January 1159 A.D. Denny Abbey, Cambridgeshire—6 Miles North of Cambridge;
Benedictine Monks (Dependent on Ely); Founded by Robert Chamberlain of Conan
IV, Brittany; Hospital 1170; Dissolved
1308; Refounded for Nuns, 1423 (Poor Clares);
Dissolved in 1539 Though Nuns in Residence to 1549; Passed to London for Debts, 1628; Converted
to Farmlands, 18th Cent; Estate Bought by Pembroke College
Denny Abbey
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encyclopedia
Denny Abbey
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Denny Abbey refectory
Denny Abbey is a former abbey near Waterbeach, six miles (10 km) north of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England which was inhabited by a succession of three
different religious orders during its history serving as a monastery. The
church and refectory buildings remain, and are listed buildings.[1][2] They are currently used as a museum. The whole site
is a scheduled ancient monument.[3]
The site, on an ancient road
between Cambridge and Ely, was settled by farmers as early as the Roman period. The Domesday Book recorded that it was owned by Edith the Fair(also known as Swanneck), the consort of King Harold, in 1066 when the Normans invaded England and killed her husband. It was owned subsequently by the Breton lord, Alan, 1st Earl of Richmond.[4]
The place-name 'Denny' is
first attested in Templar records of 1176, where it appears asDaneya and Deneia. The name is thought to mean 'Danes' Island '.[5]
Contents
Benedictine Monastery
A group of Benedictine monks, dependent upon Ely Abbey, moved here from their water-logged monastery at Elmeney (a vanished
settlement about a mile to the northeast) in the 1150s, at the suggestion of
Duke Conan IV of Brittany. They built a church and monastery,
called Denny Priory, which opened in 1159. The crossing and transepts are the only parts of the original abbey that
remain today. In 1169 the monks returned to Ely and the site was transferred to
the Knights Templar.
Preceptory of the Knights Templars
The Templars built a number of
additions, including a large Norman-style arched doorway and a Refectory. Denny became a hospital for sick members of the Order in the mid-13th
century.[6] By the end of that century, the Knights had lost
their power, and in 1308 King Edward
II had all the members of the
Order arrested and imprisoned for alleged heresy, confiscating their property. Denny was then given to the Knights
Hospitallers, who took no active interest
in the property. In 1324 it was taken back by the Crown.
House of Poor Clares
In 1327 King Edward
III gave the Priory to a young
widow, Countess Marie de Châtillon, Countess of
Pembroke (1303-1377), known for her founding of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Countess Marie built accommodations for herself in what had been the
Abbey church, which she turned into her lodgings. She built a new church and
gave the remainder of the priory to the Franciscan Second Order of nuns, the Order of Saint Clare, also known as the Poor Clares. This community moved from their flood-prone monastery in the nearby village of Waterbeach. The priory was expanded during this period, with
comfortable quarters for the Countess, who never entered the Poor Clares, and
spartan accommodations for the nuns. The priory began to be called Denny Abbey
during this period, despite the fact that the term "abbey" is never
used by the nuns of that Order.
The Countess of Pembroke died
in 1377 and was buried before the high altar of the nuns' church in Denny
Abbey, but the precise location of her grave is now lost.
Abbesses of Denny
A list of the Abbesses of
Denny[7]
- Katherine de Bolewyk, first abbess 1342, occurs 1351
- Margaret, occurs 1361
- Joan Colcestre, occurs 1379
- Isabel Kendale, occurs 1391, 1404
- Agnes Massingham, elected 1412
- Agnes Bernard, occurs 1413
- Margery Milley, occurs 1419, 1430-1
- Katherine Sybyle, occurs 1434, 1449
- Joan Keteryche, occurs 1459, 1462, died 1479
- Margaret Assheby, occurs 1480, 1487, 1493
- Elizabeth Throckmorton, occurs 1512, last abbess (who retired to live with her nephew George Throckmorton at Coughton Court)[8]
Secular use
The former Abbey church
The abbey was closed in 1536,
shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and was once more taken over by the Crown. The last of the nuns had left
within two years. The Abbess's lodge, originally built for the Countess, was
retained as a farmhouse, and the Refectory as a barn, but the nave was
demolished. In 1628 the abbey passed into private ownership. Pembroke College, Cambridge, which had also been founded by the Countess of Pembroke in 1347, bought
the site in 1928.
John George
Witt, the well-known barrister and
Q.C./K.C. of Victorian and Edwardian England, was born at Denny Abbey in 1836.
He died in London in 1906.
The Abbey, Nuns' Refectory and
surrounding land remained a farm until they were leased in 1947 to the Ministry of Works, which later transferred them to English Heritage. The abbey, partially restored in the 1960s, is
open to the public alongside the Farmland Museum, who manage the Abbey on
behalf of English Heritage.
The Farmland Museum, which
opened in 1997, has a shop, cafe and an Education Centre, running courses for
local schools. Farm buildings and a 17th-century stone barn have been converted
into displays of local history and farming, including a 1940s farm labourer's
cottage, a 1930s village shop, displays on local crafts and skills. Many of the
old farm tools and machinery came from a museum at nearby Haddenham which closed. The whole site, known as Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey, is open from April to October, and there are
regular special event days.[9]
Note: The spellings Denny and Denney appear with equal frequency in the historical
literature. The latter spelling is no longer used locally, in modern times.
References
2.
Jump up^ English Heritage. "Denny Abbey Refectory (1331328)". National
Heritage List for England.
6.
Jump up^ From: 'Houses of Knights Templars: Preceptory of Denney',
A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 2 (1948), pp.
259-262.
7.
Jump up^ Houses of minoresses: Abbey of Denney', A History of the
County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 2 (1948), pp. 295-302.
8.
Jump up^ Erler, Mary C., Women, Reading and Piety in Late Medieval
England, (Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 111-112.
- Liber Eliensis, charter 141, 1133-1169 (a translation into English, ISBN 1-84383-015-9 was published in 2005)
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