Rewley Abbey
Encyclopedia
The Cistercian Abbey of Rewley was an Abbey
in Oxford
, England
. It was founded in the 13th century by Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall
. Edmund's father, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall
, founder of Hayles Abbey, had intended to establish a college or chantry of three secular priests to pray for his soul, but his son Edmund substituted 'six Cistercian monk
s, having more confidence in them.' If this was the original plan, it was soon enlarged. In 1280 he offered the general chapter of the Cistercian order to found a college (studium) for Cistercians at Oxford, and the chapter accepted the offer, and decreed that the college should have the same privileges as the college of St. Bernard
at Paris
, and that it should be under the Abbot of Thame
, as the other was under the Abbot of Clairvaux
. The following year the chapter decreed 'out of due respect to the Earl of Cornwall' that the Abbot of Thame should be empowered to appoint an Abbot of his own choice for the house of study at Oxford, and that there should be a daily memory of the late Earl of Cornwall at Mass
at the college (studium) of Oxford, according as the Abbot of the place shall ordain.
, mills in Cassington
, the hamlet of Wyllanston in the parish of Mixbury
, two parks in Nettlebed
called Great and Little Hymer (now Highmore
), tenements in London
, and the advowson
of the church of St. Wendron in Cornwall
(now called Wendron
). Of this church the Abbey had the appropriation
as early as 1324. Subsequently, Edward the Black Prince gave the advowson of St. Stithians
, Cornwall, and in 1354, the Bishop
granted them the appropriation. Before 1291 the Abbey also had possessions in Chesterton, Oxfordshire
, doubtless given by the founder, who owned that manor. The Valor
shows that by 1535 it had rents in Coventry
, but had acquired little beyond its original endowments
.
that the Cistercian houses in the province of Canterbury
should send students to the 'studium Oxonie,' one from every monastery
with twenty monks.
How long Rewley remained a place of study is not certain. The fact that there was a dispute in 1300 as to what precedence the monks of Rewley should have in university processions shows that the monks were students then, and an entry in the Patent Rolls
for 1315 concerning damage done at Rewley contains the words 'the monks residing there are scholars.' Probably it ceased to be a place of study when Bernard College was built, and King Henry VIII, patron of the Abbey, seems to have ordered that a grammar master should be kept at Rewley, and that one or two of the monks should be supported at Bernard College.
ruffled the usually placid water of monastic life at Rewley some time before it burst upon the Abbey and swept it away. Abbot Nicholaus Austen, early in 1536, offered Thomas Cromwell £100 to save the monastery if only by converting it into a college, (fn. 20) but it was useless, and Abbot Nicholas was pensioned off and retired to Trinity Hall, Cambridge
, to study.
was built on the site of the Abbey in 1906, but the station closed in 1926. The only remaining trace of the Abbey is the remains of a wall and gate near the terminus of the Oxford Canal
, which for many years marked the perimeter of the rail yard
at Oxford railway station
. An estate of houses now occupies the land on which Rewley Abbey stood.
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was founded in the 13th century by Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall
Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall
Edmund of Cornwall of Almain was the 2nd Earl of Cornwall of the 7th creation.-Early life:Edmund was born at Berkhamsted Castle on 26 December 1249, the second and only surviving son of Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall and his wife Sanchia of Provence, daughter of Ramon Berenguer, Count of Provence,...
. Edmund's father, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall
Richard of Cornwall was Count of Poitou , 1st Earl of Cornwall and German King...
, founder of Hayles Abbey, had intended to establish a college or chantry of three secular priests to pray for his soul, but his son Edmund substituted 'six Cistercian monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s, having more confidence in them.' If this was the original plan, it was soon enlarged. In 1280 he offered the general chapter of the Cistercian order to found a college (studium) for Cistercians at Oxford, and the chapter accepted the offer, and decreed that the college should have the same privileges as the college of St. Bernard
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and that it should be under the Abbot of Thame
Thame Abbey
Thame Abbey was a Cistercian abbey at Thame in the English county of Oxfordshire.Thame Abbey was founded in 1137 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. It was dissolved in 1539. Most of the building stone was removed from the site, but the Abbot's House remained standing and was turned into a country...
, as the other was under the Abbot of Clairvaux
Clairvaux Abbey
Clairvaux Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, 15 km from Bar-sur-Aube, in the Aube département in northeastern France. The original building, founded in 1115 by St. Bernard, is now in ruins; a high-security prison, the Clairvaux Prison, now occupies the grounds...
. The following year the chapter decreed 'out of due respect to the Earl of Cornwall' that the Abbot of Thame should be empowered to appoint an Abbot of his own choice for the house of study at Oxford, and that there should be a daily memory of the late Earl of Cornwall at Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
at the college (studium) of Oxford, according as the Abbot of the place shall ordain.
