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Medieval Nunneries in the Landscape Nunnery is a settlement of religious women and built around worship very similar to the monks of the abbeys. The church and domestic buildings are arranged around a cloister whilst the outer court and gatehouse may accompany the central cloister complex, bounded by a wall, or earthworks and in some cases a moat. Other features like fishponds, mills, stock enclosures and barns are also associated with the nunnery. Documentary evidence has help us to build up a much more detail picture of the nunnery in the landscape and also enable us to work out the layout from aerial photographs of any hidden features on the ground. The earliest nunneries were founded in the seventh century AD. By the ninth century most of the houses fell out of use and only a small number did remain in the landscape and later refounded. The tenth century saw the construction of new nunneries but the majority of medieval nunneries was established from the late eleventh century onwards. The medieval nunneries may be still in use today as churches. The most distinctive feature of a nunnery is its cloister plan, the square around which the church and three ranges of buildings, normally of two storys, were placed. The cloister garth was kept clear of structures. It may have been used as a garden or place of burial. Excavation of the cloister walkways of nunneries, as at Higham in Kent, has indicated that they served as places of interment for monastic inhabitants and patrons. In poor houses these cloister alleys were often placed as passages within the main walls of buildings with the upper rooms projecting over.Nunnery plans followed the general monastic precedent of a central complex of buildings aggregated around a cloister, or courtyard. The cloister prototype is based on an arrangement of three ranges of buildings which together form a u-shape which abuts the church. The enclosure thus formed is the cloister yard which is itself composed of an open space, or garth, which is flanked by walkways which run concentrically within and provide access to the ranges. The church was built of stone first although in some cases the cloister may have been erected first for decades after a house foundation. Nunnery refectories were often single story constructions entered directly from the cloister walk. At this point of access a washing place (lavatorium) was situated. Some double storey nunnery refectories are known such examples like Cistercian Wykeham and Kirklees in Yorkshire. Also associated with the priory were wells and middens based around the kitchen area. Adjacent to the church was the nunnery cemetery. The out buildings may contain bakehouses, brewhouses, malthouses, dovecotes, and granaries. Most nunneries had a gate house that still stands today some were double arched and two storeyed. The detailed fieldwork at several small northern nunneries suggests that the boundary enclosing the nunnery cloister and outer court would encompass an area approximately three hundred by two hundred metres. Much of the field or farmland had meadows, orchards, pasture, fishponds, mills, barns, stock enclosures and arable land. Manual labour and estate management would have been carried out by lay-brothers or secular servants and bailiffs. The nuns themselves would have led a contemplative life contained mainly to the cloister area of the nunnery..Nunneries are scattered widely across England. |
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A good example of a priory is to be found at Marrick Priory in Yorkshire although not accessible by the public sadly. Picture of Marrick Priory A very brief history and archaeology about Marrick Priory in Yorkshire, the sad part is that visitors are not allowed in the abbey grounds, as they are privately owned. However I will try and get in to take photographs of the priory and place them on the website something in the foreseeable future. Marrick Priory in Swaledale in Yorkshire the opposite side of the River Swale with a complete tower dating to the thirteenth century Ad and the rest was re-erected in 1811. We know very little about the surrounding landscape in the area but what we can say is that they were mining and mills on the lands of the priory. About a mile down the road lies another abbey of Ellerton. The documents that I have seen so far are listed below although many more are to be located since I am carrying out a research about the priory most date towards the 13th century to the 17th century. Other documents that I have seen are the surrender of the priory and land ownership. You can find out more about land ownership from the tithe maps. The roll for Marrick priory (1415-16), taken together with the other charters held at the Brynmor Jones Library, indicates that Marrick was a house of medium size and wealth. Unlike most of the nunneries of medieval period were poor houses. Roger de Aske founded the medieval nunnery at Marrick around 1154. The most noticeable collection of the archives has come from the Duke of Norfolk Carlton estate this includes many of the twelfth and thirteenth century documents as well as the Dissolution on September 1536. Roger de Aske founded the medieval nunnery at Marrick near Richmond in North Yorkshire in about 1154. This collection, from amongst the archives of the Duke of Norfolk's Carlton estate, includes many twelfth and thirteenth century documents, as well as a Letters Patent of September 1536 exempting the Priory from Dissolution Marrick priory was not alone in the Yorkshire landscape and twenty-five nunneries are known to have been located. The abbey was a Benedictine Nunnery and many people still believe that giving land to nunneries and abbeys meant safe passage to the after life. Map of Marrick Priory
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Listing of Documents |
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Marrick Priory Documents: a survey of Marrick Estate, 1585 |
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Marrick Priory Documents: an exchange with the monks of Rievaulx, c1200 |
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A memorandum in response to alleged wrongs, late fifteenth-century |
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Marrick Priory Documents: petition, 1540 |
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Marrick Priory Documents: creation of a new smelt mill known as Cupuloe, 1703 |
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Marrick Priory Documents: dispute about the management of Cupuloe, c1720s |
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Marrick Priory Documents: a map of 'marrig abbaie' (Marrick Priory), c1592. at the bottom right as a cluster of ten triangles representing buildings, close to the River Swale. At the top left, a swathe of small circles represents the pit-shafts of 'Copperthwaite gang' (vein), a major lead-mining site; below it is 'priores bale' (Priory's bail) with further bales to the left, these being the mounds of stone, fuel and ore for smelting the lead. |
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Marrick Priory Documents: a receipt from Henry VIII, 1545 |
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