Ankerwycke Priory was a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

nuns in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The priory was established around 1160 by Gilbert de Muntfichet and his son Richard, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. It held an estate at Anckerwycke (or Anckerwick) near

Wraysbury Wraysbury is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in England. It is under the western approach path of London Heathrow Airport. It is located on the east bank of the River Thames, roughly midway between Wind ...

, and some land elsewhere in Buckinghamshire, Surrey, and Middlesex. The priory was small and relatively poor; in the 1290s the lands were valued at 10''s'' by the ''

Taxatio Ecclesiastica The ''Taxatio Ecclesiastica'', often referred to as the ''Taxatio Nicholai'' or just the ''Taxatio'', compiled in 1291–92 under the order of Pope Nicholas IV, is a detailed database valuation for ecclesiastical taxation of English, Welsh, an ...

''. There were eight nuns recorded at an episcopal visitation in 1441, and an estimated seven or eight at the start of the sixteenth century. When it was dissolved in 1536, the revenues of either £22 or £44 per year were assigned to the re-founded

Bisham Abbey Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. This original Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the t ...

; the prioress received a pension of £5 per year. In 1197, a dispute over a nun who had left the priory after fifteen years and claimed she had been forced to take vows against her will reached

Pope Celestine III Pope Celestine III (; c. 1105 – 8 January 1198), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 March or 10 April 1191 to his death in 1198. He had a tense relationship with several monarchs, including Emperor ...

. After dissolution, Ankerwycke passed through a number of hands before being acquired by Sir Thomas Smith in 1550, who built a manor house on the site. Excavations were carried out at the priory in 2022, confirming that the Tudor house was developed from the existing priory and demolished in the early 19th century, leaving a small section of ruins from the original buildings. The site of the priory contains the Ankerwycke Yew, an ancient tree estimated at 1400-2000 years old, which would predate the foundation of the priory.

References

External links

3D scan of the ruins from the National Trust
{{coord, 51.4442, -0.5565, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Monasteries in Buckinghamshire 1160 establishments in England 1536 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 1160s Benedictine nunneries in England