Priory Cottages, Steventon
| Priory Cottages | |
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National Trust | |
|---|---|
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| Grid reference: | SU46539148 |
| Address: | 1 Mill Street, Steventon, Abingdon, Berkshire OX13 6SP |
| Information | |
| Website: | Priory Cottages, Steventon |
Priory Cottages (formerly Steventon Priory) is a 14th-century manor house and former monastic grange in Steventon in Berkshire. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII, the religious house here had the status of a priory, hence the name.
King Henry I gave the manor of Steventon to the priory of Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle in Rouen, a cell of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. It therefore became a cell of Bec and was given the status of a priory. However, a priory church and associated buildings were never built there. It always remained just a monastic grange, the building now called Priory Cottages, served by one or two monks. By the late 14th century, it was leased out to tenants. Later it belonged to Westminster Abbey.
The grange was purchased by the National Trust as the result of a donation by 'the Ferguson's Gang'; a group of anonymous, high-spirited ladies who made frequent sudden appearances, masked, at meetings of the National Trust in order to make generous donations, often with precise directions as to how the money was to be spent.[1]
References
- ↑ Hutton-North, Anna (2013). Ferguson's Gang - The Maidens behind the Masks. Lulu Inc. ISBN 978-1-291-48453-3.