill.
The Frankish scholar
Abbo of Fleury came to Ramsey at Oswald's invitation during the period 985–7, when his fortunes at
Fleury Abbey
Fleury Abbey (Floriacum) in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, France, founded in about 640, is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia. Its site on the banks of the ...
were at a low ebb. He wrote two surviving works for his students while he was there; the ''Passio S. Eadmundi'' and the ''questiones grammaticales''.

The important
Ramsey Psalter or Psalter of Oswald (
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
,
Harley MS 2904) is an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
illuminated
Illuminated may refer to:
* Illuminated (song), "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts
* Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house
* ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album)
* Illuminated manuscript
See also psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...
of the last quarter of the 10th century. Certain liturgical features have suggested that it was intended for use at Ramsey Abbey, or for the personal use of Ramsey's founder Oswald of Worcester. This is not to be confused with another Ramsey Psalter in the
Pierpont Morgan Library
The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...
, New York (MS M. 302), made between 1286 and 1316.
Æthelwine at the suggestion of
Oswald of Worcester
Oswald of Worcester (died 29 February 992) was Archbishop of York from 972 to his death in 992. He was of Danish ancestry, but brought up by his uncle, Oda of Canterbury, who sent him to France to the abbey of Fleury to become a monk. After a ...
founded a small hermitage for three hermits with a wooden chapel at a location indicated by the actions of a bull, on the island of Ramsey with impassible
fen
A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...
on three sides. Impressed by the story Oswald sent a prior,
Germanus and twelve monks from
Westbury-on-Trym
Westbury-on-Trym (sometimes written without hyphenation) is a suburb in the north of the City of Bristol, near the suburbs of Stoke Bishop, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury, in the southwest of England.
The place is partly na ...
to form the Abbey. Starting in 969, a large stone-built church was built over the next five years. Two towers stood up at the topmost points of the roofs, the smaller one at the front of the church towards the west, 'offered a beautiful sight from afar' to people coming to the island. The larger one, in the middle of a four-armed structure rested on four columns stabilised by connecting arches. This abbey building remained until a Norman abbot had a grander church built in the 12th century.
In 1143
Geoffrey de Mandeville expelled the monks, used the abbey as a fortress and considerably damaged the buildings. The abbey suffered for three centuries from disputes with the
bishops of Ely over the manors of
Chatteris and
Somersham. It paid 4,000 eels yearly to
Peterborough Abbey
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, and formerly known as Peterborough Abbey or St Peter's Abbey, is a cathedral in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. The seat of the Anglic ...
for access to its quarries of limestone at
Barnack.
In the order of precedence for abbots in Parliament, Ramsey was third after
Glastonbury
Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...
and
St Alban's.
The abbey was an international centre of Hebrew scholarship in the late Middle Ages. It prospered until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537. At the time of the Dissolution there were 34 monks.
In 1787 Mark Noble noted:
After the Dissolution
In 1540
the Crown
The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
sold the abbey lands to Sir
Richard Williams (alias Cromwell).
[ He used most of the abbey buildings as a source of stone for walls and cottages at hand, and to provide good Barnack stone for new buildings. He had part of the abbey gatehouse dismantled and re-erected at Hinchingbrooke House. Much stone was taken to Cambridge to build Gonville and Caius, King's and ]Trinity
The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...
colleges. Stone was taken for the tower for the parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Godmanchester
Godmanchester ( ) is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is separated from Huntingdon, to the north, by the valley of the River Great Ouse. Being on the Roman roads ...
. This included a doorway from the abbey that was dismantled and re-erected as the west doorway of St Mary's. As late as 1672 stone for a new tower for Ramsey's own parish church of St Thomas à Becket was also taken from the Abbey.
Around 1600 Sir Henry Williams (alias Cromwell) had a house built on the site of the abbey church. Six bays of the 13th-century Lady Chapel survive as the basement of the house.
In 1737 Coulson Fellowes, later MP for Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...
, bought the house. It passed down through several generations of the family. In 1804–06 William Henry Fellowes had the abbey house enlarged to designs by Sir John Soane
Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor ...
. In 1889 his son Edward Fellowes was created 1st Baron de Ramsey
Baron de Ramsey, of Ramsey Abbey in the County of Huntingdon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1887 for Edward Fellowes, who had previously represented Huntingdonshire in the House of Commons as a Conservative fo ...
