Abbot's Salford is the name of a village in the English county of Warwickshire. It is found six miles south of Alcester, about the same distance from

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesha ...

, very close to the Worcestershire border, and is within the parish of

Salford Priors Salford Priors is a rural, agricultural village and civil parish about four miles south-west of Alcester, Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 1,546. It is on the Warwickshire border with Wo ...

. The River Avon runs close by the eastern side of the village. As well as the hotel the modest modern attractions of the village seem to be Abbot's Salford Lake, which is an excellent fishing spot, and a caravan park.

Salford Hall

Building work on Salford Hall, the village's largest and grandest building, commenced in 1470 as a living place for monks from nearby Evesham Abbey. By the reign of Charles I it had become, by marriage, a seat of the Roman Catholic Stanford family. Charles Stanford, a grandson of Sir William Stanford, (d.1558), Justice of the Common Pleas, completed the building of Salford Hall, and commemorated the event by hanging up a bell on the top of the house bearing the inscription "Charles Stanford, Esqre., Ellinor, 1610" (for Eleanor Alderford, his wife). His son, John Stanford of Salford Hall, was a Cavalier and was killed in 1649. The

Great Hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great ...

has a four-centred fireplace in the south wall, and in the east wall a doorway with a 17th-century pediment and shield with the

Arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

of the Stanfords, who resided there until 1812. It is now used as a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

hotel, and is classed as a Grade I listed building.

Convent

From 1808 to 1838, the Hall functioned as a

nunnery A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...

before reverting to a private dwelling. The nuns concerned were

Benedictines , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

who had been exiled from

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department and in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, regio ...

in France by the French Revolution, and who were to build

Stanbrook Abbey Stanbrook Abbey is a Catholic contemplative Benedictine women's monastery with the status of an abbey, located at Wass, North Yorkshire, England. The community was founded in 1625 at Cambrai in Flanders (then part of the Spanish Netherlands, ...

to move into in 1838.

References

{{authority control Villages in Warwickshire