Haughmond Abbey

R. W. Eyton, the assiduous Victorian historian of Shropshire, critically considered the cartulary evidence in his 1856 study of the Haughmond's origins, pointing out that it was impossible for all the facts asserted to be true, as William FitzAlan is known to have been still a youth in 1138,[2] when he became involved in the Anarchy of Stephen's reign.

Only later does he appear as a witness to an order given to Richard de Belmeis I, the Bishop of London and the king's viceroy in Shropshire, to deal with a disputed prebend at Morville,[12] presumably a complication of the abolition of the collegiate church there in favour of Shrewsbury Abbey.

[17] At Haughmond, the remains of a very modest early church were discovered beneath the floor of the later, more ambitious building, during the 1907 excavations:[18] this may date back to the time of Prior Fulk or earlier.

[4] Despite these reservations and qualifications, the most recent account of William Fitz-Alan, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, simply treats him as the founder of the abbey, and it was certainly he who placed it on a secure basis, even if he was not the originator.

Haughmond appropriated the churches listed above in the 12th century: Stoke, Shawbury (including its dependent chapels), Cheswardine, Ruyton XI Towns, Nefyn and Treseglwys.

In addition it later appropriated the following churches: Download coordinates as: The distribution maps available above show that the abbey's assets were heavily concentrated, tending to form natural groups, in Shropshire.

[56] The acquisition policy of the abbey tended to strengthen this advantage, deliberately buying or requesting grants of adjoining estates to increase local concentrations of land.

[57] More benefactors contributed, especially the powerful Robert Corbet of Caus Castle, and a substantial monastic estate took shape, known as the "domain of Boveria”,[58] from the Latin bos/bovis, an ox,[59] and meaning roughly "cattle shed".

It fell in the Diocese of Hereford and it was Bishop Robert Foliot who gave the canons permission to turn their oratory at Stitt, in Ratlinghope manor, into church for the region.

[60] After it acquired Aston Abbots, in the early 13th century, the community built up another large group of holdings east of Oswestry at Hisland, Twyford and West Felton, and Great Ness.

Ranton Priory in Staffordshire, founded in the mid-12th century by Robert Fitz-Noel and dedicated to the Virgin Mary,[63] was the only monastery institutionally dependent on Haughmond for a time.

After an appeal to the papacy,[67] an enquiry set up by Bishop Roger Weseham gave Ranton full independence,[64] although it was required to pay an annual pension of 100 shillings to Haughmond.

[73] The so-called white habit was probably simply of undyed wool[4] and may reinforce suggestions that Haughmond was an independent eremitic community before it was absorbed, with all such groups, into the Augustinian order.

In 1315, the Bishop of Lichfield, Walter Langton, prohibited this practice, so Abbot Richard de Brock earmarked the revenues of Cheswardine church and of Nagington and Hisland to be given to a chamberlain, who was to arrange supplies of clothing.

Quod iidem prior et conventus habeant de caetero novam coquinam, pro refectorio assignatam, quam aedificari celeriter faciemus in qua parari faciant per coquum eorum specialem, cibaria eorum quae ad coquinam pertinent, de quibus ministrabitur eisdem, diebus singulis, per canonicos et ministros ad hoc per eos cum abbatis licentia deputandos.

Concedimus etiam pro nobis et successoribus nostris, quod omni tempore anni habeant in communi porcariam domus quae est extra portam, viginti porcos ad sumptus communes domus, pro eorum lardaria faciendo "We agree also for our ourself and our successors that at any time of the year they may have in common the piggery of the house which is without the gate, and twenty pigs at the common cost of the house, for furnishing their larder".

For the chapter house,[79] Augustine of Hippo, eponym of the order, and St John the Evangelist, patron saint of the abbey, were obvious choices.

Thomas Becket, murdered on the orders of Henry II, one of Haughmond's major benefactors, was a martyr whose cult at Canterbury was the focus for medieval England's most important pilgrimage.

John the Baptist, closely associated with asceticism and speaking truth to power, and a Biblical type for Becket, clutches the lamb and flag symbol of the Agnus Dei.

[81] Formerly regarded as little more than samples of the contemporary Shropshire Middle English dialect, Audelay's poems give considerable insight into the spiritual concerns of the age.

[83] The themes, which are strongly anti-Lollard, and the strategies of argument and exposition, are reminiscent of the work of his older contemporary, John Mirk, a canon of nearby Lilleshall.

The Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate seems to have organised the collection of funds for the project, as it bound itself to repay 40 pounds sterling to Haughmond in the event of failure.

[92] The abbot, Thomas Corveser, the prior, John Colfox, and nine canons signed it by 16 October, acknowledging Henry VIII as supreme over the Church of England on earth.

The site was excavated in 1907[95] under the supervision of William Henry St John Hope and Harold Brakspear, who published their findings in The Archaeological Journal.

In 2023 the former ticket office and museum were refurbished by English Heritage and have now reopened to provide a small exhibition space and information point selling guidebooks.

Apart from a few walls, little else has survived from the western side of the site and, at the northern edge, the abbey church has completely disappeared – although the cruciform ground plan is still clearly visible.

From the western side of the ruins, the abbot's hall window remains the dominant structure, but walls of the kitchen and dining areas and of the main cloister are easily made out beyond it.

The frater, being on the upper floor, has gone, but the main cloister wall closest its entrance has two large, arched niches that contained the lavers for the canons' ceremonial ablution before meals.

A single Norman architecture arched doorway, leading from the cloister into the nave of the church shows fine foliage moulding, with the sculptured figures of St Peter and Saint Paul either side of the opening.

[4] At the northern end, the dorter is backed by Longnor's Garden, the area set out by the abbot for culinary and medicinal herbs, which contained a dovecote in the 15th century.