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ST BENETS ABBEY, near Horning (TG 383157)
The abbey in the marshes
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The Abbey of St Benets lies on a sand and gravel island called
Cow Holm surrounded by grazing marshes beside the River Bure.
In the Middle Ages it was approached by land along a broad
causeway from Horning to the north west and by river along the Bure.
It is quite likely that the causeway was only usable during the summer.
The place has an over-riding sense, even today, of extreme isolation,
and no doubt before the marshes were drained in the eighteenth century
it was often a true island. |
The gatehouse and windmill as they are today. |
Most of the site covering 36 acres (14.6 hectares) was acquired from the Crown Estate Commissioners in May 2002 and the gatehouse and adjoining windmill from Norwich Diocese in january 2004.
The significance
St Benets is particularly significant for the archaeology of Norfolk for
a number of reasons:
- It was the only Anglo-Saxon monastery in the county which continued
in use throughout the Middle Ages. The only other comparable sites in the
region are Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk and Ely in Cambridgeshire.
- However, unlike Bury and Ely the site was left undisturbed after the
Dissolution because of its inaccessible location. Today, St Benets
contains a very fine set of earthworks which have not been built over
or dug into since. The place is well worth a visit
- Because of the waterlogged nature if its location, it is likely that the
site's underlying archaeology contains well-preserved organic remains of
Anglo-Saxon and medieval date of great importance.
- The medieval gatehouse and adjoining eighteenth-century windmill are
so well known that they have become an icon for the county's historic
landscape. The scene of the ruins beside the River Bure has featured in
so many paintings and photographs from the Norwich School onwards that it
is one of the most recognisable landmarks in the Norfolk landscape. It
never fails to evoke interest.
- This was the only monastery in Britain which survived the Dissolution,
because, instead if closing the monastery, the king exchanged it for lands
owned by the Diocese of Norwich. Although it was soon closed and all the
buildings, except for the gatehouse, were demolished, the Bishop of
Norwich can still claim to be Abbot of St Benets.
The medieval abbey
While the tradition of a pre-Viking foundation is little more than hearsay,
there is strong documentary evidence for a monastery on the island by the
late tenth century. This had the patronage of King Cnut from around 1020
when it was re-founded as Benedictine abbey. The recent discovery of a
small lead plaque inscribed with a late tenth or early eleventh century
runic inscription has provided the best archaeological evidence we have
so far that the monastery had a pre-Conquest foundation.
The abbey already had 28 dependant churches by 1046, and it had property
in 76 parishes by 1291. It was clearly a wealthy and powerful establishment,
despite its isolated, and possibly unhealthy, location.
In the sixteenth century the, no doubt, very grand buildings were demolished
and today none can be identified except for the fourteenth-century gatehouse
and the foundations of the abbey church. The base of the precinct wall built
around the perimeter of the D-shaped ditched enclosure in 1327 is also clear
in some places.
The most prominent earthworks within the precinct are the remarkably elaborate
fishponds described the Royal Commission of Historical Monuments, who have
surveyed the site, as ranking "among the most complex of any monastic house
in England".
Without excavation we cannot assess how well the archaeology has survived
underneath, but it is clear that there has been minimal disturbance since
the Dissolution. Where medieval foundations are exposed in the riverbank
they look substantial. It is likely that preserved waterlogged deposits of
the greatest importance remain, and some of these are, no doubt, Pre-Conquest
in origin.
After the Dissolution
When in 1536 King Henry VIII appointed Bishop Reppes as Abbot of St Benets,
the king granted him all the abbey properties in return for those of the
Diocese. The bishop soon stripped the site, and the last monk left in 1545.
Then only the bishop's title of Abbot of St Benets remained. The buildings
must have been demolished and the material removed by river, much of it
possibly to the new Duke of Norfolk's palace in Norwich begun in 1561
(although few details of the demolition are recorded).
When the surrounding marshes were drained in the early eighteenth century,
the precinct ditch was used as a part of the drainage system, with the new
drainage dykes flowing into the old ditch. A drainage mill was first erected
at the eastern outflow of the precinct ditch to pump water into the river,
and this is shown on a map of 1702. No trace of this remains today.
