![GraceDieuPriory ChapterHouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/GraceDieuPriory_ChapterHouse.JPG)
The Grace Dieu Priory was an independent
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...
near
Thringstone
Thringstone is a village in north-west Leicestershire, England about north of Coalville. It lies within the area of the English National Forest.
Until 1875, Thringstone had been a township within the ancient parish of Whitwick. The township ...
in
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
, England. It was founded around 1235-1241 by
Roesia de Verdun
Roesia de Verdun (c1204 - 10 February 1247), also spelled ''Rohese'' and ''Rose'', was a Norman femme sole and one of the most powerful women of Ireland in the 13th century.
Biography
Very little is known about the early life of Roesia de Ve ...
and dissolved in October 1538. It was dedicated to the
Holy Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
and
St Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
. Today the site is managed by th
Friends of Grace Dieu Priory a charitable group of volunteers who fundraise to care for the site, and keep it open to the public for free.
History
The priory was founded c.1239 by Rohesia (or Roesia) de Verdun.
The priory was endowed with the manors of
Belton, Leicestershire
Belton is a small village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The village is located approximately northwest of the town of Shepshed, west-northwest of Loughborough, and northeast of Ashby-de ...
and "Kirkby in Kesteven" (
Kirkby la Thorpe
Kirkby la Thorpe is a village and civil parish in North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England.The population at the 2011 census was 1,120. It lies east from Sleaford. The village is near thstartof the A17 Sleaford bypass.
History
There ...
?), Lincolnshire; as well as 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, ...
of Belton Church. The priory was unusual in being independent of outside control. The nuns called themselves "the White Nuns of St. Augustine", and there is thought to be no other houses of their order in the country.
[
The priory was fairly large, having in 1337 sixteen nuns. It also had an attached hospital which cared for twelve poor people.][ The priory did, however, have some unusual practices: for example, the nuns were forbidden to ever leave the priory's precincts.]["House of Augustinian nuns: The priory of Grace Dieu"]
''A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 2'' (1954), pp. 27-28. Date accessed: 20 June 2013.
The priory escaped the first wave of dissolution of the smaller monasteries, but was finally dissolved in 1538.[
]
After Dissolution
Following the Dissolution, the site was granted to Sir Humphrey Foster who sold it to John Beaumont in 1539. He converted the priory buildings into a residence which remained within his family
''His Family'' is a novel by Ernest Poole published in 1917 about the life of a New York widower and his three daughters in the 1910s. It received the first Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918.
Plot introduction
''His Family'' tells the story of ...
until 1684, when it was bought by Sir Ambrose Phillips, a wealthy lawyer, who also built nearby Garendon Hall
Garendon Hall was a country home near Shepshed, Leicestershire, England. It was demolished in 1964.
History
The site of Garendon Hall was formerly occupied by a Cistercian abbey, known as Garendon Abbey. The abbey was founded in 1133 and dissolve ...
. Sir Ambrose had most of the buildings pulled down, and by 1730 the remaining buildings were ruinous, with only two sections still roofed.[Hillier, Kenneth and Ryder, Peter F: Grace Dieu Priory, published by Ashby-de-la-Zouch Museum and the Grace Dieu Prior Trust, July 2006]
The priory passed through the Phillips and March families until 1833 when Charles March Philips gave the priory to his son Ambrose Lisle March Phillips, who assumed the surname "De Lisle". Ambrose constructed a new house in the Tudor-gothic style, known as Grace Dieu Manor
Grace Dieu Manor is a 19th-century country house near Thringstone in Leicestershire, England, occupied by Grace Dieu Manor School until 2020. It is a Grade II listed building.
Early history
The house is named after the adjacent Grace Dieu Pri ...
, south of the priory ruins. The March Phillips de Lisle family owned the house until 1933, although their main residence was at the Hall they built at the former Garendon Abbey
Garendon Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located between Shepshed and Loughborough, in Leicestershire, United Kingdom.
History
Garendon was founded by Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, in 1133, and was probably a daughter house of Waverley ...
. Following the death of two of its heads in quick succession, the family needed to tighten its belt and so in 1885 moved out of Garendon and into Grace Dieu Manor
Grace Dieu Manor is a 19th-century country house near Thringstone in Leicestershire, England, occupied by Grace Dieu Manor School until 2020. It is a Grade II listed building.
