Hyde Abbey

The gift in 1041 by Queen Emma, widow of Cnut, of the head of Saint Valentine was cherished as one of the most valuable possessions of the now-reformed Benedictine house.

In 1141 the church suffered damage when Winchester was burned during The Anarchy arising from conflict between supporters of King Stephen and Matilda, and it had to be substantially rebuilt.

Henceforward the abbey prospered and acquired considerable land in the area, until it was dissolved in 1539[2] by Henry VIII at the dissolution of the monasteries, and the surviving monks pensioned.

One observer was the local Catholic priest Dr. Milner who wrote: Miscreants couch amidst the ashes of our Alfreds and Edwards…..In digging for the foundations of that mournful edifice [the bridewell] at almost every stroke of the mattock or spade some ancient sepulchre was violated, the venerable contents of which were treated with marked indignity, A great number of stone coffins were dug up, with a variety of curious articles, such as chalices, patens, rings, buckles, the leather of shoes and boots, velvet and gold belonging to chasubles and other vestments as also the crook, rims and joints of a beautiful crozier, double gilt.Today all that remains is the gatehouse that commanded the entrance between inner and outer precincts of the Abbey, an arch that used to span the abbey millstream and the church built for use of pilgrims and lay-brothers (now the nave and chancel of St Bartholomew's Parish Church).

In the 19th century, a local antiquary carried out excavations on the site and claimed to have found the remains of King Alfred the Great, whose crypt had been ransacked for valuables and whose bones were reburied outside St Bartholomew's church, Hyde, in a simple grave.

The original east end of the 1110 church consisted of a small chapel that had been rebuilt in the late 12th or early 13th century using a pale, honey coloured, fine-grained limestone bonded by a hard orange mortar.

....Directly in front of the high altar was a group of deep intercutting pits that represent past attempts to find the tomb of Alfred the Great.

At the dissolution of the Abbey in 1539, graves in front of the high altar are said to have produced small lead tablets bearing the names Alfred and Edward.

He interviewed Mr Page, the Prison Warden, who told him that during works in the Governor's garden the site of the high altar was found, with three graves located before it.

Slight hints of earlier cuts were found that might represent the three royal tombs.In 1086, the Domesday Book recorded holdings of land at Addeston, Collingbourne, Pewsey, Manningford and Chisledon, all in Wiltshire.