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CHER Number: | 05394 |
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Type of record: | Monument |
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Name: | Site of Denny Abbey |
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Summary - not yet available
Grid Reference: | TL 492 684 |
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Parish: | Waterbeach, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire |
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Monument Type(s):
- ABBEY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
- PRECEPTORY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
- PRIORY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
- HOSPITAL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
- HOUSE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
Associated Events:
- Recording brief at Denny Abbey, Farmland Museum, 1996 (Ref: WAT DA 96)
- Excavations at Denny Abbey, 1968-1975
- Recording brief at Denny Abbey, 1997/8
- Fenland Survey Project, 1976-1989
Protected Status:
Full description
01, Occupied successively by Benedictine monks, Knights Templar and Franciscan nuns. There are considerable remains of C12 church, later converted to domestic use. The C14 refectory stands on N side of cloister court (Guardianship).
1. A church was built at Denny sometime before 1159 and later handed over to Benedictine Monks and then in 1170 to the Knights Templar. The site was unoccupied from the suppression in 1308 to 1339 when a community of Franciscan nuns transferred from Waterbeach. In 1539 the site and its possessions were granted to Edward Elrington. Most of the monastic buildings were demolished in 16th century but the 12th century nave of the church was incorporated in a farmhouse and the C14 refectory became used as a barn. What survives is of particular interest as it gives evidence of a Templar Infirmary and the only substantial architectural remains of the Order of St Clare now surviving in this country. Denny also affords the only instance of an existing monastic site being converted to Franciscan uses. The Benedictine Church was laid out on a cruciform plan and work began at the E end. The work was unfinished when the monks left, and the Knights Templar completed the construction of the church and erected buildings to the N. On the arrival of the Countess of Pembroke the buildings needed very considerable alteration to make them suitable for the Poor Clares, and the Countess was responsible for the demolition of the east end of the C12 church and its total reconstruction to fit it for use as the nuns' church. The nave, transepts and crossing of the C12 church were adapted to fit them for a more domestic use, and claustral buildings (including the refectory, still standing) were erected to the N of the church. The remains include part of the C12 church, the C13 building and a C14 refectory and tiled floor.
02, The remains of Denney Abbey have been restored by the MoW and are in a good state of preservation. See photos. Some excavations on other foundations are still in progress. The very complicated earthworks system appears to consist of the Roman droveway and possibly some Roman earthworks and the typical Abbey earthworks and also some later drainage channels. Surveyed at 1 :2500 Denney Gate is an area of surface quarrying.
3. Founded as Benedictine Priory of St James and St Leonard c 1160, transferred to the Knights Templars before 1169, when it became hospital preceptory for sick and aged members of the order. Refounded as an abbey of Franciscan nuns 1342 to replace Waterbeach, the union effected by 1351. Suppressed before 18/10/1539.
5. Sometime before 1159 a church dedicated to St James and St Leonard was built at Denney by one Robert, Chamberlain to Duke Conan 4th of Brittany. It was put in the charge of the Benedictines of Ely who occupied it for about eleven years. In 1170 the Priory was transferred to the Knights Templar together with a number of its endowments. The Templars' preceptory continued till the early C13 when it became a hospital exclusively for old and infirm members of the Order. When the Order was suppressed in 1308, ten or eleven brethren were arrested and these were mostly elderly. The estate was not reoccupied by a religious community till about 1339 when Mary de Valence, the widowed Countess of Pembroke, re-established the house for the Franciscan Order of Minoresses. The Manor of Denney had been transferred to her in 1327 as a holding for life, but in 1336 She acquired it absolutely and alienated it in favour of the Minoresses of Waterbeach. These nuns had been established at Waterbeach, a few miles S of Denney in 1293 by the Countess' kinswoman, Dionysia de Munchensey, but the site was always liable to flooding. In 1339 the Countess decided to move the Waterbeach Nuns to renovated buildings at Denney; by 1342 the abbess and some nuns were installed but many refused to leave Waterbeach and it was not till 1351 that their removal was effected and then not without the use of force. During the last twelve years or so of the Countess' life she appears to have spent much time at Denney and special permission was given for her to lodge there. Her will asked that she be buried in a Minoress' habit in the choir of the church, where her tomb had been prepared; she died in 1377. At the Dissolution in c 1539 there were 35 nuns, one or two of whom and the abbess Elizabeth Throgmorton, retired to Coughton Court, Warwickshire, to continue an enclosed life. Pembroke College placed the buildings in the guardianship of the Ministry of Works in 1947. The surviving monastic remains can be closely identified with the requirements of the three Orders who were in occupation. The church of the Benedictine community was cruciform but the eastern arm was destroyed in the C14 and its form is not certainly known. Their cloister was on the N side of the nave which was only aisled on the S. The dormitory led off the N transept. The nave is remarkable for its shortness, being but two bays long, and the late C12 style or ornament on the W doorway and the keel mouldings of the clerestory windows suggest a curtailed completion of a larger plan, by the Templars. This seems to have been the only constructional work carried out by the Templars before the house became their hospital in C13. At this stage in their occupation the hall range, partly on the site of the C12 S aisle appears to have been built, and it would not be unreasonable to identify it as the infirmary. The alterations made in the middle of the C14 for the reception of the Waterbeach nuns were drastic; a large aisled church was built on the site of the eastern arm of the Benedictine church and to the E of it; upper floors were inserted in the crossing, S transept and nave of the Norman church. The hall range also received an upper floor, the main compartment being transferred to first floor level. To comply with Franciscan custom a new cloister was erected away from the church; the refectory on the N side survives. The alterations necessary to introduce first floor rooms for domestic occupation within the earlier church involved the incorporation of small doorways on the ground and first floors in new blockings of the C12 arches. The upper floor in the crossing was probably used as a sort of pew looking into the new church from the W. These conversions to a domestic use may be the result of the Countess of Pembroke's increased interest in Denney as a place for a semi conventual existence at the end of her life. The Franciscan church was destroyed at the Dissolution and the C12 church became a house, and continued as such till 1947. Work carried out by the Inspectorate since then had been concentrated for the most part on the removal of Post Dissolution partitions. The result will eventually show the buildings as they were when the Countess' alterations had been completed; the plan accompanying these notes is intended to illustrate this same stage in the buildings' history, but as conservation is still in hand it is necessarily subject to amendment.
04, Denny Abbey was the home of three successive religious orders from C12 to C16. The main precinct is situated on a raised platform of land containing the remains of two standing Med buildings is a church and a refectory (both listed Grade 1).
9. Denny Abbey is a monastic priory complex which was the home of three successive religious orders from the 12th to the 16th centuries.
The main precinct is situated on a raised platform of land containing the remains of two standing medieval buildings, a church and a refectory, both of which are Listed Grade I. The rest of the precinct includes the below ground remains of ancillary buildings constructed at various times by the three religious communities. Around Denny can be seen a series of earthworks including a causeway to the south-east, now truncated, but once connecting the religious settlement with the village of Waterbeach. There is a hollow way to the north of the precinct and banks representing field and stock enclosures to the south and west. In the field to the west of the current approach road are two rectangular fishponds.
Historical documentation reveals that the site was established as a dependent priory of Ely cathedral around 1159. The Benedictines began to build a small church of cruciform plan but in1170 it became the property of the Knights Templars who modified the church considerably and added a further building. Unlike other examples, the Templars did not turn Denny into a normal preceptory. Instead it became a home for the aged and infirm members of the Order. Following the decline of the Knights Templars, the site was acquired by the Franciscans who established a nunnery from about 1339. Beside the new church of rectangular plan, they built a refectory and domestic claustral buildings to provide segregated accommodation for the nuns and guests and apartments for the Countess of Pembroke, the Order's principal benefactor. The establishment was finally closed down around 1539 following the Dissolution of Monasteries. Eventually, the property was converted to a farm and passed to Pembroke College, Cambridge, who placed it in the care of the Ministry of Works in 1947. Excavations undertaken at the west end of the Templar church in 1971 revealed remains of a 13th century garderobe or privy, while others conducted between 1984 and 1985 in the refectory uncovered the internal arrangements of the nuns' dining hall. Today, part of the monument is used by a working farm. There are new buildings, barns and a swimming pool in the NW area, and a cottage close to the abbey which is currently occupied. A newly recut open-drain is also located between the main priory complex and the fishponds. All above ground parts of buildings, walls and access roads are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath them is included. The present building is C18 and incorporates the surviving part of the C12 cruciform church.
