Herringfleet Priory (also St Olave's Priory) was an Augustinian

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 ...

of Black Canons located in

St Olaves St Olaves is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated on the River Waveney, south-west of the town of Great Yarmouth and the same distance north-west of the Suffolk town of Lowestoft. It is within The Broads national ...

, north-west of

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

in eastern England. The site is in the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, although prior to 1974 it was part of the former

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

parish of

Herringfleet Herringfleet is a place and former civil parish, now in the parish of Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet, in the East Suffolk district, in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is located north-west of Lowestoft. The parish was combi ...

. Founded in 1239, the priory was situated near the ancient ferry across the

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The earliest attestation of the name is from 1275, ''Wahenhe'', from ''*wagen + ea'', meaning the river by a q ...

. The priory of SS. Mary and Olave was founded by Sir Roger Fitz Osbert of

Somerley Somerley is a large Georgian Grade II* listed English country house that is situated in the civil parish of Ellingham and Harbridge with Ibsley in the New Forest district in Hampshire, England. It is 2 miles (3 km) west of the New Fores ...

in the time of Henry III. The remains consist of the

undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and Vault (architecture), vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area whi ...

, two aisles of the Lady Chapel, and the

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monastery, monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminary, seminaries. The name ...

, now a barn. The original dedication was to "St Olave, The Blessed Virgin Mary, and St Edmund, King and Martyr".

Saint Olaf Saint Olaf ( – 29 July 1030), also called Olaf the Holy, Olaf II, Olaf Haraldsson, and Olaf the Stout or "Large", was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the ...

was King of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He was born ca. 995 AD and Christianised

. In Suffolk, there was one other dedication to Saint Olaf, Creeting St. Olave's, but two in Norfolk, and over fifty in the rest of England, with six in London. On 20 August 1536, Sir Humphrey Wingfield, the Commissioner for the Dissolution of the Monasteries arrived, and on 16 January 1546 Henry VIII made over the priory site to a local man, Sir Henry Jerningham of

Somerleyton Somerleyton ( ) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet, in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district, in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of Lowestoft ...

. Now in ruins, it gives its name to St. Olave's Bridge, over the Waveney, replacing a very ancient ferry, and also to a modern railway-junction. The Priory was allowed to hold an annual fair on St Olave's Day, 29 July. It was also given the lordship over

and

Burgh St Peter Burgh St Peter is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Burgh St Peter is located north-east of Beccles and south-east of Norwich. History Burgh St Peter's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old Eng ...

. The area has been excavated and several burials in the Canons'

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

discovered. It is now in the guardianship 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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

Priors

St Olaves Priory 13th Century Undercroft - geograph

*1273 William *1300 Bennedict *1303 Thomas of Norwich *1309 William Dale *1329 John de Tybenham *1341 Philip of Herlingland *1354 John of Surlingham *1370 Roger of Haddiscoe *1391 John of Hanewell *1401 John of Wylughy *1430 John Wells *1460 William Bugal *1468 William Beverley *1480 Thomas Baget *1541 William Dale

References

External links

St Olaves Priory
at

{{coord, 52.5385, 1.6243, type:landmark_scale:3000_region:GB, display=inline,title 1239 establishments in England Monasteries in Suffolk Augustinian monasteries in England Christian monasteries established in the 1230s 1536 disestablishments in England