Spinney Abbey

Between 1216 and 1228, Beatrice, the granddaughter of Wimar, Steward of the Count of Brittany, founded the Priory of St Mary and the Holy Cross in the spinney a mile (1.6 km) from Wicken.

It was endowed with the advowson of the parish church, 55 acres (223,000 m2) of land, a marsh called Frithfen and the fishery of Gormere.

[1] Frithfen is likely to have included at least part of the area now known as Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve, although its exact location is unclear.

The bad news was that her endowment depended upon the canons feeding three thousand poor people per year – a task which they soon enough complained was 'grievous and insupportable'.

[1] [3] Spinney became a private property and was owned by various persons, including Sir Edward Peyton who had been a prominent leader of the puritan party during the reign of Charles I.

He was a well-respected and capable man, and having petitioned the King was allowed to continue living in peace there despite his father's fate.

New ciders followed: "Virgin on the Ridiculous", "Fruity Friar", "Dirty Habit", "Rhubarb" and most recently the grapefruit-flavoured "Prior Warning".

[10] Spinney Abbey is the name of the setting for the 1984 detective novel The Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes in her 'Inspector Jury' series.