Wherwell Abbey was an abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 of Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 nuns in Wherwell

Wherwell

Wherwell is a village on the River Test in Hampshire, England. The name may derive from its bubbling springs resulting in the Middle Ages place name “Hwerwyl” noted in AD 955, possibly meaning “kettle springs” or “cauldron springs.” Pronunciation of the name has ranged from “Hurrell” to “Wer-rel”...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, 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...

.

Foundation

The nunnery was founded about 986

986

Year 986 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* March 2 – Louis V becomes King of the Franks....

 by Ælfthryth, the widow of King Edgar. She retired there to live out her life and was buried there.

10th to 16th centuries

A daughter of King Ethelred the Unready

Ethelred the Unready

Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II , was king of England . He was son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. Æthelred was only about 10 when his half-brother Edward was murdered...

 was Abbess in the eleventh century. During The Anarchy

The Anarchy

The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...

 in 1140, the Empress Matilda's forces fortified the abbey but were defeated by King Stephen's troops. Traces of the earthworks built by Matilda's forces are visible today. The original Saxon church was replaced after the conquest by a large Norman one, but in the mid 13th century Abbess Euphemia had the tower rebuilt because the foundations were unsound. At its height Wherwell would have housed up to fifty nuns, before the Black Death cut the number to single figures.

Dissolution

The abbey was surrendered on 21 November, 1539. The abbess received the annual pension of £40, the prioress £6, and twenty-three nuns received pensions of from £5 to £2 13s. 4d.

Post-dissolution

It was originally intended that the site and estates be granted to John Kingsmill, brother of the abbess, but in fact they were granted to Thomas West, 9th Baron De La Warr

Thomas West, 9th Baron De La Warr

Thomas West, 9th Baron De La Warr and 6th Baron West, KG succeeded to his titles at the age of 50. He was the son of Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr and Lady Elizabeth Morton, daughter of Sir George Morton, of Lechlade....

, after he successfully petitioned Cromwell for it. The manor house of Wherwell Priory was built on the site.

Present day

The abbey has disappeared, but in 1997 a geophysical survey by archaeologists from Southampton University located the foundations under the lawn of the eighteenth century Wherwell Priory.