Buildwas Abbey
Buildwas Abbey nave. Photo © Paradoxplace.
Buildwas Abbey from the northwest. Photo © Paradoxplace.
Interactive satellite map of Buildwas Abbey. For a larger view,
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The ruins of Buildwas Abbey are located along the banks of the River Severn in Shropshire, near the Welsh border.
History
The Abbey of St Mary and St Chad was founded in 1135 by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester as a Savignac monastery.
The new abbey was inhabited by about a dozen monks from the Norman Abbey of Savigny, who initially made a living by charging tolls to passing travellers on the bridge over the river Severn.
The Savignac order, a reformist movement founded by founded by S Vitalis around 1112, sprouted over 30 daughter houses across Normandy and the British Isles. But the order did not have the Cistercian gift for administration, and in 1147 the Savagniacs voted to be absorbed into the Cistercian Order.
The newly Cistercian abbey prospered, and by the late 1200s Buildwas Abbey was able to send wool from over 5,000 sheep to Italian merchants for processing in centers such as Florence.
The abbey's location near the border of Wales made for a turbulent history. Welsh princes and their followers regularly raided the abbey, and on one occasion in 1406 raiders from Powys even kidnapped the abbot. This, however, paled in comparison to an event in 1342 where one of the Buildwas monks, Thomas Tong, murdered his abbot, managed to evade arrest, and then petitioned for re-instatement into the Cistercian order!
The Black Death of 1349 and the rest of the turbulent 1300s took their toll on Buildwas, and what was a prosperous, successful and influential monastery at the beginning of the century entered the 1400s as an ailing institution with only four choir monks left. Lay brothers became unavailable due to the general labor shortage, and the Cistercians had to resort to renting out rather than managing and working their lands.
The abbey was finally closed in 1536 by the order of Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the estate was granted to Lord Powys. The abbot's house and infirmary were eventually incorporated into the building of a private house.
Today, the remaining buildings are in the care of English Heritage and are open to the public.
What to See
The remains of Buildwas Abbey are considered to be among some of the best preserved 12th-century examples of a Cistercian church in Britain. The church, with its imposing Norman columns, remains largely complete and unaltered since its original construction, although it is now without its roof.
Quick Facts
| Names: | Buildwas Abbey; Abbey of St Mary and St Chad, Buildwas |
| Type of site: | Christian monastery |
| Faith: | Roman Catholic (Cistercian order) |
| Dates: | Founded 1135; dissolved 1536 |
| Address: | Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire, TF8 7BW |
| Location: | On S bank of River Severn on A4169, 2 miles W of Ironbridge (OS Map 127; ref SJ 642044) |
| Maps: | streetmap.co.uk; National Cycle Network |
| Train: | Telford Central, 6 miles from the abbey |
| Phone: | 01952/433274 |
| Hours: | Apr-May: 10am-5pm Mon, Thu, Fri, Sat, & Sun. Jun-Aug: 10am-6pm Daily Sep: 10am-5pm Mon, Thu, Fri, Sat, & Sun. |
| Cost: | £2.70 adults |
- "Buildwas Abbey," Wikipedia.
- "Buildwas Abbey," English Heritage.
- "Buildwas Abbey," Paradoxplace.
- Buildwas Abbey Photo Gallery - Virtual Shropshire
