Letheringham Priory facts for kids

Letheringham Priory was a special religious building in Suffolk, England. It was a home for a group of priests called canons who followed the rules of St. Augustine.

A Look at Monasteries

From the late 500s until the 1500s, monasteries were super important in England. They were homes for monks, canons (who were like priests), and sometimes lay-brothers. These communities lived together, following strict religious rules.

People think over 700 monasteries were built in England! They came in all sizes, from huge places with hundreds of members to tiny ones with just a few. They belonged to different religious groups, each with their own ideas. But they all had a church, living areas, and work buildings.

Monasteries were a huge part of medieval society. They were not just places for worship and learning. They also helped the poor and sick. Because some owned so much land, they were very rich and powerful. They were found everywhere, in towns and in quiet, remote areas. Many monasteries were like central hubs, connected to local churches, hospitals, farms, and villages.

The Augustinians

About 225 of these religious houses belonged to the Augustinian order. These Augustinians were not monks in the usual sense. They were communities of canons, or priests, who lived under the rules of St. Augustine. In England, people called them 'black canons' because of their dark robes. This also helped tell them apart from another group, the Cistercians, who wore light clothes.

From the 1100s onwards, the Augustinians did a lot of good work in local areas. They ran almshouses (places for the poor), schools, and hospitals. They also looked after and preached in local churches. Much of their money came from these churches. The Augustinians helped medieval life in many ways.

Letheringham Priory's Story

Letheringham Priory was one of the smaller and not-so-rich Augustinian monasteries. It's special because of its gatehouse, which is a really well-kept example of a brick building from the late medieval period.

Most of the priory's church and other main buildings are now gone above ground. But their foundations are still buried. These hidden remains hold important clues about how the canons lived and how the priory was organized. They can also tell us about its history before and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

There are also old earthworks (changes in the ground) south of the churchyard. These might show where other buildings or farming areas were. An old garden from after the medieval period also adds to the site's interest.

Letheringham Priory is also connected to the Wingfield family. They were an important family in the later medieval period. Looking at the priory and other nearby sites linked to them helps us understand how society worked back then.

Priory Location and Founding

Letheringham Priory is on a slope facing northeast, near the River Deben. It's about 250 meters west of the river.

The priory was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was started in the late 1100s. It was a "cell" (a smaller branch) of the Augustinian Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul in Ipswich. Three or four canons lived here, led by a prior chosen by the Ipswich priory.

In 1291, the priory's yearly income was about 12 pounds and 11 shillings. Most of this money came from land in Letheringham and from the church at Charsfield. By 1535, its clear yearly value was about 26 pounds, 18 shillings, and 5 pence.

The Dissolution and After

The priory was closed down in 1536. This was part of the "Dissolution of the Monasteries" under King Henry VIII. The main priory in Ipswich had already been closed nine years earlier by Cardinal Wolsey to help start his college.

When the priory was founded, the land of Letheringham was owned by William de Bovile. The de Bovile family continued to own the land and support the priory until the mid-1300s. Then, it passed to the Wingfield family through marriage. In 1539, after the priory was closed, Sir Anthony Wingfield was given the priory buildings.

Sadly, most of the priory buildings, except the church, were badly damaged by a fire in the early 1600s. Soon after, Sir Robert Naunton, a government official and great-grandson of Sir Anthony Wingfield, built a large mansion nearby.

The monastic church, which held the tombs of the de Bovile and Wingfield families, remained standing. It eventually took the place of the original local parish church. By the mid-1700s, the former monastic church was falling apart. A painting from the 1780s shows it as a ruin with no roof. In 1789, the eastern part was pulled down, and the nave (the main part of the church) was rebuilt into what we see today.

The Gatehouse

The gatehouse, which was the entrance to the priory area, still stands about 40 meters southwest of the current church. It was built in the late 1400s or early 1500s. It's made of brick and has two floors. It's about 6 meters long and 5 meters wide. It has strong corner supports and two arched doorways. These arches are now blocked up with newer brickwork.

On the outside, above one arch, you can see where a statue niche used to be. Above that, there's a blocked-up window. Inside, there are remains of a fireplace. The upper floor is gone, but you can see where it used to be. It seems you could enter the upper room from a building next to the gatehouse. There are also signs of a spiral staircase. The lower walls inside are covered with cement, but you can still see traces of old plaster with red paint.

The Monastic Church Remains

The monastic church was about 35 meters long when the priory closed. The part that still stands today is the nave. It's about 14 meters long and 7.5 meters wide. It's still used as a church today.

This nave has original features from the 1100s. These include the south doorway with decorated columns and a round arch with zigzag patterns. There's also a blocked doorway on the north wall with similar decorations. This was one of two entrances from the monastic cloister (a covered walkway). The outline of the second entrance is covered with plaster but can still be seen.

In the south wall, there are two windows from the 1200s. The eastern wall, built in the 1700s, has a large window from the 1300s, likely from the demolished eastern part of the church. At the western end, there's a large, square tower from the 1300s. A brick porch over the south door was added in the late 1600s.

The buried remains of the eastern part of the monastic church, where the canons' choir and presbytery (altar area) were, are under the current churchyard. No walls from the monastic period stand east of the nave. But their foundations are still underground. You can sometimes see the line of the south wall as a slight bump or by dry patches in the grass. This shows that the choir and presbytery were square-ended and a bit longer than the nave.

Other Priory Buildings

We don't know the exact layout of the other priory buildings north of the church. But there's enough space for a small cloister, about 16 meters square. An old writer from the late 1600s, Nathaniel Fairfax, noted two doorways in the church's north wall (now gone). He thought they led to a building on that side. This would have been the range (a row of buildings) along the east side of the cloister. This range usually held the chapter house (where the canons met) on the ground floor and the dormitory (sleeping area) above. The dormitory would have had a direct way into the church for night prayers.

In 1975, during excavations for a barn, masonry foundations and pottery fragments from the 1200s and 1300s were found where this eastern range would have been. If the priory followed the usual plan, there would have been other buildings along the north and west sides of the cloister too. Fairfax also noted that even though no ruins were visible except for cellar foundations, you could still see burn marks from the fire on the north side of the church. He also said the field north of the church was "full of stones and brickbatts" (broken bricks).

Earthworks and Garden

South of the gatehouse and churchyard, you can see part of an old hollow way (a sunken path) that led to the gatehouse. There's also a lower ridge of earth that seems to be related to the priory. The ground in this area is uneven, which might mean there are more buried foundations.

This same area was part of the garden for the 1600s mansion. The mansion's main part stood until 1947. The garden's western boundary is marked by a wall from the early 1600s. Another old wall forms the southern boundary of the field. Other old walls mark the boundary between the garden and the churchyard. These early walls are protected. However, a newer wall between the gatehouse and the churchyard is not protected, though the ground beneath it is.

The current parish church and most of its churchyard are not included in the protected area. Only the part of the churchyard that covers the eastern end of the old monastic church is protected. Modern gates and farmyard surfaces are also not protected, but the ground underneath them is.

Burials

• Robert Wingfield
• Anthony Wingfield