. In 1931 at the coming of age of John Ailwyn Fellowes, 4th Baron de Ramsey the family moved its seat to Abbots Ripton
Abbots Ripton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Abbots Ripton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being an historic county of England. Abbots Ripton lies a ...
Hall. In 1937 the Fellowes leased the building for 99 years to Ramsey Abbey School. In 1952 Major The Hon. Henry Rogers Broughton gave the gatehouse to the National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
in memory of his late wife The Hon. Diana Broughton ().
Surviving buildings and artefacts
Ramsey Abbey House, the Gatehouse, and the parish church of St Thomas à Becket all survive, along with part of the abbey's medieval precinct wall.
Ramsey Abbey House, the former 17th-century home of Sir Henry Cromwell and latterly the seat of the Fellowes family, is currently part of Abbey College, Ramsey. The Bodsey monastic grange
Monastic granges were outlying landholdings held by Monastery, monasteries independent of the Manorialism, manorial system. The first granges were owned by the Cistercians, and other orders followed. Wealthy monastic houses had many granges, mo ...
survives as the Grade-I listed Bodsey House.
The Abbey Gatehouse is a National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
property. This is believed to be an inner gatehouse, the main outer gatehouse was removed by Sir Henry Williams (alias Cromwell), the son and heir of Sir Richard, to form the main gateway to Hinchingbrooke House in Huntingdon, his newly built winter residence. Today what remains of the gatehouse also forms a part of the Abbey College.
The Church of St Thomas à Becket, Ramsey was built in about 1180 or 1190 as either the '' hospitium'' or the infirmary of the abbey. It was originally an aisled hall with a chapel at the east end with a vestry on the north side and the warden's lodgings on the south, but both these have been demolished. The building was converted into a parish church in about 1222.
When Whittlesey Mere was drained, a thurible and other silver items were found in the bed of the mere and, from the ram's head on one of these pieces, were believed to have come from the Abbey. The thurible (or censer
A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form. They vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction, and have been in use since ancient times throughout t ...
), and an incense boat are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
. Also found in the bed were blocks of quarried stone, that are conjectured to have fallen from a barge on the way to the Abbey.
Burials
*St Felix of Burgundy
Felix of Burgundy (died 8 March 647 or 648), also known as Felix of Dunwich, was the first bishop of the kingdom of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom. Almost all that is known about hi ...
, whose remains were publicly displayed as relics
*Ivo of Ramsey
Saint Ivo (also known as Ives) was a Cornish bishop and hermit, and became the eponymous saint of St Ives, Huntingdonshire.
History
The discovery of Bishop Ivo's remains in 1001 was first mentioned briefly in John of Worcester's '' Chronico ...
who gave his name to St Ives, Huntingdonshire
Abbots
The names of abbots from AD 993 onwards are known. Notable among them are:
* Eadnoth the Younger, who was also Bishop of Dorchester, and was killed at the Battle of Assandun
The Battle of Assandun (or Ashingdon) was fought between Danish and English armies on 18 October 1016. There is disagreement whether Assandun may be Ashdon near Saffron Walden in north Essex, England, or, as long supposed, Ashingdon near R ...
in 1016
* Aelfwine, abbot of Ramsey Abbey who witnessed the Accord of Winchester in 1072
*Herbert de Losinga
Herbert de Losinga (died 22 July 1119) was the first Bishop of Norwich. He founded Norwich Cathedral in 1096 when he was Bishop of Thetford.
Life
Losinga was born in Exmes, near Argentan, Normandy, the son of Robert de LosingaDoubleday and Pa ...
, the first Bishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Norwich, Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. Th ...
, who died in 1119
*Reginald, commenced rebuilding of abbey in 1116[
*Walter, abbot from 1133 to 1161, during the reign of ]Stephen
Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...
and the invasion of Ramsey by Geoffrey de Mandeville, first Earl of Essex.
*Hugh de Sulgrave, 1254-67[
*William de Godmanchester, 1276][
*Simon de Eye, 1330][
]
Notes
References
Attribution
*
Further reading
*
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External links
*
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{{Authority control
969 establishments
10th-century establishments in England
1537 disestablishments in England
Anglo-Saxon monastic houses
Benedictine monasteries in England
Buildings and structures in Huntingdonshire
Christian monasteries established in the 10th century
Grade I listed monasteries
Monasteries in Cambridgeshire
Scheduled monuments in Cambridgeshire
Ramsey, Cambridgeshire
Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation