Misplaced Pages

Buckland Priory (also known as Minchin Buckland Preceptory or Buckland Sororum (Latin: "Buckland of the Sisters")) was established around 1167 in Lower Durston, Somerset, England.

Priory

It was founded by William de Erleigh (or Erlegh) for Augustinian Canons. A local spring fed fishponds (or vivarium) and supplied the priory with water and drainage. The ponds were filled in by 1725.

The buildings burned down in 1234. The priory was later suppressed, and the estates given to the Knights Hospitaller. Subsequently, there was a priory of Canonesses of St. Augustine, and, in 1199 a preceptory of Knights Hospitaller, the Hospitallers' only house for women in England, who ceased to appoint preceptors after 1433.

Various endowments were made and by 1358 the estate consisted of 268 acres (1.08 km) of arable land, and 42 acres (170,000 m) of meadow.

Burials

• Robert Hill (died 1423) and wife Isabel Fitchet

Dissolution

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries Buckland was dissolved in 1540. The Hospitallers had granted a 50-year lease of their lands in 1539 to William Hawley or Halley. Following Dissolution Hawley received a lease of the property from the crown, and in 1545 together with Alexander Popham he purchased the freehold, then called "the manor and late preceptory of Buckland Priors". Hawley bought out his partner Popham later in 1545. In 1548 he held 300 acres of former Buckland Priory land. The property was later the seat of Sir Gabriel Hawley (d.1604), Sheriff of Somerset in 1584.

Present day

The site of one of the buildings is now occupied by Buckland Farm a Grade II* listed building.

References

1. ^ Bush, Robin (1994). Somerset: The Complete Guide. Dovecote Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 1-874336-26-1.
2. Dunning, Robert; C R Elrington; A P Baggs; M C Siraut. "Durston". Victoria County History. British History Online. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
3. ^ "Buckland Priory". Pastscape. English Heritage. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
4. "Notes on Buckland Priory". Vagg.org. Archived from the original on 14 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
5. "Mynchin Buckland Priory, Durston". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
6. Page, William (1911). "The Preceptory of Minchin Buckland". Victoria County History of Somerset. British History Online. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
7. 'Durston: Manors', A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6: Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and neighbouring parishes) (1992), pp. 259-262. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18669&strquery=hawley
8. "Lodge Farmhouse". historicengland.org.uk. English Heritage. Retrieved 8 January 2009.

Further reading

• Thomas, Hugo (1861). The history of Mynchin Buckland, priory and preceptory : in the county of Somerset. London: J.R. Smith.

51°03′12″N 3°00′33″W / 51.0533°N 3.0092°W / 51.0533; -3.0092

• Monasteries in Somerset
• 1167 establishments in England
• 1539 disestablishments in England
• Augustinian monasteries in England
• Preceptories of the Knights Hospitaller in England
• Christian monasteries established in the 1160s