Nuneaton Priory was a medieval

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 ...

monastic house in

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

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 ...

. It was initially founded by Robert de Beaumont and

Gervase Paganell Gervase Paganell inherited the feudal barony of Dudley (which included Dudley Castle) around the year 1150. However, after rebelling against King Henry II, his castle was demolished. Gervase founded the Cluniac Dudley Priory, Priory of St James in D ...

in 1153 at

Kintbury Kintbury is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England, between the towns of Newbury and Hungerford. The village has a convenient railway to and , proximity to other transport and local cultural destinations, including Roman and Norman s ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

as a daughter house of

Fontevraud Abbey The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud or Fontevrault (in French: ''abbaye de Fontevraud'') was a monastery in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in the former French duchy of Anjou. It was founded in 1101 by the itinerant preache ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Soon afterwards, in around 1155 the foundation was moved to Etone (or Eaton) in Warwickshire, which subsequently became known as Nuneaton. Nuneaton Priory must have become "denizen", that is, a naturalised English monastery, around the time of the suppression of the

alien priories Alien priories were religious establishments in England, such as monasteries and convents, which were under the control of another religious house outside England. Usually the mother-house was in France.Coredon ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms'' p. ...

, since there was a prior of Nuneaton still in 1424 and other mentions are then found. At various moments, the women's house at Nuneaton was large, containing 93 nuns in 1234, 89 in 1328, but the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

will have taken its toll and in any case the house numbered 46 nuns in 1370, about 40 in 1459, only 23 in 1507 and at the end, in 1539, 27 in total, of whom 25 were granted pensions. The 1535 ''

Valor Ecclesiasticus The ''Valor Ecclesiasticus'' (Latin: "church valuation") was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII. It was colloquially called the Kings books, a s ...

'',

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 disa ...

's pre-seizure survey, showed a net annual income for the priory of some 253 pounds. The seal of Nuneaton Priory depicted the

Virgin 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 o ...

in the pose of the

Seat of Wisdom Seat of Wisdom or Throne of Wisdom (Latin: ''sedes sapientiae'') is one of many devotional titles for Mary in Roman Catholic tradition. In Seat of Wisdom icons and sculptures, Mary is seated on a throne with the Christ Child on her lap. For the ...

(''Sedes sapientiae''), which was a common motif for seals of nunneries in medieval England, though not the majority choice. The motif entails a depiction of the Blessed Virgin seated and facing forward, presenting or holding the

Christ Child The Christ Child, also known as Divine Infant, Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, the Divine Child, Child Jesus, the Holy Child, Santo Niño, and to some as Señor Noemi refers to Jesus Christ from his nativity to age 12. The four canonical gospels, a ...

on her lap. The nunnery was seized in 1539 during King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, and subsequently fell into ruin.

Restoration

An ancient Abbey church founded at 'Eaton' in 1155 gave the present town the name 'Nuneaton'. By the 19th century, all that remained of the original church were portions of the 12th- and 13th-century piers of the tower, the south wall of the south transept, and the foundations of the north transept and nave. The Church has been partially restored. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was rebuilt in 1876 on the old foundations by the Gothic Revival architect C.C. Rolfe. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

was rebuilt in 1906, and then the north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

in 1931 by

Harold Brakspear Sir Harold Brakspear KCVO (10 March 1870 – 20 November 1934) was an English restoration architect and archaeologist. He restored a number of ancient and notable buildings, including Bath Abbey, Windsor Castle, Brownston House in Devizes and ...

. The church (such as it stands) is used as the Parish Church of St. Mary The Virgin and is known locally as the Abbey Church. The recent tradition of the church is

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...

.Blagdon-Gamlen, P. E. (1973) ''The Church Travellers Directory''. London: Church Literature Association; p. 68 Despite this building's significance in Nuneaton's past and its recent history, it is a relatively unknown place, with little promotion or signage.

References

External links

The website of Abbey Church
{{coord, 52.525566, N, 1.477010, W, region:GB, display=title Monasteries in Warwickshire Benedictine nunneries in England Buildings and structures in Nuneaton 1153 establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Anglo-Catholic church buildings in Warwickshire