Wroxall Abbey is a substantial Victorian mansion house situated at Wroxall, Warwickshire which was converted for use as a hotel, spa, wedding venue and conference centre. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

History

Built in 1141 by Sir Hugh de Hatton, the estate was occupied for some 400 years by Wroxall Priory, a

Benedictine monastery , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536. In 1544 the King granted the estate to Robert Burgoyne of

Sutton, Bedfordshire Sutton is a rural village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. It lies east of Bedford. At the 2001 Census, its population was 299. Main features are the packhorse bridge over the Potton Brook, the a ...

(d 1545) who had been one of the King's Commissioners for the Dissolution. His son Robert (d 1613),

High Sheriff of Warwickshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of the English county of Warwickshire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most ...

in 1597, built a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

in Elizabethan style adjacent to the priory ruins. The Burgoyne family (later Burgoyne baronets) occupied the manor until 1713 when they sold it together with , to

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

. Wren used the house as his country retreat, and it was occupied from time to time by members of his family, including his great-great-grandson Christopher Roberts Wren,

in 1820. Later descendants sold the estate in 1861 to James Dugdale, High Sheriff of Warwickshire 1868, who demolished the old manor house and replaced it with an imposing mansion, thereafter to be known as Wroxall Abbey, in the

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The Lady Chapel adjacent to the Hall, now a church dedicated to St Leonard, and popularly known as

Wren's Cathedral Wren's Cathedral, properly the Church of St Leonard and now a cathedral of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, was originally the Lady Chapel of Wroxall Priory. Wroxall Priory was founded in 1141 as the Priory of St. Leonard for nu ...

, is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It is a cathedral of the

Free Methodist Church The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology. The Free Methodist Church has members in over 100 ...

and is used for regular services and weddings. The nearby ruins of the 12th century abbey are Grade II* listed. The house was let and was occupied as a girls' school from 1936 to 1995. In 1995 the estate was purchased by the Quinn family, who leased it to a commercial company in 2001. The lessees converted the estate into a hotel. Image:Mansion Blue Sky Rear.jpg, Mansion rear Image:Mansion front.jpg, Wroxall Abbey Entrance Image:St Leonard's Church, Wroxall Abbey, Warwickshire, England.jpg, Wren's Cathedral Image:Wren's Cathedral 2.jpg, Wren's Cathedral

References

''A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 3'' (1945) pp215-220 Wroxall from British History Online
* - 1990 description

External links

Wroxall Abbey Estate website

Photos of Wroxall Abbey and surrounding area on geograph.org
{{coord, 52.3340, -1.6764, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Warwickshire History of Warwickshire Grade II listed buildings in Warwickshire Grade II listed houses Houses completed in 1141