BINHAM PRIORY, near Fakenham (TF 982399)
| The site of Binham Priory lies to the
north of the village of Binham surrounded by a low precinct wall. The
gatehouse and entrance is to the west. The priory was founded in the late
eleventh century as a dependent house of the Benedictine Abbey of St
Albans.
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Binham
Priory from the south.
The roofed building is the nave of the priory church now used as a parish
church. The rest of the priory
buildings, which were excavated in the 1930s, are displayed by English Heritage.
© Sue White
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History of the priory
Construction
The founders, Pierre de Valognes and his wife Albreda,
were Normans. Pierre was a nephew of William the Conqueror, and was one of the
Norman barons among whom William shared out his newly-won kingdom. Pierre's
seat was in Suffolk but he was also given a number of estates in west and north
Norfolk, among them the entire village of Binham. It was here he founded a
monastery. Although we don't have an exact date, Binham was certainly in the
first wave, if not the earliest, of the Norman religious foundations in the
county.
Pierre endowed the priory with the entire village of
Binham, so the prior was also lord of the manor. The priory also received the
tithes of thirteen churches on Pierre Valognes's other Norfolk estates. It was
founded for eight monks. In the fourteenth century there were thirteen or
fourteen, but by the time it was suppressed in May 1539 numbers had fallen back
to six.
The building of the priory church began, as was customary,
at the east end perhaps as early as c.1090. In these early parts you can
see how the builders used the local gingery-brown sandstone conglomerate to work
in with the Barnack limestone. Then for a period of about 25 years they used the
creamy Caen stone shipped over from Normandy. After that it was all the shelly
Barnack brought in by sea and river from Northamptonshire.
Building stopped and started with the seasons and with the
availability of cash and materials. A major break in the programme is evident at
the west end of the nave, and when work resumed it was in a new style. The west
front had been reached by about 1244, so a building that had started in the
Romanesque style was able to finish with a grand gothic flourish (see photo of
west end).
The presbytery at the east end, the area under the central
crossing tower, the north and south transepts, both aisles flanking the entire
length of the nave and the choir in the eastern two bays of the nave all served
as the priory church. The rest of the nave was the parish church. It was because
of this dual function that the church was only partially demolished and why it
had no west tower.
Demolition
When the King's Visitor, who was closing down the lesser
monasteries, appeared in Binham in March 1538 the monks played up their
connexions with the prestigious St Albans and won themselves another fourteen
months' existence. However, they fell in 1539 in company with the greatest
abbeys in the land.
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Engraving by Buck of Binham Priory church
showing the intact west front, 1738. (copied from an original engraving
in the Norfolk Record Office: MS4579)
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At the suppression of the monastery the king appropriated
all of the buildings belonging to the monks and these were sold to Thomas Paston.
His grandson Edward Paston pulled them down to re-use the stone. This included
all of the church except for that part used by the parish, the cloister and all
the surrounding conventual buildings. These became ruinous, and even the aisles
were demolished. The main arcades are visible on the exterior and were blocked
up to contain the space used as the parish church.
Site description
| The remaining building has the typical
elevation of a major Norman church with a main arcade surmounted by a
triforium or upper aisle and above that a top storey of windows with a
passage in the thickness of the wall running in front of the openings. The
westernmost bays of the building, built about 140 years after the building
was begun, gradually changed in style with more naturalistic carving of
foliage on the capitals and more elegant pointed arches appearing in the
upper storeys. Most impressive of all, and of tremendous importance for
the history of medieval architecture in England, is the west front which
displays the substantial remains of probably the earliest surviving bar
tracery in the country, built in the time of Prior Richard de Parco who
died in 1244. This patterning of stone in windows was first used a few
years earlier at Rheims in France and became one of the most
characteristic features of Gothic architecture.
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The west front of Binham
Priory church built between 1226 and 1244. This window could be the
earliest example of bar tracery in England.
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The division between the monastic and parochial areas of
the abbey church was a real one. The wall which today forms the east wall of the
church was the wall which divided the two. It was constructed in the later
Middle Ages perhaps in response to tensions between the monks and the
parishioners. A pair of doorways in the wall allowed access from the choir to
the parish church where masses were said at the nave altar.
For the priory buildings, the evidence
for the plan comes from excavations carried out in the 1930s. In those
days it was more a question of rubble clearance, using unsupervised
workmen than careful archaeological excavation as we know it today. So, no
records of any layers found were recorded and few artefacts have survived.
The central part of the plan was the
square-shaped cloister walk on the south side of the church with a lean-to
roof providing sheltered access to the buildings on all four sides. This
outline is clear on the air photograph. On the north side was the church
with its central tower. To the west was the range containing the outer
parlour for transactions with the outside world, the cellarer's range
for storage of provisions, and probably also accommodation for the prior
and his guests. The south range contained the refectory (or monks dining
area), served by a kitchen to the south. The east range consisted of the
chapter house (for business meetings), monks' parlour (or sitting room),
warming room and an undercroft. The monks' dormitory was on the first
floor over the undercroft, with access to the reredorter (or lavatories).
A malting kiln, which was probably used into the
eighteenth century, occupied its own building at the south side of the east
range. It was part of a complex of buildings with brewing and baking facilities
for supplying the priory.
Surrounding meadows. Although the
adjacent meadows are not open to the public except along the public
footpaths, it is possible to see humps and bumps of several more
buildings, still unexcavated, in the grass. These all lie within the large
oval outline which represents the priory precinct. A plan of these
earthworks is shown below. The only piece of medieval precinct wall to
remain is on the west side of the meadows to the south of the gatehouse.
Access. Follow the brown
signs to the priory, drive in through the gatehouse and park in front of the
church. The site is open all year round. An excellent guidebook mainly to the
church is on sale in the church.
Visitors may wish to walk into the village and see the
medieval cross, also cared for by English Heritage, standing on the village
green.
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Plan of Binham Priory
earthworks surrounded by the oval outline of the precinct wall, surveyed by
Brian Cushion in 1998.
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Coloured plan of Binham Priory church in
Fairweather (1929) showing building phases.
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Binham
Priory from the SE, 1983.
The nave of the priory church is now the parish church.
The priory gate is beside the road near the farm buildings to the left.
©
Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service.
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Binham further reading
Cox, J.C., Rev., 1906. "The Priory of Binham", Victoria
History of the County of Norfolk II, 343-6.
Fairweather, F.H., 1929. "Norman Apses in Norfolk
Priory Churches", A Supplement to Blomefield's Norfolk, 315.
Insall, D., undated. Binham Priory (site guidebook
on sale in the church).
Pevsner, N. and Wilson B., 1997. Norfolk I: Norwich and
North-East Norfolk, 389-393.
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