Tavistock Abbey - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine

Order of Saint Benedict

The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

abbey

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 Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and St Rumon, was destroyed by Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

raiders in 997 and rebuilt under Lyfing

Lyfing of Winchester

Lyfing of Winchester , also known as Livingus or Lifing, was an Anglo-Saxon prelate who served as Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of Crediton and Bishop of Cornwall.-Life:...

, the second abbot. The church was further rebuilt in 1285 and the greater part of the abbey between 1457 and 1458.

History

The abbey was founded in 961 by Ordgar, Ealdorman of Devon

Ordgar, Ealdorman of Devon

Ordgar, Ealdorman of Devon was an English West Country landowner notable as a presumed close advisor of Edgar the Peaceful, king of England, and as the father of Ælfthryth, the king's third wife and mother of Æthelred the Unready...

, and completed by his son Ordulf in 981, in which year the charter of confirmation was granted by King Ethelred II

Ethelred the Unready

Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II , was king of England . He was son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. Æthelred was only about 10 when his half-brother Edward was murdered...

. It was endowed with lands in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

and 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...

, and became one of the richest abbeys in the west of England.

Lyfing and his successor Ealdred both became bishops of Worcester

Bishop of Worcester

The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. He is the head of the Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury...

, and the latter is said to have crowned William the Conqueror

William I of England

William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...

. The thirty-sixth abbot, John Dynynton, was granted leave in 1458 to use the mitre

Mitre

The mitre , also spelled miter, is a type of headwear now known as the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishops and certain abbots in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in the Anglican Communion, some Lutheran churches, and also bishops and certain other clergy in the Eastern Orthodox...

and other pontifical

Pontifical

Pontifical may refer to the Roman Pontifical, a Roman Catholic liturgical book used by a bishop.When used as an adjective, Pontifical may be used to describe things related to the office of a bishop, such as the following:*Solemn Pontifical Mass...

ia; and the thirty-ninth, Richard Banham or Baynham, was made a lord of Parliament

Lord of Parliament

A Lord of Parliament was the lowest rank of nobility automatically entitled to attend sessions of the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland. Post-Union, it is a member of the lowest rank of the Peerage of Scotland, ranking below a viscount...

by Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

in 1513. Twenty-five years later the last abbot, John Peryn, with twenty monks, surrendered the abbey to the king, receiving a pension of a hundred pounds. The abbey revenues at the time of the Dissolution

Dissolution 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...

(1536–1541) were estimated at £902.

Saint Rumon

St Rumon, also known as Ruan, Ronan, and Ruadan, was probably a brother of St Tudwal of Treguier, but nothing else is known of him beyond that he was probably an Irish missionary and many churches in Devon and Cornwall in England were named after him. Some authorities have identified him with St Ronan (June 1), venerated in Brittany, but others believe that he and St Kea were British monks who founded a monastery at Street Somerset. Feast day is August 28 or 30 (at Tavistock). The translation of St Rumon is celebrated on January 5.

Cornwall

The abbey had considerable land holdings in Cornwall and three churches there are dedicated to St Rumon: Ruan Lanihorne, Ruan Major and Ruan Minor

Grade-Ruan

Grade–Ruan is a civil parish on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom approximately ten miles south of Falmouth....

. In Domesday Book the abbey held the manors of Sheviock, Antony, Rame, Tregrenna, Penharget and Tolcarne, while four other manors formerly theirs had been taken by Robert of Mortain. Only Sheviock was in the hands of the abbey while Ermenhald held five manors from it. Sheviock was worth 60s per annum and the holdings of Ermenhald were worth in all £8-15s. These were the same values as formerly suggesting the monks were good at administering their estate. These lands in the extreme south-east of Cornwall were the reason for that district being part of Devon from the medieval period until 1844.

In early times the Isles of Scilly

Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...

were in the possession of a confederacy of hermits. King Henry I gave the hermits' territory to the abbey of Tavistock, which established a priory on Tresco that was abolished at the Reformation.

History

Saint Rumon

Cornwall

See also

Further reading