Kingswood Abbey

Coordinates: 51°37′35″N 2°22′00″W / 51.62639°N 2.36667°W / 51.62639; -2.36667
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kingswood Abbey
OS grid reference
ST 74705 92035
AreaGloucestershire
Built1139
OwnerEnglish Heritage
Official nameKingswood Abbey gate
Reference no.1004872
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameAbbey gatehouse and adjoining wall to east
Designated23 June 1952
Reference no.1238022
Kingswood Abbey is located in Gloucestershire
Kingswood Abbey
Location of Kingswood Abbey in Gloucestershire

Kingswood Abbey was a

Dissolution of the Monasteries, and all that remains is the gatehouse, a Grade 1 listed building
. Through the gatehouse arch are a few houses and the small village primary school of Kingswood.

History

Kingswood Abbey was founded in 1139 by William of Berkeley, provost of

Cistercian house at Tintern, Monmouthshire.[2] The founding family were the feudal barons of Dursley, who intermarried later with the progeny of Robert Fitzharding (d.1170), 1st feudal baron of Berkeley Castle
.

In the mid-12th century the abbot and all but a few monks removed, first to

Dissolution of the Monasteries the abbey was variously valued at about £245.[5]

The replacement of the old abbot by a royal appointee in 1517 occasioned a riot in which the monks were joined by their neighbours: the displeasure of

Longleat.[7]

The cellarer's and bursar's accounts that survive for 1240-41 (Cellarer's accounts) and 1241-2 (Bursar's accounts) may well be the earliest accounts of their kind now in existence,[8] but all that survives at the site today is the early 16th-century abbey gatehouse (illustration), which is under the care of English Heritage.[9]

The abbey and its church were so efficiently demolished that their precise location is unknown. The gatehouse is noteworthy for its embellishments, with gable ridge decorations, a pair of niches with statues (only one remains), pinnacles and fine windows with carved mullions. The lodging to the right is merely a facade, but that to the left is still inhabited.[10]

tithe barn by the monks of the abbey. Forty-eight original charters of Kingswood Abbey, covering the years 1225 to 1444 and preserved in antiquarian collections, last went on sale at Sotheby's in 1945.[11]

Burials

  • Elizabeth de Berkeley, Countess of Warwick

References

  1. ^ Barkly, H, p.200
  2. ^ Archives Hub, 2006
  3. ^ Cooke, Robert (1957). West Country Houses. Batsford. pp. 101–102.
  4. ^ John Caley et al, tr. and eds. Dugdale, William. Monasticon Anglicanum vol. 5 (1846) s.v. "Kingswood Abbey" 424ff.
  5. ^ Dugdale, eo loc; see also Lindley, E. S. "Kingswood Abbey, its lands and mills." Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch. Society, 73 (1955): 115-191.
  6. ^ Rawcliffe, Carole, The Staffords: Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham, 1394-1521 1978:98, quoting archives.
  7. ^ Dugdale 425.
  8. ^ Harvey, Barbara F. The Obedientiaries of Westminster Abbey and Their Financial Records 2002:xvi.
  9. ^ Alison, Judith et al, Tree-ring analysis of timbers from Kingswood Abbey Gatehouse, Kingswood, Gloucestershire (Centre for Archaeology report 21 2003.
  10. ISBN 978-1-139-44919-9
    .
  11. Historical Manuscripts Commission
    . vol. 5, and transcribed in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 22:178-256.

Bibliography

External links

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