Chibburn Preceptory (also known as Low Chibburn Preceptory) are the ruins of a Medieval/Post-Medieval

Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

preceptory near Widdrington in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The preceptory was first recorded in 1313, and it was abolished in 1540 when all its lands were passed to the Crown and later the Widdrington family. Low Chibburn had several uses, ranging from a hospital to a dowager house before being razed by French invaders in 1691. The preceptory buildings have undergone repair and restoration by Northumberland County Council, and the site is now a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

protected by law. Low Chibburn Panorama

Description

The buildings of the preceptory consisted of a dwelling house, a chapel and various offices enclosing a small, central courtyard. Of these, only the east and south wall, along with parts of the north wall of the chapel still stand. The present dwelling house was built some time after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, possibly by Sir John Widdrington, who was given the manor of Chibburn in 1553. The preceptory was defended by a moat enclosing an area some 100 meters in diameter, and although the moat and a possible pond is still visible at the site, some of these features have been infilled and later destroyed by

open cast mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

in 1957. The chapel served as a

pillbox Pillbox may refer to: * Pill organizer, a container for medicine * Pillbox hat, a woman's hat with a flat crown, straight upright sides, and no brim * Pillbox (military) A pillbox is a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, norm ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

External links

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Northumberland walks - Low Chibburn

Northumberland Cam - Photos of Low Chibburn

References

Monasteries in Northumberland Preceptories of the Knights Hospitaller in England Ruins in Northumberland Ruined abbeys and monasteries {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub