Mattersey Priory

Mattersey Priory

The Ruins of Mattersey Priory
Location within Nottinghamshire
Monastery information
Order	Gilbertine
Established	c.1185
Disestablished	1279 - Church destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. 1538 - Dissolved
Dedicated to	St Helen
People
Founder(s)	Roger FitzRalph
Site
Location	Mattersey, Nottinghamshire
Public access	Yes Currently managed by English Heritage and open free of charge.

Mattersey Priory is former monastery of the Gilbertine order, located near the village of Mattersey, Nottinghamshire, England. It is currently managed by an English Heritage.

History

The priory was founded by Roger FitzRalph (son of Ranulph de Mattersey) in around 1185, and was dedicated to St Helen. It was constructed on a gravel island in the River Idle, and the area surrounding would have been mostly marshland at the time of construction. The priory was designed to be home to six canons of the Gilbertine, although it could accommodate up to a maximum of ten canons. Unlike many other Gilbertine priories, Mattersey was not a "mixed-house"; it was home to only canons (male), and not to cannonesses (female).

In 1279 the priory church was destroyed by fire and it was never rebuilt.

The priory is described as "Never prosperous". In 1291, it was recorded as having an income of £52. The 1534 Valor Ecclesiasticus records the priory's income as £61 16s. 7d., with a clear annual value of £55 2s. 5d.

The priory was dissolved as part of King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was surrendered on 3 October 1538 by Robert Holgate, Bishop of Llandaff, commendatory general master of the Order of Sempringham, and by Thomas Norman, Prior of Mattersey, Thomas Bell, sub-prior, and John Garton, William Schylton, and Richard Watson, canons.

Following dissolution the priory and its estate were given to the Neville family. The site was taken under the guardianship of the "Commissioners of Works" in 1912, and is currently managed by English Heritage.

Description and Remains

The priory church is described as "a short, narrow, rectangular, aisleless building, without transepts". To the north stood a tower which was built in the 15th-century. To the south of the church was the cloisters: a covered passage way around a courtyard, which was in turn surrounded by ranges of buildings on three sides. The eastern range of the cloisters was built after the fire of 1279. The ground floor consisted of a single vaulted room. This was subdivided to form a chapel, chapter house, and a day or warming room. Above was the "dorter" or "sleeping quarters" with the reredorter (communal toilet) at the end of the building. The southern range of the cloisters was slightly larger than the east, but had two stories again: the ground floor was an under-croft whilst the upper floor was occupied by the "frater" or refectory, where the canons ate. The west range was originally the lay-brothers accommodation (refectory on the ground-floor, sleeping quarters above). However, it is thought to have been converted into accommodation for the Prior. To the South-West was a square building housing the monastic kitchens.

Remains

The ruins of the priory sit next to the River Idle, east of the village of Mattersey. The ruins consist mainly of foundations but also include the remains of the 12th-century priory church, three arches from the canon's refectory, the foundations of the 14th-century monastic kitchens and the remains of a 15th century tower. The foundations of the monastic service buildings (barns, bakehouse, infirmary etc.) are thought to to remain under the area currently occupied by the farm buildings and yards of the adjacent Abbey Farm.

In 1914, a partial excavation located the buried foundations of the cloister's east and south ranges. A small amount of restoration work was also undertaken during these excavations.

External links

• Detailed historical record for Mattersey Priory
• Mattersey Priory: English Heritage
• Plan and History of the Priory: English Heritage