More information : [TA 13243576] Site of ST MARY'S PRIORY [GT]
(Cistercian Founded AD 1153)
FISH PONDS [GT] (3 places) (1)
Founded pre 1153. This was the most important of the quasi-double monastries, and was for nuns and lay-sisters with canons and lay-brothers, the canons apparently Premonstratians and the lay-brothers Cistercian. It appears to have been an ordinary nunnery from C. 1344 until its dissolution in 1539. Parts of the original church are incorporated into St Mary's Church, which is still in use. (2)
There are no intelligible earthworks, apart from the three series of fish-ponds. These (now dry) are generally well preserved.
Published 25" survey - revised. (3)
TA 1320 3582. Site of Swine Cistercian nunnery. Scheduled RSM No 23804. There are extensive earthwork remains across much of the nunnery precinct, indicating the layout, land use and water management of the precinct. The core of the nunnery is to the E. The present parish church includes elements of the nunnery church, which is known to have been 76 ft (25m) long and probably extended beyond the end of the present church, into the farmyard. The W range of the cloister is also believed to lie beneath the present farmyard. A large moat-like ditch defined the precinct in part; it is between 5m and 10m wide and up to 2m deep where it survives as a waterlogged feature to the N, W and part of the S boundaries of the monument. The area to the W of the modern farm buildings is crossed by three drainage ditches which sub-divide this part of the precinct. An E-W drain, 1.5m wide and 0.5m deep, carried water from the area of the church to the W boundary ditch and is culverted where it runs beneath the modern farm and churchyard. Another drain runs S from the first to the S boundary. It is 5m wide and 1m deep. A further E-W of similar dimensions drains into the N-S drain from the E. These ditches would have served as enclosure boundaries as well as supplies of water.
The area to the N of the first E-W drain contains ridge and furrow and a complex of six fishponds and the mound known as Giants Hill. The fishponds are orientated E-W, allowing natural drainage from the higher ground to the E. They include a T-shaped group of three interlinked ponds. The ponds range from 40m to 8m long, 20m to 6m wide and 1.75m to 0.5m deep. The Giants Hill (see TA 13 NW 2) may have formed a look-out for the deer park which is known to have lain to the S of the nunnery.
The area S of the main E-W drain includes the earthwork remains of ponds, platforms and a moated enclosure. The latter is situated immediately S of the main E-W drain and E of the main N-S drain. Its platform is 16m square with a surrounding moat up to 12m wide and 1m deep. The rest of the area contains ridge and furrow and a single fishpond, 30m x 6m x 1m.
The nunnery was founded by Robert de Verli in c.1150, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. At its foundation it had 14 nuns and a prioress. Later male Premonstratensian canons were introduced, though they were removed sometime before 1287 following complaints of lax behaviour. Much of the site had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1308. The nunnery was dissolved in 1539, the 19 nuns dispersed and the land passed to the Constable family. The fishponds to the S of the farm are not included in the Scheduling as it is not yet known whether they were part of the nunnery complex. (4-5)
A medieval drainage channel can be seen as a cropmark on air photographs running along an east-west alignment, at TA 1353 3551 The channel appears to form part of the water management system for the fishponds located to the east and west. (6) |