Engravings of 1728 show the gatehouse without a windmill and the upper story
of the gatehouse still partially preserved.
Later in the eighteenth century the eastern drainage mill was replaced by the
present one which was erected onto the front of the gatehouse. The upper
floor of the gatehouse was then removed to provide room for the sails to
turn. An engraving by Cotman of 1813 shows the windmill and gatehouse
without the upper story. An engraving of 1833 of a painting by James Stark
shows the scoop wheel in position proving that the mill was indeed used as
a drainage pump. There is a fine photograph of 1854 published in the site
guidebook showing the mill with its sails, but these blew off in 1863.
Open-air services
The Diocese revived worship on the site when first open-air service was
held within the foundations of the abbey church, with the Bishop of Norwich
as preacher, in 1939. After the war services became an annual tradition,
except during the recent Foot and Mouth outbreak. Usually about 100 to 150
attend, and they come by car and by boat to venerate a place which has seen
centuries of prayer and contemplation.
The oak cross
The focus for present-day services is the massive wooden cross made of oak
brought from Sandringham and erected in 1983 in a concrete slab over the
site of the medieval high altar. Inscribed on the cross is the word "peace"
which does articulate the great sense of isolation and tranquillity of the
place.
Guidebook
A site guidebook is on sale in Horning church. This was first written by
Joan Snelling and published in 1971, and then it was revised by W.F. Edwards
and republished in 1983.
Look out for:
- The D-shaped precinct enclosure ditch surrounding the impressive
earthworks including the fishponds.
- The foundations of the precinct wall visible in several places on
the bank inside the enclosure ditch.
- The foundations of the fourteenth-century abbey church, particularly
the north wall of the nave where there is fine flintwork on the outside
face.
- Until the riverbank is repaired, the foundations of several flint and
mortar buildings will be visible. These presumably formed a part of the
medieval waterfront.
- The fourteenth-century abbey gate. In the interior of the windmill you
can see the well-preserved gateway arch. Notice high up on either side the
carvings in the spandrels. To the right is a rampant beast holding a
circular object in its raised forepaw. To the left is a man holding a
long object, possibly a spear.
Access
Most visitors reach the site having moored their boats along the bank
of the River Bure to the west. By road, there is a turning near Ludham
Hall Farm marked by a small unobtrusive wooden fingerpost pointing down
the farm lane which leads out to the long concrete farm road over the
marshes. Limited numbers of people, mainly fishermen, do make the journey
down the track and then park near the farm buildings when the end of the
farm road is too muddy (as it often is) to drive further.
While there is no formal right of access by car to the site, the farmer
does not mind cars using the farm track in small numbers, provided that
the cows which are driven up and down for milking twice a day have right
of way!
St Benets further reading
Snelling, J., 1971 (revised 1997) St Benets Abbey guidebook available
in Horning church.
Cox, J.C., Rev., 1906 "The Abbey of St Benets of Holm", Victoria History
of the County of Norfolk II, 330-336.
Pevsner N. & Wilson B., 1997. Norfolk I: Norwich and north-east
Norfolk, 561-2.
Air photograph of St Benets Abbey from the west, showing the large
D-shaped enclosure beside the river Bure containing the monastic
earthworks. Especially prominent is the rectangular arrangement of
fishponds to the left and the gatehouse and windmill in the foreground. |
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The plan of the monastic earthworks prepared by the Royal Commission
on Historical Monuments. Note the foundations of the abbey church on
the high ground in the centre, the fishponds top left and the mass of
complex features all over the site. Serious visitors are advised to
take print-outs of this plan with them for their visit. |
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Engravings of the gatehouse in 1728 before the windmill was built
when the gatehouse still had remnants of its upper story. |
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Oil painting by Miles Edmund Cotman of the gatehouse with the windmill
attached. The oil is a copy of John Sell Cotman's etching of the "East
view of the Gateway of St Benets Abbey" dated 1813. |
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Stark's engraving of 1833 showing the scoop wheel beside the windmill
confirming the mill was used for raising water out of the precinct ditch
into the river. |
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The gatehouse and windmill as they are today. |
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The foundations of the precinct wall on the north side. |
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