Flixton Priory

The site of the priory, which was enclosed by a moat, was at the present Abbey Farm, where little apart from the position in the landscape and a small section of standing wall remain to be seen.

[8] Other Flixton charters owned by Thomas Astle are in the British Library "Carta Antiqua"; there is also a small but important series in the Lord Frederick Campbell collection.

[9][10] While this does not decide the various claims of South Elmham in Suffolk and North Elmham in Norfolk to be the seat of the second East Anglian Episcopal see of Helmham established by Archbishop Theodore,[11] it does provide a context which in the 13th century may have recommended Flixton as an appropriate site for a religious foundation, in a commanding manorial seat a short distance from the pre-Conquest parochial church.

[18] Robert de Creke also held Glanvill lands at Combs, Suffolk, on behalf of the heirs of Agnes, but after 1210 paid his scutage and farm erratically,[19] and made a second marriage.

[20] Bartholomew's sister Isabel married the heir of Theobald de Valoines, founder of Hickling Priory and of the nunnery at Campsey Priory, and in 1229 Bartholomew obtained the manor of Helmingham Hall (Creke Hall), Suffolk, from Theobald's sister Joan, prioress of Campsey, in exchange for rents out of his lands at Combs.

[28] The dwelling-house with its moated enclosure stood at the northern edge of the ancient cluster of parishes of South Elmham known as The Saints, on the brow of the plateau where it falls into the valley of the River Waveney.

[30] A short distance from the priory, at the foot of the lane, stood the parochial church of St Mary's, its large west tower of late Anglo-Saxon date topped by a Rhenish helm spire.

If the 14th-century glass in the chancel is original to this church, it may refer to the patronage of Flixton Priory in the image of a kneeling veiled woman, perhaps Margery de Creke herself, praying before the saint.

[53] In 1310, on the application of the King's leech, Master Robert de Cisterna, the priory was licensed to acquire lands to the value of £10 per annum, on account of their rents and possessions being insufficient for their sustenance.

In 1321 John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich and Lord Chancellor, exchanged with the priory his half of the advowson of Flixton church for that of Helmingham,[56] uniting the two moieties and granting an appropriation.

For a long time past, through unfortunate circumstances, they could not meet their own needs for food and drink, nor for the strangers or poor resorting to them; their possessions had grown barren, and would not cover half a year of their costs.

A month later, at the request of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, they were granted licence to appropriate the church of Fundenhall (of which they already held the advowson).

[65] It was represented that most of the inhabitants of Dunston, upon whom the priory depended for part of its maintenance, died in the Great Mortality, and the land was left untilled, so that the nuns were again unable to provide for their own sustenance.

The present farmhouse, aligned west and east, stands on or near the site of the priory church, and includes some rubble-built masonry with freestone quoins at its south-east corner.

[72] It is thought possible that a quantity of architectural masonry including arched doorways, windows with stone mullion tracery, and a series of ornamental flint flushwork panels, were removed from Flixton Priory immediately after the Dissolution and incorporated into St Peter's Hall at St Peter, South Elmham, a seat of the Tasburgh family.

[73][74] The suggested date of transfer is 1539, when a group of Norwich stonemasons worked on John Tasburgh's house at South Elmham, five years before he acquired the site of the priory manor.

Flixton appears always to have been the poorest of the nunneries in the Norwich diocese, but although it has been said that it never recovered from the deterioration of assets caused by the Black Death (at least not to support the full number of sisters limited by the founder),[81] yet the house did continue in an orderly fashion until the Dissolution.

As the surviving fragment of wall shows, some architectural improvements were managed in the later period, and the studies of Marilyn Oliva highlight the maintenance of the obedientiary system here as elsewhere in the diocese.

[83] The appropriation of Fundenhall church raised new problems, for in 1370 the parishioners invoked the old and recurrent judgement that the Rector was responsible for repairs or rebuilding.

This was done to enable the priory to find a chaplain to celebrate divine service every Monday in the conventual church for the souls of the faithful departed.

[91] Elizabeth's tenure ended in 1414,[92] to be replaced by Katherine Pilley, and at about that time a list was drawn up of all the people living within the priory precinct.

In addition to the 12 nuns and 2 chaplains, there was a domestic staff of at least 4 maids, a baker and assistant, a cook and porter, estate workers including a cowherd, a swineherd, 2 threshers, a wood-hauler and 2 shop-workers, and 6 female servants.

She was to have rooms for herself and her maid, with fuel and candles provided, and their meal each day from the refectory as for two nuns: two white loaves and eight of wholemeal a week, and eight gallons of convent beer.

[98] In 1473 John Brygham, a chaplain associated with the nearby College at Mettingham, Suffolk, since at least 1450,[99] died leaving a psalter to Agnes Virly, a nun of Flixton Priory.

[100] Agnes was doubtless a kinswoman of (if not the same person as[101]) Elizabeth Virly, who was prioress of Flixton at the Visitation of Bishop James Goldwell in June 1493.

Margaret Olton complained of the meagre diet, and said the prioress diverted alms to her own use, did not pay the annual allowances, and did not render accounts, becoming angry if anyone gave them anything.

Margaret repeated her complaints, adding that the prioress often slept away from the common dormitory in her own bedroom, without the presence of a sister as chaplain; and that as this was against the rule of their religion, she would not obey her.

The others kept quiet apart from Isabella Asshe, who mentioned the meagre fare and said the prioress was meeting with a servant Richard Carr at suspicious times.

The prioress was told she must keep only one of her dogs, to have a female chaplain with her when sleeping alone, and to present the accounts, on pain of dismissal: Richard Carr was to be sent away.

[116] Wharton, of Bungay, was apparently operating as a speculator, for he had already advised Cromwell of the wealthy men in the neighbourhood in December 1533, listing first John Tasburgh ("has by inheritance £50 per annum, and by his wife £40").