10. prior to 1170 this monastic site was occupied by a small community of Benedictine monks. It was transferred to the Knights Templar who made use of the site until the order was suppressed in 1308. It was then taken over by a house of the Franciscan Order of Minoresses, established by the widowed Countess of Penbroke who held it until the Dissolution. The present building is an 18th century house which incorporated part of the 12th century cruciform church.
The site is surrounded by 15 acres of earthworks (PRN 05394a), including the remains of fishponds and some unusual rectangular ditched plots which were probably once gardens tended by individual monks. The 1880 OS map shows an extensive moat partly edged with trees and a small walled garden divided into four by cross paths. This belonged to the farm house there.
Wilson, S., 2010, Aerial photograph of Denny Abbey earthworks (Aerial Photograph). SCB21832.
<1> 1977, DOE Information Leaflet (Unpublished document). SCB18566.
<2> Barnard, E.A.B., 1928, A 16th century dole-gate from Denny Abbey. PCAS 29: 72-5, p. 72 (Article in serial). SCB18567.
<3> Knowles, D. and Hadcock, R.N., 1971, Medieval religious houses: England and Wales, 53, 64, 286, 292-3, 319, 355 (Bibliographic reference). SCB29.
<4> Hodgson, J.F., 1885, Arch J 42, p. 240 (Article in serial). SCB1003.
<5> 1967, Arch J 124, 232-4, SRT Spittle (ill) (Article in serial). SCB18568.
<6> Salzman, L.F (ed), 1948, The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 2, 259-62, 295-303 (Bibliographic reference). SCB14649.
<7> Pevsner, N., 1954, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, 254 (Bibliographic reference). SCB17744.
<8> Knowles and Hadcock, 1952, Monastic Sites from the Air, p. 266-7 (Bibliographic reference). SCB18569.
<9> English Heritage, 1995, Schedule of Ancient Monuments - 1995 (Scheduling record). SCB16660.
<10> Cambridgeshire Garden Trust, 2000, The Gardens of Cambridgeshire: A Gazetteer, 65 (Bibliographic reference). SCB21348.
<11> Hall, D.N., 1996, The Fenland Project, Number 10: Cambridgeshire Survey, The Isle of Ely and Wisbech, WTB S8 (Bibliographic reference). SCB16086.
Sources and further reading
--- | Aerial Photograph: Wilson, S.. 2010. Aerial photograph of Denny Abbey earthworks. TL49236844. |
<1> | Unpublished document: 1977. DOE Information Leaflet. |
<2> | Article in serial: Barnard, E.A.B.. 1928. A 16th century dole-gate from Denny Abbey. PCAS 29: 72-5. p. 72. |
<3> | Bibliographic reference: Knowles, D. and Hadcock, R.N.. 1971. Medieval religious houses: England and Wales. 53, 64, 286, 292-3, 319, 355. |
<4> | Article in serial: Hodgson, J.F.. 1885. Arch J 42. p. 240. |
<5> | Article in serial: 1967. Arch J 124. 232-4, SRT Spittle (ill). |
<6> | Bibliographic reference: Salzman, L.F (ed). 1948. The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 2. 259-62, 295-303. |
<7> | Bibliographic reference: Pevsner, N.. 1954. The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire. 254. |
<8> | Bibliographic reference: Knowles and Hadcock. 1952. Monastic Sites from the Air. p. 266-7. |
<9> | Scheduling record: English Heritage. 1995. Schedule of Ancient Monuments - 1995. |
<10> | Bibliographic reference: Cambridgeshire Garden Trust. 2000. The Gardens of Cambridgeshire: A Gazetteer. 65. |
<11> | Bibliographic reference: Hall, D.N.. 1996. The Fenland Project, Number 10: Cambridgeshire Survey, The Isle of Ely and Wisbech. WTB S8. |
Related records
05394B | Related to: Denny Abbey refectory (Monument) |
05394a | Related to: Earthworks around Denny Abbey (Monument) |
MCB19545 | Related to: Medieval and 19th century walls and rubble, Denny Abbey (Monument) |
MCB16281 | Related to: Possible midden, The Farmland Museum, Denny Abbey, Waterbeach (Monument) |
11725 | Related to: Unknown observations, Denny Abbey (Find Spot) |
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