Snelshall Priory was a Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 priory

Priory

A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...

 in Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, built around 1200.
The priory was started after Sybil d'Aungerville granted land at Tattenhoe

Tattenhoe

Tattenhoe and Tattenhoe Park are adjacent districts of Milton Keynes, England, in the ancient parish of Tattenhoe. It is located at the south-western edge of the city, not far from the ruins of Snelshall Priory...

 to Lavendon Abbey

Lavendon Abbey

Lavendon Abbey was a Premonstratensian abbey in Buckinghamshire, England. It was established in the 1150s and was dissolved in 1536....

, who most likely started a cell at Snelshall. Snelshall Priory paid 1 mark a year to Lavendon until 1232, at which point the Bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

 decided that Snelshall owned its own lands and chapel. The priory accumulated various land through gifts, but even with all these grants, in 1321 when Henry Burghersh

Henry Burghersh

Henry Burghersh , English bishop and chancellor, was a younger son of Robert de Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh , and a nephew of Bartholomew, Lord Badlesmere, and was educated in France....

 visited, it was so poor that "the monks scarcely had the necessities of life and had to beg even for these".

Yet the priory remained until the mid-sixteenth century. In 1529, Bishop Longford found "irregularities" among the two or three 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 that remained, and as a result all women, married and unmarried, were barred from priory. Only two women, both over 48 years old and of "unexceptional character", were retained as servants. In 1535, there remained three monks, two priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

s (of which one was a novice), the prior's parents with "all their goods" and eight servants. The house was in ruin, and later that year the priory dissolved and house turned over to The Crown

The Crown

The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...

.

The house was possibly rebuilt around 1540, possibly by Sir John Fortescue. Much of the priory's land went to the Longueville family. It is not known when the house was demolished.

The stones were recycled to build the nearby St. Giles' Church, Tattenhoe

St. Giles' Church, Tattenhoe

St. Giles's Church is a small 16th century Church of England church in the estate of Tattenhoe, located to the west of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is of modest size but is a Grade 2* listed building.-Early history:...

.

External links

• Houses of Benedictine monks: The priory of Snelshall', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 1 (1905), pp. 352-353. (Victoria History of the Counties of England).