work in progress; content to be developed further

This page is intended to serve as a check-list or register of the religious houses known to have existed in England at the close of the Anglo-Saxon period, making the basic distinctions between episcopal sees, houses of Benedictine monks, houses of Benedictine nuns, houses of secular canons, and any other places of uncertain or unknown composition. It will be arranged county by county, and will provide some indication of the distribution of the respective endowments of these houses TRE (1066) and TRW (1086). Entries will be linked to the draft 'archival' profiles on this website, so that it may be seen which houses among them are represented by surviving charters and other documentation – and which are not. A map showing the distribution of the religious houses in question is in preparation (Kemble website: General/Maps of Anglo-Saxon England).

The principal sources of information are as follows:

• Anglo-Saxon charters and other documentary and literary sources from the period.
• The Domesday survey of 1086, comprising 'Great Domesday Book', 'Little Domesday Book', and associated records. The survey reveals which religious houses were recognised as holders of land at the time of the survey; leaving aside the 'Norman' bishops, and the 'Norman' religious houses, the great majority are familiar pre-Conquest foundations.
• William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum (c. 1125), abbreviated WM, GPA, cited from William of Malmesbury: 'Gesta Pontificum Anglorum' (The History of the English Bishops), I: Text and Translation, ed. M. Winterbottom with R. M. Thomson (Oxford, 2007), complemented by R. M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury: 'Gesta Pontificum Anglorum' (The History of the English Bishops), II: Commentary (Oxford, 2007).  DOI

Further reading

• Thomas Tanner (see entry in Hall of Fame)
• David Knowles and R. Nevile Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (London, 1953), rev. ed. (London, 1971), esp. pp. 463-87 <MRH>
• The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, I: 940-1216, 2nd ed., ed. D. Knowles, C. N. L. Brooke and V. C. M. London, with new material by C. N. L. Brooke (Cambridge, 2001)

Religious houses recorded in the Domesday Survey (TRW)

• Abbotsbury, Dorset: Dorset
• Amesbury,Wiltshire: Berkshire; Wiltshire
• Athelney, Somerset: Dorset; Somerset
• Battle, Sussex: Kent
• Canterbury, St Augustine's, Kent: Kent
• Dover, St Martin's, Kent: Kent
• etc.

<Separate index for religious houses on the continent. Separate index for episcopal sees, in England and in Normandy.>

Religious houses holding land in each county (TRW)

Domesday usage is inconsistent. The data below is derived from the lists of tenants-in-chief TRW (1086); but holdings might be registered as land of a church, land of a bishop, land of an abbey, land of an abbot, etc.

Most widespread holders: Bishop of Bayeux 17 · Westminster 15 · Bishop of Coutances 12 · Bishop of Winchester 9 · Bishop of Lincoln 9 · Archbishop of Canterbury 8 · Ramsey 7 · Glastonbury 7

Find a house or county

Circuit i

Circuit ii

Circuit iii

Circuit iv

Circuit v

Circuit vi

Circuit vii

Holders named as they appear in the Domesday headings of tenants-in-chief; those with an archive profile on this site are linked. 210 of the holdings link to a profile.

 

Page originally maintained by SDK. Now maintained by awh28.

Last updated: 27 November 2016, 22:51