Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to

St Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupati ...

, was a

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') , found ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

located at

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in ...

in the English county of Surrey. It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

, and from 675 AD the

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...

. At the same time he founded the abbey at Chertsey, Erkenwald founded

Barking Abbey Barking Abbey is a former royal monastery located in Barking, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It has been described as having been "one of the most important nunneries in the country". Originally established in the 7th century, fr ...

on the Thames east of London, where his sister Saint Ethelburga was the first abbess. Most of north-west Surrey was granted to the abbey by King Frithuwald of Surrey.

Dark Age The ''Dark Ages'' is a term for the Early Middle Ages, or occasionally the entire Middle Ages, in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual and cultural decline. The conce ...

saints buried here include Saint Beocca, a Dark Ages

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

Saint from Anglo-Saxon England buried here around 870 AD, and ninth century Saint Edor of Chertsey. In the 9th century it was sacked by the

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard ...

and refounded from

Abingdon Abbey Abingdon Abbey ( '' " St Mary's Abbey " '' ) was a Benedictine monastery located in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames beside the River Thames. The abbey was founded c.675 AD in honour of The Virgin Mary. The Domesday Book of 1086 informs ...

by King Edgar of England in 964. In the eleventh century the monks engineered the Abbey River as an offshoot of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

to supply power to the abbey's watermill. In late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

times, the Abbey became famous as the burial place of King Henry VI (whose body was later transferred to

St George's Chapel, Windsor St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the G ...

). The abbey was dissolved by the commissioners of

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...

in 1537, but the community moved to Bisham.

Remnants

The site was given to Sir William Fitzwilliam and now only slight traces remain amongst later buildings, although the abbey is remembered in many local names (for example: Abbey River, Monk's Walk, Abbey Fields). Some very fine medieval tiles from the abbey, some depicting the legend of

Tristan and Iseult Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illi ...

, may be seen in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. From the ruins of the abbey,

individual letter tiles Medieval letter tiles are one-letter ceramic tiles that were employed in monasteries and churches of the late Middle Ages for the creation of Christian inscriptions on floors and walls. They were created by pressing stamps bearing a reverse imag ...

dating to the second half of the 13th century were recovered. They were assembled to form religious inscription texts on the floor and can be considered a forerunner of

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...

printing. One of the Abbey's bells, cast by a Wokingham foundry circa 1380 and weighing just over half a ton, is still in use as the 5th of the ring of eight at

's church, Chertsey, and is one of the oldest bells in current use in Surrey. A medieval stained glass panel with the abbey's coat of arms is displayed in the Burrell Collection near

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

, and the two crossed keys (of Saint Peter) from the arms are also in the official Banner of Arms of Surrey County Council. Some

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...

s from the abbey survive in various collections. The Chertsey Breviary, c. 1300, is in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...

in Oxford (Bodley ). Chertsey Abbey is mentioned in

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Bat ...

'', Act I, Scene 2, Line 27, where Lady Anne says, "Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load", referring to the body of Henry VI. The

Worshipful Company of Haberdashers The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient merchant guild of London, England associated with the silk and velvet trades. History and functions The Haberdashers' Company follows the ...

holds the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...

of St Peter's, Chertsey, nowadays.

Later history of the site

After Sir William Fitzwilliam, Chertsey Abbey was owned by Dr John Hammond (c. 1555–1617), physician to the royal household under James I, who purchased the site of Chertsey Abbey in Surrey in 1602. Dr Hammond's son, Lt.Col. Thomas Hammond of Cromwell's New Model Army, was named as a Commissioner at the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

for the

trial of Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I o ...

, and despite attending no fewer than fourteen of its sittings, he did not sign the death warrant. In the mid-19th century the site of the abbey was excavated under the supervision of the architect and archaeologist

Samuel Angell Samuel Angell (1800 – 1866) was a British architect and archaeologist. Life Angell was born in 1800, son of William Sandell Angell of Cornhill, in the City of London, and Hornsey. Angell studied at the Royal Academy in London and with Th ...

, who published an account of the investigations, accompanied by a ground plan of the abbey church, in 1862.

Known Abbots of Chertsey

* Erkenwald founder and first Abbot of Chertsey Abbey. * Abbot Beocca, monastery sacked 875 by

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

. Chertsey Abbey
history. * Ordbert of Chertsey 964. * Wulfwold, Abbot of Chertsey, died 1084. * John de Rutherwyk, 1307–46. * John Corderoy, 1537.

Burials

* John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners *Abbot Beocca *Sir Richard Berners, Knight of West Horsley

Gallery

File:Ruined wall of Chertsey Abbey (165892 0994f2f8).jpg, Ruined wall of Chertsey Abbey File:Chertsey Breviary - St. Erkenwald.jpg, Erkenwald teaching in the Chertsey Breviary (c.1300) File:Breviary of Chertsey Abbey (folio 6r).jpg, Folio 6r of the Chertsey Breviary File:Britishmuseumrichardtiles.jpg,

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

tiles in the

File:The Conventual Seal, Chertsey Abbey (Surrey Archaeological Collections).png, Conventual seal File:Plan of Chertsey Abbey (Surrey Archaeological Collections).png, Chertsey Abbey, plan of the Demesne from the Exchequer Ledger File:Plan of Chertsey Abbey, showing walls, &c., excavated in 1855 (Surrey Archaeological Collections).png, Plan of Chertsey Abbey, showing walls, &c., excavated in 1855 File:Stone coffins excavated on site of Chertsey Abbey (Surrey Archaeological Collections).png, Stone coffins excavated on site of Chertsey Abbey

References

Bibliography

* * p93–97.