Soham Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census. History Archaeology The region between De ...

Abbey was an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

monastery in

, which at the time was in the

Kingdom of East Anglia la, Regnum Orientalium Anglorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the East Angles , common_name = East Anglia , era = , status = Great Kingdom , status_text = Independent (6th centu ...

. Constructed by St

Felix of Burgundy Felix of Burgundy, also known as Felix of Dunwich (died 8 March 647 or 648), was a saint and the first bishop of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom of East Anglia. Almost all that is k ...

during the early part of the 7th century, it was the first Roman Christian site to be established in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

History

Soham Abbey was founded around 630 by

, the first bishop of East Anglia. After his death in 647, his remains were moved from his episcopal see at

Dommoc ''Dommoc'' (or ''Domnoc''), a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of Suffolk, was the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the Kingdom of East Anglia. It was established by Sigeberht of East Anglia for S ...

to the chancel of the minster church at Soham to preserve them from desecration by Danish raiders. 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 t ...

attacked East Anglia in 869. The abbey was destroyed the following year and was never rebuilt.

Æthelric (bishop of Dorchester) __NOTOC__ Æthelric (or Brihtmær) was a medieval Bishop of Dorchester, when the town was seat of the united dioceses of Lindsey and Dorchester. Æthelric was consecrated in 1016 and died on 8 December 1034.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British ...

later removed Felix's remains to

Ramsey Abbey Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and dissolved in 1539. The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Most of the abbey's ...

. In 1189,

Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

gave the parish church to the Cistercian Abbey of Le Pin (Vienne), whose abbot was his almoner. In 1285 Le Pin rented the Soham estate including the patronage of the vicarage, to its fellow-Cistercian Abbey of Rewley.Wareham, A F, and A P M Wright. "Soham: Churches." A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (North-Eastern Cambridgeshire). London: Victoria County History, 2002. 533-542. British History Online. Web. 7 September 2022
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Abbey church

It is believed that the church was of a squat, low design with a long north transept, and 4 or 5 bays long with a round tower standing nearby. St. Felix was originally buried here. Soham's current church (dedicated to

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Pete ...

not to Felix) is believed to have been built on the same site as the abbey, although the structure dates from

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

times: the earliest part is the crossing (which cannot be seen from the outside) dating from the twelfth century.

Description

This evidence is taken from a later woodcut that shows the abbey surrounded by monastic buildings and with a wall and moat around the complex. The moat can be traced today in a circle starting at the new vicarage and following Station Road, Gardiners Lane, Clay Street, Brook Dam Lane and Paddock Street, then back to the vicarage.

References

{{coord, 52.3335, 0.3369, type:landmark_region:GB-CAM, display=title Christian monasteries established in the 7th century Anglo-Saxon monastic houses 9th-century disestablishments Monasteries in Cambridgeshire 7th-century establishments in England Soham 7th-century church buildings in England