Dureford Abbey
51°00′14″N 0°53′31″W / 51.004°N 0.892°W
Dureford Abbey, in
A History of Disaster
The founder and other local landowners granted much additional land in the area to the abbey and the unlimited use of a quarry from which to construct the monastic buildings.[citation needed]
In 1317 the abbot complained as the abbey had been broken into and robbed.[citation needed] A royal visit by the King in 1324 put a further strain on the finances, as did repeated incidences[spelling?] of theft and malicious damage, which left the community reportedly poverty stricken by 1335.
The next century was no better as in 1417 the tower of the abbey church was struck by lightning and collapsed. Further, an abbot was forcibly ejected from his position by canons from Dureford and from
In 1444 abbot Stephen Mersey was deposed for neglecting the monastery buildings and for plunging the abbey into debt.
On three occasions in the 1450s the abbey was invaded by Sir Henry Hussey (a patron of the monastery and descendant of the founder), who came with an armed band and threatened to burn the monastery and kill the abbot. As it was, he murdered one of the abbey servants.[citation needed]
By 1482 the abbey debts had been wiped out. Unfortunately so had most of the community, who had died in an outbreak of the plague or
By 1535 the monastery was dilapidated and in considerable debt, and was referred to mockingly as 'Dirtforde' by
Post Dissolution
A farmhouse built in 1784 now occupies the site, and fragments of carved stone and a coffin lid are amongst the few visible remnants. The only surviving building is that of a medieval barn, and there are some fragmentary remains of a water-mill nearby.
See also
- Abbeys and priories in England
- Geoffrey Pole
References
- 'Houses of Premonstratensian canons: Abbey of Dureford', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2 (1973), pp. 89–92.
- Anthony New. 'A Guide to the Abbeys of England And Wales', p157. Constable.