Buckland Abbey is a Grade I listed 700-year-old house in Buckland Monachorum, near Yelverton,

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

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 ...

, noted for its connection with Sir

Richard Grenville Sir Richard Grenville (15 June 1542 – 10 September 1591), also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon. He subsequently ...

the Younger and Sir

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ...

. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Monastic history

Buckland Abbey was founded as a

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

in 1278 by Amicia, Countess of Devon and was a daughter house of Quarr Abbey, on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

. It was one of the last Cistercian houses founded in England and also the most westerly. The remains of the church are about long. The width across the transepts is . The nave and presbytery is wide. In the

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

episcopal registers show the abbey managed five granges at Buckland plus the home farm at the abbey. A market and fair at Buckland and Cullompton were granted in 1318. In 1337

King Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

granted the monks a licence to crenellate. Buckland Abbey TiThe barn

In the 15th century the monks built a

Tithe Barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious orga ...

which is long and survives to this day. It is Grade I listed It remained an abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by

King 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 ...

. At this time the revenues were placed at £241 17s. 9d. per annum (). The Abbot was given a yearly pension of £60 (), and the remaining 12 monks shared £54 10s. 6d.

Abbots

Post monastic history

In 1541 Henry sold Buckland to Sir Richard Grenville the Elder (Sewer of the Chamber to Henry VIII, poet, soldier, last Earl Marshall of Calais) who, working with his son Sir Roger Greynvile (Gentleman of the Privy Chamber of Henry VIII, Captain of the ill-fated ''

Mary Rose The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her ...

''), began to convert the abbey into a residence, renaming it Buckland Greynvile. Sir Roger died in 1545 when the ''Mary Rose'' heeled over in a sudden squall while the English Fleet was engaged with the French Fleet in the Narrow Sea off

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

. He left a son aged 3, also named

, who completed the conversion in 1575–76. After being owned by the family for 40 years, Buckland Greynvile was sold by Sir Richard the Younger to two intermediaries in 1581, who unknown to Grenyvile, were working for Drake, whom he despised. The abbey is unusual in that the church was retained as the principal component of the new house whilst most of the remainder was demolished, which was a reversal of the normal outcome with this type of redevelopment. Drake lived in the house for 15 years, as did many of his collateral descendants including the Dowager Lady Seaton, Born Elisabeth Fuller-Elliot-Drake, who died on 9 May 1937. She left a life interest to Captain Richard Owen Tapps Gervis Meyrick. In 1946 he sold it to Captain Arthur Rodd, who presented the property to the National Trust in 1947.

Buckland today

Following a restoration between 1948 and 1951 which cost around £20,000 (), largely funded by the

Pilgrim Trust The Pilgrim Trust is a national grant-making trust in the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is a registered charity under English law. It was founded in 1930 with a two million pound grant by Edward Harkness, an American philanthropist. T ...

the property has been open to the public since 1951 and is operated by the

with the assistance of

Plymouth City Council Plymouth City Council is the unitary authority for Plymouth, Devon. It has traditionally been controlled by Labour or the Conservatives. The council is currently in a state of no overall control, with the Conservatives governing as a minority a ...

— the

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery The Box is a museum, gallery and archive in Plymouth, Devon, England, opened in 2020 housing a collection of about 2 million items. The core of the building was previously Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery which closed in 2016. The building wa ...

use the building to house part of their collection. The collection is noted for the presence of " Drake's Drum". A number of independent craft workshops are located in the converted ox sheds. The Cider House garden includes both a wild garden and a kitchen garden. There is also a medieval Great Barn next to the house. In March 2013 the portrait of a man wearing a white feathered bonnet was re-attributed to

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

by the Rembrandt expert

Ernst van de Wetering Ernst van de Wetering (9 March 1938 – 11 August 2021) was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work. Background Ernst van de Wetering was born in Hengelo. He was first trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts ...

. In June 2014, after eight months of work at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, the painting's authenticity was confirmed and its value estimated at £30m. File:Buckland Abbey tower and barn.jpg, Tower File:Buckland Abbey TiThe barn.jpg,

Tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious orga ...

Costume Group

The National Trust Costume Group operate at Buckland Abbey, creating authentic

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

costumes using traditional materials and methods. There is a complete Francis Drake costume, based on the famous portrait of Drake in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, and the group are currently working on a costume for Lady Drake, also based on a portrait. Image:Francis Drake, por un artista anónimo.jpg, Portrait of Sir Francis Drake,

(artist unknown, c. 1580) Image:Frances Drake Costume.JPG, The completed Francis Drake Costume with Linda Bainbridge, a member of the Costume Group

References

External links

Buckland Abbey information at the National TrustList of paintings on view
{{coord, 50, 28, 52, N, 4, 08, 01, W, display=title, region:GB_type:landmark_source:dewiki Cistercian monasteries in England Country houses in Devon National Trust properties in Devon Grade I listed churches in Devon Monasteries in Devon Museums in Devon Historic house museums in Devon 1278 establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 13th century Francis Drake Grade I listed monasteries Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation