More information : [TF 3599 8421] Site of Priory. [GT]. (Cistercian Founded c.AD 1150). (1)
Legbourne, founded about 1150 for Cistercian nuns and suppressed in 1536, was a quasi-double house. Masters are recorded between 1294 and 1343, and these were possibly Premonstratensian brethren. Scheduled. (2-3)
Extensive earthworks mark the site. No building foundations were noted. Published survey 25" (1906) revised. (4)
A measured survey of earthworks at Legbourne was carried out in 1978 by P Everson and NLAU. (5)
The remains of the Medieval Cistercian nunnery referred to by the previous authority were visible as earthworks and have been mapped from good quality air photographs. The remains sit at the north east end of the modern village of Little Cawthorpe. The remains of five substantially ditched, rectilinear, conjoined enclosures are visible centred at TF 3593 8422. These range in size from 65m by 45m to 40m by 20m. The exact function or significance of these to the nunnery is not clear. Attached to the east end of the main enclosures are further, longer, enclosures on average 40m long. A possible Medieval fish pond is visible to the east of the main complex centred at TF 3616 8428. Ridge and furrow survives as earthworks to the north and south of the main site centred at TF 3605 8442, TF 3580 8436, and TF 3594 8390.
(Morph No. LI.148.2.1-9, 3.1)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
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