Entrance to Mettingham Castle - geograph

Mettingham College was a monastic college in the parish of

Mettingham Mettingham is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is east of the market town of Bungay in the East Suffolk district. It had a population of 211 at the 2011 United Kingdom census. The northern bound ...

in the English county of Suffolk. The college was located within Mettingham Castle, although it was founded elsewhere.

Foundation

The college was founded on 24 July 1350, originally as a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

college for eight

secular canons A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

under a master at

Raveningham Raveningham (pronounced "Ran-ing'm") is a small village and parish in the county of Norfolk, England, about south-east of Norwich. It covers an area of and had a population of 157 in 61 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. The founder was Sir John de Norwich, eldest son of Sir Walter de Norwich,

Chief Baron of the Exchequer The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who pre ...

, whose sister Margaret married Robert de Ufford, the future 1st Earl of Suffolk, in 1324. The canons were to celebrate in the parish church of St Andrew, Raveningham, for the welfare of Sir John and his wife, the Blessed Virgin, St Andrew the Apostle, and All Saints. The College itself was dedicated to St Mary.

History

When writing his will in 1373, another Sir John, grandson of the founder, was planning to move the college to Norton Subcourse, and left £450 for the building of a new church there. However this plan foundered. His cousin Katherine de Brews became his heir, and as her trustees Sir Roger de Boys, John Playz and others in 1382 paid a very large sum to license the removal of the college to Mettingham Castle. This was also frustrated owing to objections raised by the nuns of

Bungay Priory Bungay Priory was a Benedictine nunnery in the town of Bungay in the English county of Suffolk. It was founded c. 1160-1185 by the Countess Gundreda, wife or widow of Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, upon lands of her '' maritagium'' and was ...

, but the number of canons was increased to thirteen. In 1387 an interim move was made to Norton Subcourse, but with the concession that the college should have all the original endowments at Raveningham as well as those of Mettingham when the move was eventually made there. It remained at Norton for seven years and finally arrived at Mettingham Castle in 1394, where the college remained until its surrender to the Crown in 1542. A Register survived in the Stowe Library. The College records have a place in the history of drama in England and the College Library forms the basis of an important study of the ways in which books were acquired and produced. The British Library holds numerous charters relating to Mettingham College.See The National Archives (UK) Discovery Catalogue, Records fo
Mettingham College
(Discovery).

The Russian Orthodox College

While in no way a re-creation of the original medieval chantry college, on 1 September 2012 the College of Our Lady of Mettingham was formally inaugurated under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in the grounds of The White House in the north of the parish of Mettingham. The College is a unique institution which seeks to become an Orthodox pastoral, pilgrimage and education centre.

Notes

{{coord, 52.4448, 1.4714, type:landmark_scale:3000_region:GB, display=title 1542 disestablishments in England Christian organizations established in the 14th century 1350 establishments in England History of Suffolk