Cookhill Priory
| Cookhill Priory | |
|
Worcestershire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type: | Convent |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP053572 |
| Location: | 52°12’49"N, 1°55’22"W |
| Village: | Cookhill |
| History | |
| Founded: | 1260 |
| Founder: | Isabel de Mauduit |
| Dissolved: | 1540 |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Now a recording studio |
Cookhill Priory was a Cistercian nunnery near Cookhill in easternmost Worcestershire, now a farm to the south of Redditch, close by the border of Warwickshire.
History
The Priory is believed to be founded by Isabel de Mauduit, wife of William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick in 1260, but it most likely dates to some years before then.[1] It is on record that she was buried at Cookhill when she died, and that she had become a nun there by the time of his death in 1298. A tomb with a broken dedication was still present in the chapel in seventeenth century.[1]
The Priory was noted for its poverty and repeatedly exempted from taxation:
The poverty of the house of Cookhill is indeed almost the chief feature of its known history. Almost every reference to the nuns is to speak of their poverty, to exempt them with other slenderly endowed houses from payment of any extraordinary taxation or to grant them respite for the arrears already owing to the king.[1]
The numbers of nuns present was small, probably around seven, as at the time of dissolution. The Priory was dissolved in 1540, two or three years later than most, and the nuns given pensions.[1]
After dissolution, the estate became a farm. The farmhouse, still known as ‘Cookhill Priory’, is now a Grade II* listed building[2] and occupied by a recording studio, VADA Studios.[3]
In February 2008, the 2008 horror film The Children was filmed there.
Tax dispute
The tax status of the property at its sale in 2001 after the death of Mrs Rosemary Antrobus made for two legal cases, known as Antrobus I and Antrobus II. These have influenced the current understanding of the definition of farm properties for agricultural property relief. HM Revenue and Customs agreed that the property was a farmhouse, but that it was not entitled to be viewed as a solely agricultural building.[4]
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A History of the County of Worcestershire - Volume 2 pp 156–158: Houses of Cistercian nuns: Priory of Cookhill (Victoria County History)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1096283: Cookhill Priory (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ "Main page". http://www.vadarecordingstudios.com.
- ↑ Butler 2016, pp. 77–79
- Butler, Julie (2016). Tax Planning for Farm and Land Diversification. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1780439792.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: Pevsner Architectural Guides