Butley Priory

Although only minor fragments of the priory church and some masonry of the convent survive at Abbey Farm, the underground archaeology was expertly investigated and interpreted in 1931-33, shedding much light on the lost buildings and their development.

This exceptional building, largely intact, reflects the interests of the manorial patron Guy Ferre the younger (died 1323), Seneschal of Gascony to King Edward II 1308-1309,[6] and was probably built in the priorate of William de Geytone (1311–32).

[12] Butley Priory was founded at the time when nearby Orford Castle was being built by King Henry II to consolidate his power in Suffolk, a region dominated by Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk (died c. 1176).

Hugh Bigod's widowed countess, Gundreda, was the founder of Bungay Priory, and remarried to Roger de Glanvill;[14] Ranulf witnessed the royal confirmation.

[24] Being granted the manor of Leiston, a few miles north of Butley, Ranulf founded the Premonstratensian Abbey there c. 1183 under Prior Robert, on a marshland isle near the sea.

In the descent of Bertha's maritagium to her heirs in blood, the patronage of the two convents passed with the manor of Benhall (in Plomesgate) to Matilda, and to her husband William de Auberville of Westenhanger in Kent.

The early embossed tiles have been found at related sites including Orford, Leiston Abbey and Campsey Priory, and the later types are also characteristically East Anglian.

[64] Myres believed that the plan of the priory complex was laid out in the founding phase, but that the only masonry construction belonging to Ranulf's time was represented by the footings of the original church, later rebuilt.

The presbytery, also without aisles, extended some distance eastwards across the present farm track towards the cottages and lane opposite, but later rebuilding and digging had removed its footprint.

Butley's early 13th-century cloister walkways had open arcading, formed by a low wall with pairs of detached Purbeck marble columns set transversely upon it with double capitals and bases (over 16 inches breadth) ornamented with carving of stiff-leaved foliage, supporting a series of equal arches.

Excavations revealed a massive 60-foot long wall, braced by three buttresses, forming an embankment, to one end of which a roadway led from the direction of the monastery buildings to the water's edge.

[72] The management of a partially wetland environment and its resources, and access to water communication routes, were the practical benefits of its marshy seclusion: the liminal nature of the landscape had both material and spiritual advantages.

Standing centrally on the priory's northern precinct boundary,[74] the gatehouse was built in the early 14th century to provide a grand entrance and to accommodate important visitors.

The north (external) entrance has a larger arch to the west for visitors riding on horseback and for vehicles, and a smaller entry beside it for pedestrians, and had wooden gates.

Two smaller tower blocks some 13 foot square (external) extend to the north, each with one side wall angled out to flare away from the piers of the gateway arches.

The outer arches are executed in blind flushwork tracery: those of the north front both have a fourfold division of the upper circle, but with opposing or mirrored rotation.

Beneath this the south front has a shallow flushwork frieze of cusped arches or canopies with crocketed pinnacles, and in the gable above is the imitation of a rose window of wheel type.

Following Edward II's accession, from March 1308 to September 1309 as Seneschal of Gascony[98] he implemented mandates to resist Philip IV's subversion of English rule.

[100] Sir Guy became a trusted ducal commissioner through the Process of Périgueux (a negotiation to end French encroachment in Gascony), though recalled for some months in 1312 to help release the king from the Ordinances of 1311.

Her name inscription surrounds a shield bearing arms of Guy Ferre the younger impaled with a coat blazoned by Robert Glover for "Mountender", and by Charles Segoing (a French herald of the 17th century) for a family of the township of Montendre in the Saintonge frontier of English Aquitaine.

[110] He governed Butley Priory for 21 years until his death in 1332: the stone indent of his memorial brass, with a crocketed canopy, is preserved in Hollesley church, and shows him mitred.

William Leek as vicar of St Stephen's was dynamic in reforming the parish from 1459 to 1478, and the church was favoured by prominent early Tudor merchants, not least the Mayor Thomas Bradbury (died 1510).

[136][137] In 1509 Prior Robert committed suicide by hanging himself in a house in Ipswich, and his body was buried in the churchyard of Butley parish church, which was served by the canons.

[139] Augustine Rivers (Prior, 1509-1528) spent a substantial amount of his own money on repairs to the buildings, and cleared the priory's debt, though the canons complained that the food was not very good, the infirmary was not maintained, and the roofs of the church and refectory leaked when it rained.

The Duke dined once more with Rivers in 1527 and arranged the sale of Staverton Park to the convent, but the prior died late in 1528, soon after Queen Mary's picnic in the woods, and was buried in the priory church.

However, letters to prevent an election and for sequestration arrived from Thomas Wolsey, and it was necessary for Bishop Nykke to reply that the choice had already been made, and to advocate Manning's installation, while submitting the decision to the Cardinal.

[145] After the smaller monasteries were condemned, and the rising which ensued, in December he sent a handsome gift of swans and other fowl to Cromwell to redress some suspicion of dissent, hoping for royal confirmation for the priory's survival.

Prior Manning, still Suffragan of Ipswich, on the same day sent Cromwell another gift of fowl (herons and pheasants) for his table and expressed the hope that they would not forget his pension.

[152] Mannyng was licensed as Bishop, received a life grant of extensive lands of the manor of Monks Kirby formerly the property of Axholme Priory,[153] and was elected Master of Mettingham College.

[159] Further domestic quarters and side pavilions were added, and a long avenue of quincuncial tree-plantations, known as 'the Clumps', each with four beeches around a central pine, was laid out leading from the Woodbridge road.