St. Benet's Abbey
St. Benet's Abbey is a ruined abbey situated on the River Bure within The Broads National Park in Norfolk, England. It is also known as St. Benet's at Holme or Hulme.
Background
St. Benet's, according to abbey tradition, was founded on the site of a ninth-century monastery where the hermit Suneman was martyred by the Danes. About the end of the tenth century it was rebuilt by one Wulfric. A generation later, c. 1022, its estates of Horning, Ludham and Neatishead were confirmed by King Canute. Other early benefactors included Edith Swan-neck, concubine to Harold Godwinson, and Earl Ralf II of East Anglia.
At the time of the Norman Conquest Harold Godwinson put the abbot of St. Benet's, Aelfwold, in charge of defending the coast against invasion. After the Conquest, Aelfwold fled to Denmark, and the abbey's estates suffered encroachments by neighbouring landowners.
The site was enclosed by a wall with battlements in 1327.
St Benet's was the only religious house not closed down by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Instead he united the Abbacy with the Bishopric of Norwich and therefore, the [[bishop|Bishops] of Norwich have stayed Abbots of St. Benet's to this day. However, the buildings were allowed to fall into decay and the Abbey was abandoned about 1545.
The Bishop of Norwich, as Abbot, arrives once a year, standing in the bow of a wherry and preaches at the annual service on the first day of August.
About the year 1800 a farmer built a windpump inside the abbey gatehouse.
On 2nd August 1987 a cross made from oak from the Royal Estate at Sandringham was erected on the site of the High Altar.
Abbots
The years listed are election dates[1].
| Year | Names |
|---|---|
| Wulfric | |
| 1020s | Aelfsige |
| 1046 | Thurstan de Ludham |
| 1064 | Aelfwold |
| 1089 | Ralph |
| 1101 | Richard |
| 1126 | Conrad |
| 1128 | William Basset |
| 1133 | Anselm |
| 1140 | Daniel |
| c. 1150 | Hugh |
| 1151 | Daniel (reinstated) |
| 1153 | William |
| 1168 | Thomas |
| 1186 | Ralph |
| 1210 | John |
| 1214 | Reginald |
| 1229 | Sampson |
| 1237 | Robert de Thorkeseye |
| 1251 | William de Ringfeld |
| 1256 | Adam de Neatishead |
| 1268 | Richard de Bukenham |
| 1275 | Nicholas de Walsham |
| 1302 | Henry de Broke |
| 1326 | John de Aylsham |
| 1347 | Robert de Aylsham |
| 1349 | William de Hadesco |
| 1365 | William de Methelwold |
| 1395 | Robert de Sancta Fide |
| 1395 | Simon de Brigham |
| 1411 | Richard de South Walsham |
| 1439 | John Marte |
| 1439 | John Kelyng |
| 1470 | Thomas Pakefield |
| 1492 | Robert Cubitt |
| 1505 | William Forest |
| 1510 | John Redinge |
| 1517 | John Salcot, alias Capon |
| 1530 | William Repps |
References
- ^ (1906) “[Partly from The Abbey of St. Benet at Holme]”, A History of the County of Norfolk vol. 2.
Further reading
- Johannes de Oxenedes [c. 1293] (1859). Sir Henry Ellis Chronica Johannis de Oxenedes. London, England: Longman.
- Stenton, F.M. (1922). “St. Benet of Holme and the Norman Conquest”, G. Clark English Historical Review vol. XXXVII. London, England: Longmans.
- Knowles, D.; J. St. Joseph (1952). Monastic Sites from the Air. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 24-25.
- Licence, T. (2004). Suneman and Wulfric: two forgotten saints of St Benedict's abbey at Holme in Norfolk. Analecta Bollandiana 122 [journal of hagiography].