Land
The Abbey obtained from its founder the Manor of YarntonYarnton
Yarnton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about southwest of Kidlington and northwest of Oxford and southeast of Woodstock.-Archaeology:Early Bronze Age decorated beakers have been found in the parish...
, mills in Cassington
Cassington
Cassington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about northwest of Oxford. The village lies on gravel strata about from the confluence of the River Evenlode with the River Thames. The parish includes the hamlet of Worton northeast of the village and the site of the former hamlet of...
, the hamlet of Wyllanston in the parish of Mixbury
Mixbury
Mixbury is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southeast of Brackley in Northamptonshire.-Manor:The toponym is derived from the Old English mixen-burgh, meaning "fortification near dung-heap". "Burgh" refers to Beaumont Castle, which was built about 1100...
, two parks in Nettlebed
Nettlebed
Nettlebed is a village in England in the Chiltern Hills about northwest of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire and southeast of Wallingford.-History:Archaeological finds show that the area around Nettlebed has been inhabited since Palaeolithic times....
called Great and Little Hymer (now Highmore
Highmoor, Oxfordshire
Highmoor is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire, about west of Henley-on-Thames. The parish includes the hamlet of Satwell....
), tenements in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
of the church of St. Wendron in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
(now called Wendron
Wendron
Wendron is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles north of Helston.The Revd G. H. Doble served for almost twenty years as the Vicar of Wendron . Langdon recorded the existence of eight stone crosses in the parish, including two at Merther Uny...
). Of this church the Abbey had the appropriation
Appropriation (economics)
Appropriation is a non-violent process by which previously unowned natural resources, particularly land, become the property of a person or group of persons. The term is widely used in economics in this sense...
as early as 1324. Subsequently, Edward the Black Prince gave the advowson of St. Stithians
Stithians
Stithians is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It lies in the centre of the triangle bounded by Redruth, Helston and Falmouth. Its population is 2,004....
, Cornwall, and in 1354, the Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
granted them the appropriation. Before 1291 the Abbey also had possessions in Chesterton, Oxfordshire
Chesterton, Oxfordshire
Chesterton is a village and civil parish on Gagle Brook, a tributary of the River Bure in Oxfordshire. The village is about southwest of the market town of Bicester...
, doubtless given by the founder, who owned that manor. The Valor
Valor Ecclesiasticus
The Valor Ecclesiasticus was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII....
shows that by 1535 it had rents in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, but had acquired little beyond its original endowments
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
.
Inmates
The number of inmates, which at first was fifteen, by the year 1294 was raised to sixteen. In 1292 an order was issued by the Abbot of CîteauxCîteaux Abbey
Cîteaux Abbey is a Roman Catholic abbey located in Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux, south of Dijon, France. Today it belongs to the Trappists, or Cistercians of the Strict Observance . The Cistercian order takes its name from this mother house of Cîteaux, earlier Cisteaux, near Nuits-Saint-Georges...
that the Cistercian houses in the province of Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
should send students to the 'studium Oxonie,' one from every monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
with twenty monks.
How long Rewley remained a place of study is not certain. The fact that there was a dispute in 1300 as to what precedence the monks of Rewley should have in university processions shows that the monks were students then, and an entry in the Patent Rolls
Patent Rolls
The Patent Rolls are primary sources for English history, a record of the King of England's correspondence, starting in 1202....
for 1315 concerning damage done at Rewley contains the words 'the monks residing there are scholars.' Probably it ceased to be a place of study when Bernard College was built, and King Henry VIII, patron of the Abbey, seems to have ordered that a grammar master should be kept at Rewley, and that one or two of the monks should be supported at Bernard College.
The dissolution
The approaching storm of the Dissolution of the MonasteriesDissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
ruffled the usually placid water of monastic life at Rewley some time before it burst upon the Abbey and swept it away. Abbot Nicholaus Austen, early in 1536, offered Thomas Cromwell £100 to save the monastery if only by converting it into a college, (fn. 20) but it was useless, and Abbot Nicholas was pensioned off and retired to Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, to study.
Traces of the abbey
Stones from Rewley Abbey were used to strengthened the base of the tower of St Mary Magdalen's Church, Oxford. Oxford Rewley Road railway stationOxford Rewley Road railway station
Oxford Rewley Road railway station was a railway station serving the city of Oxford, England, located immediately to the north of what is now Frideswide Square on the site of the Saïd Business School. It was the terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway, which was worked, and later absorbed, by the...
was built on the site of the Abbey in 1906, but the station closed in 1926. The only remaining trace of the Abbey is the remains of a wall and gate near the terminus of the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
, which for many years marked the perimeter of the rail yard
Rail yard
A rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic....
at Oxford railway station
Oxford railway station
Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about west of the city centre, northwest of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road, and on the line linking with . It is also on the line for trains between and Hereford via...
. An estate of houses now occupies the land on which Rewley Abbey stood.