Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

, located in Much Wenlock,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, at .

Roger de Montgomery Roger de Montgomery (died 1094), also known as Roger the Great, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury, and Earl of Arundel, in Sussex. His father was Roger de Montgomery, seigneur of Montgomery, a member of the House of Montgomerie, and was probably ...

re-founded the Priory as a

Cluniac The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wi ...

house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century monastery. In 1101 bones, believed to be those of Saint Milburga, were discovered beneath the floor of the old church. The relics were ceremoniously translated to the main monastery church. Parts of the building became a house later known as "Wenlock Abbey", which is privately owned, but most of Wenlock Priory is open to the public under the care of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and is used mostly for recreational purposes. The grounds have a collection of

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

History

Early history

Merewalh Merewalh (sometimes given as Merwal or Merewald was a sub-king of the Magonsæte, a western cadet kingdom of Mercia thought to have been located in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Merewalh is thought to have lived in the mid to late 7th century, havin ...

, King of the Magonsaete, a sub-kingdom of

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

, founded the original Anglo-Saxon monastery here circa 680, and Merewalh's daughter

Milburga Saint Mildburh (alternatively Milburga or Milburgh) (died 23 February 727) was the Benedictine abbess of Wenlock Priory. Her feast day is 23 February. Life Mildburh was a daughter of Merewalh, King of the Mercian sub-kingdom of Magonsaete, a ...

became its second abbess, and was later canonised. At that time called "Wimnicas" it was a double monastery, housing both monks and nuns. After her death in 715, however, little is historically known of the monastery until the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

. The priory continued to be inhabited by monks at least until the mid 11th century, when endowments were made by

Leofric, Earl of Mercia Leofric (died 31 August or 30 September 1057) was an Earl of Mercia. He founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock. Leofric is most remembered as the husband of Lady Godiva. Life Leofric was the son of Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce, ...

, Earl of Shrewsbury, was one of the great Norman lords during

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

's reign. He re-founded Wenlock as a

house, bringing monks from

La Charité-sur-Loire La Charité-sur-Loire (before 1961: ''La Charité'') is a commune in the Nièvre department and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Geography La Charité-sur-Loire lies on the right, eastern bank of the river Loire, about 25 km n ...

in central France. The monastery was established by 1086, when it is recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

. In 1101, repairs were being made to the Holy Trinity Church, probably the original nuns' church, and bones were found under the floor of the church. These were believed to be those of Saint Milburga, and were transferred to the main monastery church. The story of the discovery is told in the ''Miracula Inventionis Beate Mylburge Virginis'', attributed to Odo, Cardinal bishop of Ostia. Shortly after this, Goscelin of St. Bertin wrote a life of the saint, which together with miracles recorded at her shrine revived a local cult which endured through the Middle Ages. By 1170, the monastery was able to send a prior and twelve monks to found the daughter house of Paisley Abbey in Scotland. Other dependent priories established around this time were

Dudley Priory Dudley Priory is a dissolved priory in Dudley, West Midlands (formerly Worcestershire), England. The ruins of the priory are located within Priory Park, alongside the Priory Estate, and is both a scheduled monument and Grade I listed. The ruin ...

, St Helen's Priory and

Church Preen Church Preen is a dispersed hamlet and small civil parish in central Shropshire, England. The county town of Shropshire is Shrewsbury, which is located to the North and by road is 12 miles. It is located near Plaish, Kenley and Hughley. The n ...

. The monastery church was rebuilt between the late 12th and mid 13th-Centuries. The visible remains of the church largely date to this period.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

suggests a date of completion of 1200–1240 on stylistic grounds. King Henry III stayed at Wenlock on several occasions in the 1230s, and made numerous gifts to the priory. There are charges recorded for transporting wine to Wenlock for the king's visits. The Prior at this time was Humbert, and he travelled to Wales several times as the King's envoy. The town of Much Wenlock formed gradually around the priory. The town is made up of a small network of intricate, narrow streets lined with timber-framed black and white buildings. Within the town is the well of St Milburga of Wenlock, which was said to have cured sight impairments and helped Victorian women find a suitor.

Dissolution

The monastery was dissolved on January 26th 1540. Proposals had been made for creating a new diocese, with the church at Wenlock becoming a cathedral, as happened at

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, but these were not implemented, and most of the buildings were destroyed. The late 15th-century Prior's House and the adjoining infirmary building were converted into a private residence later known as "Wenlock Abbey".

Description of the site

The layout of the church and monastic buildings is clearly visible. The arrangement is conventional, with a cruciform church, a cloister to the south of the nave of the church, and the monastic buildings around the cloister. Of the church, the south transept, the west wall of the north transept, and the south-west three bays of the nave stand to their full height. Of the monastic buildings, there are substantial remains of the chapter-house, the library, and the lavatorium, while part of the later infirmary and prior's lodging have been converted to a private house. The ''South Transept'' is the best-preserved part of the church. The east wall has an arcade of three arches which opened into chapels. Above this is a

triforium A triforium is an interior gallery, opening onto the tall central space of a building at an upper level. In a church, it opens onto the nave from above the side aisles; it may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be locat ...

passage with paired lancets and a clerestory with a single window in each bay, also with a wall-passage. The south wall has two blank arches, three blank lancets above, then three stepped lancet windows above that. A single lancet is in the upper part of the gable. The west wall is mostly blank at the lower level, with triforium and clerestory above. Near the crossing is a laver or water stoup, with three blank arches, and the remains of a pipe-channel and drain. The west wall of the ''North Transept'' has a single surviving complete bay, similar in layout to the south transept. A blocked door leads to the remains of the sacristy on the west side of the transept, which has three large arched recesses and a crypt. The transepts, like the rest of the church, were vaulted as can be seen from the remains of the vaulting shafts. Three bays of the south-west part of the ''Nave'' survive. This shows an unusual design as a room has been constructed above the aisle vaults, requiring them to be lower than in the rest of the church. The function of this vaulted space is not known. Graham (1965) suggests, by analogy with other Cluniac houses including Cluny itself, that it was a chapel to St Michael.. However, there is no evidence of the existence of an altar. Little survives of the ''Cloister'' itself. The ''Library'' opens from the west wall of the south transept, with a single original arched opening, and two later flanking arches. South of this, three round arches with zigzag ornament lead into the Norman ''Chapter House'' of about 1150–1180. This is decorated with three levels of intersecting round arches, a common motif in chapter houses of this period. The vaulting shafts show that the chapter house was vaulted in three bays. In the cloister garth are the remains of a ''Lavabo'', a place for the monks to wash. The base and the foundations of the surrounding pavilion can be seen. The base has two well-preserved carved stone panels from the late 12th century, showing scenes from the lives of the Apostles. South of the chapter house, are the ''Infirmary'' and the ''Prior's Lodging'' now forming an L-shaped private house, described by Pevsner as "one of the finest examples of domestic architecture in England about the year 1500".

References

External links