Kingswood Abbey was a Cistercian abbey, located in the village of Kingswood near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England. The abbey was demolished during the 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.
| Kingswood Abbey | |
|---|---|
 The gatehouse of the abbey | |
| Type | Abbey |
| Location | Kingswood, Stroud District |
| Coordinates | 51°37′35″N 2°22′00″W / 51.62639°N 2.36667°W |
| OS grid reference | ST 74705 92035 |
| Area | Gloucestershire |
| Built | 1139 |
| Owner | English Heritage |
| Official name | Kingswood Abbey gate |
| Reference no. | 1004872 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | Abbey gatehouse and adjoining wall to east |
| Designated | 23 June 1952 |
| Reference no. | 1238022 |
  Location of Kingswood Abbey in Gloucestershire | |
History
editKingswood Abbey was founded in 1139 by William of Berkeley, provost of Berkeley,[1] in accordance with the wishes of his late uncle, Roger II of Berkeley, and colonised from the 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 Hazleton Abbey and then, for want of water at that site, to Tetbury,[3] Kingswood becoming a grange until the return of the community to "Mireford" in Kingswood, close to the earlier site.[4] According to the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV in 1291, annual spiritualities and temporalities came to £54 1s 6d, and at the time of the 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 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, effected the restoration of order.[6] Henry VIII leased the monastery estate to the courtier Sir Nicholas Poyntz for a period of 21 years, and in 1559 Elizabeth granted it to Sir John Thynne, the builder 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]
Calcot Manor, a few miles to the northeast, was built as a 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
editReferences
edit- ^ Barkly, H, p.200
- ^ Archives Hub, 2006
- ^ Cooke, Robert (1957). West Country Houses. Batsford. pp. 101–102.
- ^ John Caley et al, tr. and eds. Dugdale, William. Monasticon Anglicanum vol. 5 (1846) s.v. "Kingswood Abbey" 424ff.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Rawcliffe, Carole, The Staffords: Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham, 1394-1521 1978:98, quoting archives.
- ^ Dugdale 425.
- ^ Harvey, Barbara F. The Obedientiaries of Westminster Abbey and Their Financial Records 2002:xvi.
- ^ Alison, Judith et al, Tree-ring analysis of timbers from Kingswood Abbey Gatehouse, Kingswood, Gloucestershire (Centre for Archaeology report 21 2003.
- ^ Anthony Emery (2006). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume 3, Southern England. Cambridge University Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-1-139-44919-9.
- ^ Austin, Roland. "Kingswood Abbey charters", in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 65 (1944:220) (pdf file); the charters were calendared in Historical Manuscripts Commission. vol. 5, and transcribed in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 22:178-256.
Bibliography
edit- Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, Vol.2, 1907, Houses of Cistercian monks: The Abbey of Kingswood, pp. 99–101
- Barkly, H. "The Earlier House of Berkeley" in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Vol. 8, 1883-84' esp. pp 199–201
- Archives Hub profile: Kingswood Abbey
External links
edit
- Kingswood Abbey Gatehouse, English Heritage
- Detailed historical record for Kingswood Abbey Gatehouse
- Kingswood Abbey papers 1225-1444 Archived 31 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine University of Bristol Library Special Collections