More information : (SP 0876 5790) Alcester Abbey. A Benedictine house
founded 1140.
"The site was encompassed by the R. Arrow to the north and east and by a connecting moat on the south and west, as that it became known as the church of Our Lady of the Isle."
In 1467, owing to mismanagement and neglect the Abbey was absorbed by the great neighbouring house at Evesham, and
Alcester was reduced to the status of Priory, (a dependant cell to Evesham). It was dissolved with the lesser houses in 1536.
Excavations (no report available) in 1938 partially revealed the plan of the Abbey (1-3).
Slight surface disturbance at the indicated site and in the field immediately to the north are the only surface indications
of this abbey.
Minor earthworks to the SE at SP 089 578 appear to have been part of a water complex and may possibly have been associated (4).
Scheduled as 'Alcester Abbey (Site of)' (5).
SP 0876 5790 (FCE) Benedictine monastery of Alcester was founded around 1138-40 by Ralph le Boteler. In 1465, following severe impoverishment, its status was altered to that of a cell of Evesham Abbey. At the Dissolution the cell was swiftly suppressed along with other lesser religious houses in 1536 and all traces of the buildings were quickly erased as the ruins were used as a convenient quarry for the re-modelling of the ancient manor house known as Beauchamp Court (SP05NE4), and for the repair of the bridge at Bidford-on-Avon (SP05SE 8). There is no evidence of any post-Dissolution occupation. Probably by the seventeenth century and certainly by the eighteenth century the site of the former abbey had reverted to agricultural use which rendered any surviving monastic earthworks superficially unimpressive. The site is now only recognisable by slight earthworks, its field name and a local road name.
The above description is summarised from a detailed level 3 RCHME 1:1000 scale survey conducted in May 1992. The results of the survey are held in the NMR archive. (6) |