January 1216 A.D. Spinney
Abbey or Priory of St. Mary and Holy Cross, Cambridgeshire—Founded by Hugh de
Malebisse and Beatrix His Wife; Augustinian Canons; Black Death; Dependent on Ely; Benedictine
Monks 1449; Dissolved 1538; Granted to Sir Edward North 1544; Site Occupied by House & Farm
Spinney Abbey
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
The new house at Spinney Abbey, built in 1775
Spinney
Abbey, once known as Spinney Priory, is a house and farm on the site of a former
monastic foundation close to the village of Wicken, on the edge of the fens in Cambridgeshire, England.
Contents
Monastic origins
Between 1216 and 1228,
Beatrice, the granddaughter of Wimar, Steward of the Count of Brittany, founded the Priory of St Mary and the Holy Cross in the spinney a mile (1.6 km) from Wicken. The priory
accommodated three canons of theAugustinian order. It was endowed with the advowson of the parish church, 55 acres (223,000 m²) of land, a marsh called
Frithfen and the fishery of Gormere. Frithfen is likely to have included at
least part of the area now known as Wicken FenNational Nature Reserve, although its exact location is unclear. As such
this is the earliest record concerning that area, as well as Spinney Abbey. For
centuries the Abbey was associated with the fen, and this continues even now
with water being pumped from the farm fields into the Nature Reserve.
In 1301 Mary de Bassingbourne expanded the establishment with 90 acres (364,000
m²) more and four more canons. The bad news was that her endowment depended
upon the canons feeding three thousand poor people per year – a task which they
soon enough complained was 'grievous and insupportable'.
In 1403 the Prior, William de Lode, was murdered by three of his own canons who stabbed him in the priory
church. What happened to the murderers is unrecorded. This grisly tale has
given rise to many ghost stories about the Abbey.
Decline and dissolution of the Priory
Fortunes at Spinney declined
with the Black Death and the social upheavals of the fourteenth century, and in 1449 Spinney
Abbey was absorbed into the priory of Ely, which in due course became Ely Cathedral.
The priory continued in
existence and the almshouses it supported were not immediately abolished. In
1536 Henry VIII began the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Spinney Abbey was dissolved.
History since the Dissolution
Spinney became a private
property and was owned by various persons, including Sir Edward Peyton who had been a prominent leader of the puritan party during the reign of Charles I.
Isaac Barrow
As a child in 1634, the
theologian and mathematician lived for two years at Spinney Abbey which was at
that time owned by his grandfather who was also named Isaac Barrow.
Henry Cromwell
Perhaps the most celebrated
former owner of Spinney Abbey, and one who actually dwelt there, is Henry Cromwell, the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell. Henry lived in Spinney Abbey after his retirement from his office as Lord Deputy of Ireland at the Restoration. He was a well-respected and
capable man, and having petitioned the King was allowed to continue living in
peace there despite his father's fate. He owned Spinney from 1659 to his death
in 1673, and tradition has it that King Charles II visited him there in September 1671. Henry Cromwell
is buried with his wife at Wicken parish church.
The New House
The new house – the current
building – was built in 1775. The cellar of the original priory still survives
below and in it the great stones of the mediaeval masons are seen, along with
some iron fittings which have perhaps inevitably gained the reputation of being
the remains of mediaeval prisoners' restraints – although there is no evidence
to support such a tale. Other older parts are incorporated into the building –
some of the old priory doors, for example.
The farm had problems with
flooding, and until the installation of the diesel pumps which still drain it today, this has always been a difficulty. A
number of tenants came and went with little success. By 1883 the owner and
occupier was Robert Chambers Golding, known as 'Old Golding'. He built the
large barn known as Old Golding's Barn, which is still in use. It bears his
initials 'RG'.
His son, Chambers Waddelow
Golding, known as 'Young Golding', was an eccentric who drank himself to an
early death. He once took a horse upstairs, and the imprint of a hoof can be
discerned upon the stairs still.
The Fuller family
Since at least 1695 in
adjacent Padney, the oldest family in Wicken had been farming
alongside Spinney Abbey. In 1892 Thomas Fuller brought his family to farm at
Spinney Abbey, and by 1918 the freehold was in the family, and has remained
there ever since with various changes to the farm boundaries. In 1900 the farm
was a mixed, mainly arable farm. As of 2010 it is still a working farm now farming traditional slow growing breeds,
English Longhorn cattle and Gloucester Old Spots Pigs. In 2012 Spinney Abbey
Farm launched their first cider: "Monk & Disorderly".
Other associations
Spinney Abbey is the name of
the setting for the 1984 detective novel The Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes in her 'Inspector Jury' series.
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