St Benet's Abbey
St Benet's Abbey (also known as Holme or Hulme ) is a former Benedictine abbey in Norfolk , England . Its ruins lie on the north bank of the River Bure in the Norfolk Broads .
history
According to tradition, the abbey was built on the site of a 9th-century monastery that is believed to have been on the site where the hermit Suneman was martyred by the Danes. It was devastated by the Vikings around 870 . Towards the end of the 10th century, the monastery was rebuilt by a Wulfric. Around 1022 his possessions at Horning, Ludham and Neatishead were confirmed by King Canute the Great . In 1065 the monastery built a cell in Rumburgh Priory in Suffolk . It was considered one of the richest monasteries in East Anglia. The monastery grounds were surrounded by a defensive wall in 1327. Sir John Fastolf , the model for the literary Falstaff , was buried in the abbey in 1459.
The last abbot, William Repps, transferred the abbey to the diocese of Norwich, whose bishop was appointed, in 1536, and the episcopal lands to King Henry VIII. The monastery was the only English monastery to escape abolition. The last monk left it in 1545, after which it fell into disrepair. The Bishop of Norwich, as abbot, holds mass once a year in the monastery.
In 1987 an oak cross was erected on the site of the former high altar.
Plant and buildings
Remains of the monastery church and the ruins of the gatehouse, into which a windmill was built as a drainage mill in the 18th century, of which only the brick-walled hull has survived since a storm in 1863 (a popular artist's motif) have been preserved. The rest of the area is used for agriculture. Restoration work has been taking place since 2012. The ruin is accessed via a narrow access road with a parking lot.
literature
- Peter Sager : East England . DuMont art travel guide. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1990, SS 413-414, ISBN 3-7701-1713-1 .
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 41 ′ 11 " N , 1 ° 31 ′ 29" E