Thorney Abbey
| Thorney Abbey | |
|
The Abbey Church of St Mary and St Botolph | |
|---|---|
|
Thorney, Cambridgeshire | |
| Status: | Parish church |
 Thorney Abbey Church | |
| Church of England | |
| Diocese of Peterborough | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TF282041 |
| Location: | 52°37’13"N, 0°6’26"W |
| History | |
| Information | |
The Church of St Mary and St Botolph, commonly known as Thorney Abbey, is the Church of England parish church in the village of Thorney in north-westernmost Cambridgeshire: the boundary of the parish, at the Cat's Water is the county border with Northamptonshire, with Huntingdonshire just across the River Nene. The church is today part of the Diocese of Peterborough, and in a joint benefice with two Northamptonshire parishes; Eye and Northborough.
The origin of the church is a mediæval monastic house, Thorney Abbey, in the tenth century on what was then an island (the name of the village, Þornieg in Old English, means 'Thorn Island'. It stands deep with the Great Fen.
The church today is a Grade I listed building.[1]
History
The earliest documentary sources refer to a mid-7th century hermitage destroyed by a Viking incursion in the late 9th century.
A Benedictine monastery was founded in the 970s.
A huge rebuilding programme followed the Norman Conquest of 1066. A new church was begun under the abbacy of Gunther of Le Mans, appointed in 1085.[2] It was in use by 1089, but not entirely finished until 1108.[3] Henry I was a benefactor of the abbey;[4] a writ of his survives ordering the return of the manor of Sawbridge in Warwickshire to the abbey "and there is to be no complaint of injustice".
The focus of the settlement shifted away from the fen edge in the late 12th or early 13th century, the earlier site becoming a rubbish dump, perhaps because of encroaching water. It was reoccupied in the 13th and 14th centuries, when clay layers were laid down to provide a firm foundation for the timber buildings. More substantial buildings were erected in the 16th century and these are thought to have been part of an expanding abbey complex, perhaps for use as guesthouses, stables, or workshops.
Many of Thorney Abbey's buildings disappeared without trace after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Its last abbot, Robert Blythe, was a supporter of the King, having signed a letter to the pope urging that his divorce should be allowed. He was rewarded with a pension of £200 a year. The abbey was surrendered to the king's commissioners on 1 December 1539,[2] and most its buildings were later demolished and the stone reused. The site was granted to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford in 1549/50.
The nave of the church survived, and was restored as the Parish Church of St Mary and St Botolph in 1638. At this date the aisles were demolished and the arcade openings walled up. Some stained glass was installed that possibly came from the Steelyard, the London trading base of the Hanseatic League. The present east end, in the Norman style, is by Edward Blore, and dates from 1840 to 1841.[3]
A model of the monastery can be seen in the Thorney Museum.
The name Thorney Abbey is also given to a Grade I listed house in Thorney,[5] partly of the late sixteenth and partly seventeenth century.[3]
Burials
As a large abbey of Anglo-Saxon England a number of saints have been buried and venerated in Thorney, including:
- Athwulf of Thorney
- Benedict Biscop
- Botwulf of Thorney
- Cissa of Crowland
- Herefrith of Thorney
- Huna of Thorney
- Tancred of Thorney 9th century East Anglian martyr
- Torthred of Thorney brother of Tancred
- Tova
- Wihtred of Thorney
- Albinus of Thorney[6] an Anglo-Saxon bishop and saint, buried in Thorney.
Excavation
Excavation was undertaken in 2002 prior to redevelopment, by University of Leicester Archaeological Services. This focused on the northern edge of the former island. As well as pottery, animal bone and roofing material, a large deposit of 13th and 14th century painted glass was found in and around the buildings. The intricate designs were of very high quality.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Thorney Abbey) |
- Thorney Abbey: Where City Meets Fen (Parishes of Eye, Newborough and Thorney)
- Thorney Abbey - Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Calendar and the Cloister, website dedicated to Oxford, St John's College MS 17, an early 12th-century manuscript produced at Thorney Abbey
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1331263: Church of St Mary and St Botolph (Grade I listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A History of the County of Cambridgeshire - Volume 2 pp 210-217: Houses of Benedictine monks: Abbey of Thorney (Victoria County History)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, 1954 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09586-9
- ↑ Hollister, C. Warren Henry I Yale University Press 2001 pp.160-161
- ↑ National Heritage List 1127481: Thorney Abbey and Abbey House, Abbey Place (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Charles H. Talbot, The Life of Christina of Markyate: A Twelfth Century Recluse (University of Toronto Press, 1998) page 23.
- Thomas, J.: 'Thorney Abbey discovered?' 'Current Archaeology' (2006), 204; 619
