Luffield Abbey facts for kids

Luffield Abbey is a historic place located in the northern part of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits right on the edge of the county, next to Northamptonshire. You can find it near the villages of Biddlesden and Silverstone.

What is Luffield Abbey?

Luffield Abbey gets its name from a type of monastery called a priory. This priory was founded by a group of monks known as the Benedictines. It was started by Robert, the second Earl of Leicester, sometime before the year 1133.

The Priory's History

The Luffield Priory was closed down in 1494. By that time, the buildings were already falling apart, and only two monks were left living there. After it closed, the land was given to Westminster Abbey, a very famous church in London.

For a long time, people thought there were no signs left of the old priory. A special map-making survey in 1732 didn't find any traces of it.

Finding the Remains

However, the remains of the priory were later discovered! They were found on the edge of an airfield that is now part of the famous Silverstone Circuit. This spot is about 200 meters northeast of a turn called Stowe Corner.

If you look at some aerial photos from the early 1990s, you can still see faint outlines of the old buildings. These look like discolored patches in the grass. In the 1970s, some human bones were found near the abbey. These were identified as monks who had suffered from the plague and were buried face down.

Luffield Abbey at Silverstone Circuit

Today, two turns at the Silverstone Circuit are named after this historic location. The first turn on the track is called Abbey, and the seventh turn is known as Luffield.

Later History of Luffield Abbey

After the monasteries were closed down across England, a process known as the Dissolution, the land of Luffield Abbey was given to Francis Throckmorton in 1551.

In 1718, the land passed to one of his relatives, Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham. He was from Stowe. The land stayed with the Stowe estates until the middle of the 19th century.

Changes to the Area

Luffield Abbey used to be a special area that wasn't part of any parish. Until 1844, it was partly in Northamptonshire and partly in Buckinghamshire. But in 1844, the part in Northamptonshire was moved to the parish of Silverstone. This meant Luffield Abbey was then completely within Buckinghamshire. In 1858, it officially became its own civil parish.

This parish was very small, made up of just one farm. By 1931, only two people lived in the parish! After 1974, the civil parish was ended. It was combined with Lillingstone Dayrell to form a new civil parish called Lillingstone Dayrell with Luffield Abbey. The name Luffield Abbey is also used for the most northern voting area of Aylesbury Vale District Council.