[4] The name Tupholme reflects the influence of Scandinavian cultures on Lincolnshire during the Danelaw during the 9th-11th centuries and it means basically an island where rams were raised.

This is an international religious order founded in 1120 in Prémontré near Laon, France, by Saint Norbert of Xanten, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg.

Unlike monks, however, the work of Canons Regular places fundamental emphasis on preaching and the exercise of pastoral ministry.

All the orders of Canons Regular have as their fundamental guidelines the ancient Rule of St. Augustine, but with supplementary statutes that apply this to times and circumstances.

The abbey was founded in honour of the Annunciation between 1155 and 1165 by Gilbert and Alan de Neville by appeal to the Premonstratensians.

However, Tupholme was never a prosperous house— in 1347, when the abbey was heavily in debt, an enterprising abbot was accused of "forgery and counterfeiting of coin of the realm", allegedly using the proceeds to buy corn and wine, which he sold for a profit.

In 1482 the behaviour of the canons had evidently been unruly, as they were forbidden to leave the precincts of the abbey without permission, or to sit up drinking after Compline (the last service of the day).

[4] Nevertheless, these negative episodes are perhaps little against a silent record of almost four hundred years of an institution dedicated in large part to prayer, pastoral ministry among the local people and care of the poor.

They cleared away the old house, but retained the one surviving wall of the medieval abbey as an eye-catching feature, a fashionable ornament in their surrounding landscaped parkland.

However, Tupholme Abbey was to have one more moment of fame, for in 1972 one of the country's biggest pop festivals, starring Rod Stewart and the Beach Boys (among many others), was held there.

The surviving monastic ruin at Tupholme now comprises a single wall, standing two storeys high, virtually to eaves height.

The upper floor was the refectory of the abbey and has beautiful lancet windows and a very fine reader's pulpit.

Sheep have (and for thousands of years have had) a big influence on the vegetation at Tupholme, their dung promoting the growth of stinging nettles and thistles.