Spinney Abbey
Encyclopedia
Spinney Abbey, once known as Spinney Priory, is a house and farm on the site of a former monastic foundation close to the village of Wicken
, on the edge of the fens
in Cambridgeshire
, England
.
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. The priory accommodated three canons of the Augustinian order. 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. 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. As such this is the earliest record concerning that area, as well as Spinney Abbey. For centuries the Abbey was associated with the fen, and this continues even now with water being pumped from the farm fields into the Nature Reserve.
In 1301 Mary de Bassingbourn
e expanded the establishment with 90 acres (364,000 m²) more and four more canons. 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'.
In 1403 the Prior, William de Lode
, was murdered by three of his own canons who stabbed him in the priory church. What happened to the murderers is unrecorded. This grisly tale has given rise to many ghost stories about the Abbey.
and the social upheavals of the fourteenth century, and in 1449 Spinney Abbey was absorbed into the priory of Ely
, which in due course became Ely Cathedral
.
The priory continued in existence and the almshouses it supported were not immediately abolished. In 1536 Henry VIII
began the Dissolution of the Monasteries
. 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
.
, the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell
. Henry lived in Spinney Abbey after his retirement from his office as Lord Deputy of Ireland
at the Restoration. 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. He owned Spinney from 1659 to his death in 1673, and tradition has it that King Charles II
visited him there in September 1671. Henry Cromwell is buried with his wife at Wicken parish church.
The farm had problems with flooding, and until the installation of the diesel
pumps which still drain it today, this has always been a difficulty. A number of tenants came and went with little success. By 1883 the owner and occupier was Robert Chambers Golding, known as 'Old Golding'. He built the large barn known as Old Golding's Barn, which is still in use. It bears his initials 'RG'.
His son, Chambers Waddelow Golding, known as 'Young Golding', was an eccentric who drank himself to an early death. He once took a horse upstairs, and the imprint of a hoof can be discerned upon the stairs still.
farm. it is still a working farm now farming traditional slow growing breeds, English Longhorn cattle and Gloucester Old Spots Pigs.
in her 'Inspector Jury' series.
Wicken, Cambridgeshire
Wicken is a small village on the edge of the fens near Soham in East Cambridgeshire, 10 miles north east of Cambridge and 5 miles south of Ely. It is the site of Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve.-History:...
, on the edge of the fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Monastic origins
Between 1216 and 1228, Beatrice, the granddaughter of Wimar, StewardSteward (office)
A steward is an official who is appointed by the legal ruling monarch to represent him or her in a country, and may have a mandate to govern it in his or her name; in the latter case, it roughly corresponds with the position of governor or deputy...
of the Count of Brittany, founded the Priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
of St Mary and the Holy Cross in the spinney a mile (1.6 km) from Wicken. The priory accommodated three canons of the Augustinian order. It was endowed with the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
of the parish church, 55 acres (223,000 m²) of land, a marsh called Frithfen and the fishery of Gormere. Frithfen is likely to have included at least part of the area now known as Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen is a wetland nature reserve situated near the village of Wicken, Cambridgeshire, England.It is one of Britain's oldest nature reserves, and was the first reserve acquired by the National Trust, in 1899. The reserve includes fenland, farmland, marsh, and reedbeds...
National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserve
For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...
, although its exact location is unclear. As such this is the earliest record concerning that area, as well as Spinney Abbey. For centuries the Abbey was associated with the fen, and this continues even now with water being pumped from the farm fields into the Nature Reserve.
In 1301 Mary de Bassingbourn
Bassingbourn
Bassingbourn can refer to:* Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth, a civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England* RAF Bassingbourn or Bassingbourn Barracks, a former military airbase located in Cambridgeshire...
e expanded the establishment with 90 acres (364,000 m²) more and four more canons. 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'.
In 1403 the Prior, William de Lode
William de Lode
William de Lode , also known as William Gilbert, was the Prior of Spinney Abbey in Cambridgeshire from 1390 to 1403. He is recorded as having been fatally stabbed at his place of worship.-Origins:Little is known of William's origins...
, was murdered by three of his own canons who stabbed him in the priory church. What happened to the murderers is unrecorded. This grisly tale has given rise to many ghost stories about the Abbey.
Decline and dissolution of the Priory
Fortunes at Spinney declined with the Black DeathBlack Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
and the social upheavals of the fourteenth century, and in 1449 Spinney Abbey was absorbed into the priory of Ely
Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about by road from London. It is built on a Lower Greensand island, which at a maximum elevation of is the highest land in the Fens...
, which in due course became Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...
.
The priory continued in existence and the almshouses it supported were not immediately abolished. In 1536 Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
began the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
. Spinney became a private property and was owned by various persons, including Sir Edward Peyton who had been a prominent leader of the puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
party during the reign of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
.
Henry Cromwell
Perhaps the most celebrated former owner of Spinney Abbey, and one who actually dwelt there, is Henry CromwellHenry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in Ireland.-Life:...
, the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. Henry lived in Spinney Abbey after his retirement from his office as Lord Deputy of Ireland
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...
at the Restoration. 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. He owned Spinney from 1659 to his death in 1673, and tradition has it that King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
visited him there in September 1671. Henry Cromwell is buried with his wife at Wicken parish church.
The New House
The new house — the current building — was built in 1775. The cellar of the original priory still survives below and in it the great stones of the mediaeval masons are seen, along with some iron fittings which have perhaps inevitably gained the reputation of being the remains of mediaeval prisoners' restraints — although there is no evidence to support such a tale. Other older parts are incorporated into the building - some of the old priory doors, for example.The farm had problems with flooding, and until the installation of the diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
pumps which still drain it today, this has always been a difficulty. A number of tenants came and went with little success. By 1883 the owner and occupier was Robert Chambers Golding, known as 'Old Golding'. He built the large barn known as Old Golding's Barn, which is still in use. It bears his initials 'RG'.
His son, Chambers Waddelow Golding, known as 'Young Golding', was an eccentric who drank himself to an early death. He once took a horse upstairs, and the imprint of a hoof can be discerned upon the stairs still.
The Fuller family
Since at least 1695 in adjacent Padney, the oldest family in Wicken had been farming alongside Spinney Abbey. In 1892 Thomas Fuller brought his family to farm at Spinney Abbey, and by 1918 the freehold was in the family, and has remained there ever since with various changes to the farm boundaries. In 1900 the farm was a mixed, mainly arableAgronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
farm. it is still a working farm now farming traditional slow growing breeds, English Longhorn cattle and Gloucester Old Spots Pigs.
Other associations
Spinney Abbey is the name of the setting for the 1984 detective novel The Jerusalem Inn by Martha GrimesMartha Grimes
Martha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Dermit Grimes, Pittsburgh's city solicitor, and to June Dunnington, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes...
in her 'Inspector Jury' series.