Early history
The house is named after the adjacent Grace Dieu Pri ...
. A return to fortune allowed the family to return to Garendon once more in 1907, however. Finally in 1964 Garendon Hall was demolished and the family returned to Grace Dieu for a final time, selling the house within a decade. Grace Dieu Manor then became a Catholic school.
In 1972 the family moved to Quenby Hall
Quenby Hall is a Jacobean house in parkland near the villages of Cold Newton and Hungarton, Leicestershire, England. It is described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "the most important early-seventeenth century house in the county f Leicestershire. T ...
, but following the collapse of the family cheese making business, the family has been forced to offer the Hall for sale (it has been for sale since 2012).
The priory buildings still exist as ruins. A conservation project on the remains was completed in 2005. It is managed by th
Friends of Grace Dieu Priory
who work together with the Grace Dieu Priory Trust and the Grace Dieu Estate to ensure it stays open to members of the public.
Paranormal Phenomena
The priory is reputed to be the site of frequent paranormal phenomena, sometimes attributed to the priory's proximity to the Thringstone Fault, several ley lines and some possible Pagan significance attached to the site.
The ruins are home to the mythical ghost the White Lady
A White Lady (or woman in white) is a type of female ghost. She has long straight hair, typically dressed in a white dress or similar garment, reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with local legends of tragedy. White Lady legends a ...
.
A comprehensive record of sightings, dating back as far as 1926, has been compiled by Stephen Neale Badcock, with all accounts backed up by information sources. Many of the sightings share a remarkable uniformity in terms of description and specific location, tending to refer to white or grey apparitions, robed, with no hands or feet, hovering or gliding above ground level and appearing on the opposite side of the road to the priory, in the vicinity of an old 'bus shelter.
Paul Devereux
Paul Devereux (born 1945) is a British author, researcher, lecturer, broadcaster, artist and photographer based in the UK. Devereux is a co-founder and the managing editor of the academic publication ''Time & Mind – the Journal of Archaeology, C ...
refers to the Grace Dieu phenomenon in his 1982 book, "Earth Lights: Towards and Explanation of the UFO Enigma", and sets out his theory that such manifestations are a rare but naturally occurring phenomenon, wrought by unusual electromagnetic fields associated with fault areas which interfere with the normal cycles of the atmosphere. Expanding on this, Neale Badcock's research has shown that the site of Grace Dieu priory is located directly above the Thringstone Fault, as shown by a geological map produced by the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1965. The site is also located close to a standing stone, in a field to the west of the priory, examples of which are often found close to geological faults. The presence of this stone suggests that the area may have been regarded as a sacred site in ancient times, Mesolithic flint scrapers having been found around the base of the stone.[John Dickinson, Grace Dieu Archaeological Society: 'The Ghosts of Grace Dieu', Pukka Publications, 2004, p 10.]
As such, it has been suggested that the site's prehistoric religious significance may have influenced the choice of location for the mediaeval monastic foundation. However, whilst this may have been the case for many Christian foundations during the Saxon period (the nearby parish church at Whitwick
Whitwick is a large village in Leicestershire, England, close to the town of Coalville in the northwest of the county. It lies in an ancient parish which formerly included the equally historic villages of Thringstone and Swannington. It was an ...
for example would almost certainly date back to a Saxon origin, intentionally sited in a sacred place, above a natural spring) it is probable that the link between the much later foundation of Grace Dieu Priory and a site of possible pagan significance occurs more by co-incidence. Hillier and Ryder offer a more prosaic explanation for the location of the nunnery, suggesting that the chief influence would have been its proximity to a fresh water source.
See also
*Abbeys and priories in England
Monastic houses in England include abbeys, priories and friaries, among other monastic religious houses.
The sites are listed by modern ( post-1974) county.
Overview
The list is presented in alphabetical order ceremonial county. Foundations ...
References
External links
Friends of Grace Dieu Priory
Image of how the Priory may have looked in the 13th century
Image of how the Priory may have look after being converted to a residence in the 16th century
{{Authority control
Augustinian nunneries in England
Christian monasteries established in the 13th century
Grade II listed buildings in Leicestershire
Monasteries in Leicestershire
13th-century establishments in England
1538 disestablishments in England
Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation
cy:Abaty Grace Dieu