Chatteris Abbey in

Chatteris Chatteris is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England, situated in The Fens between Huntingdon, March and Ely. The town is in the North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency. The parish of C ...

in the

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures that ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

was founded as a monastery for

Benedictine , 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 ...

nuns in 1016 by Ednoth,

Bishop of Dorchester The modern Bishop Suffragan of Dorchester in the Diocese of Oxford, usually contracted to Bishop of Dorchester, is an episcopal title used by an area bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The ...

. Before 1310 much of the monastery was destroyed by fire. By the middle of the 14th century, some of the local families appear to have been using the nave of the monastic church as their

parochial Parochial is an adjective which may refer to: * Parishes, in religion ** Parish churches, also called parochial churches * Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation * Parochialism Parochialism is the ...

church. Never a wealthy abbey, it survived the first wave of closures during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was finally surrendered to the King's commissioners in 1538, by which time there were eleven nuns in residence. At this date many families still used the abbey church as parochial but this, unusually, did not save it from demolition, the parishioners being transferred to St Peter and St Paul's Church nearby. A range of the cloister buildings survived as part of a mansion known as Park House. This was demolished in 1847 and with the exception of a few wall fragments, the site has now completely vanished beneath streets and housing; the Park Streets of Chatteris mark its boundaries.

References

* Houses of Benedictine nuns: Abbey of Chatteris, A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 2 (1948), pp. 220–23. * Anthony New. 'A Guide to the Abbeys of England And Wales', p109-10. Constable. *

Claire Breay Claire Breay, MBE (born 18 October 1968) is an English manuscript curator and medieval historian. She is the Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library, where she specializes in Western medieval manuscripts in t ...

(ed.), ''The Cartulary of Chatteris Abbey'', (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999). xiii + 479 pp.; 8 illustrations. {{Coord, 52.4530, 0.0489, type:landmark_region:GB-CAM, display=title Benedictine nunneries in England Anglo-Saxon monastic houses Monasteries in Cambridgeshire 1016 establishments in England 11th-century establishments in England 1538 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 11th century Chatteris Buildings and structures demolished in 1847 Demolished buildings and structures in England