| Netley Abbey is a ruined medieval monastery in the
village of Netley near Southampton in Hampshire,
England. The abbey was founded in 1239 as a house for
monks of the austere Cistercian order. Despite being a
royal abbey, Netley was never rich, produced no
influential scholars or churchmen, and its nearly
300-year history was quiet. The monks were best known to
their neighbours for the generous hospitality they
offered to travellers on land and sea.
In 1536, Netley was closed by Henry VIII of England
during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the
building was converted into a mansion by William Paulet,
a wealthy Tudor politician. The abbey was used as a
country house until the beginning of the eighteenth
century, after which it was abandoned and partially
demolished for building materials. Subsequently the
ruins became a tourist attraction, and provided
inspiration to poets and artists of the romantic
movement. In the early twentieth century the site was
given to the nation, and it is now a Scheduled Ancient
Monument, cared for by English Heritage. The extensive
remains consist of the church, cloister buildings,
abbot's house, and fragments of the post-Dissolution
mansion. Netley Abbey is one of the best preserved
medieval Cistercian monasteries in southern England.
Netley was founded in 1239 by Peter des Roches, a
powerful politician, government official, and Bishop of
Winchester from 1205–1238.[1] The abbey was one of a
pair the bishop conceived as a memorial to himself; the
other is La Clarté-Dieu in Saint-Paterne-Racan,
France.[2] Des Roches began to purchase the lands for
Netley's initial endowment in about 1236, but he died
before the project was finished and the foundation was
completed by his executors.[3] According to the
Chronicle of Waverley Abbey, the first monks arrived to
settle the site on 25 July 1239 from neighbouring
Beaulieu Abbey, a year after the bishop's death.[2] As
its founder had died before the vital task of collecting
the endowment was complete, the abbey started its life
in a difficult financial situation. It is thought that
little work took place on the permanent stone monastery
until the house was taken under the wing of Henry III,
who became interested in the abbey in the mid 1240s and
eventually assumed the role of patron in 1251The
fruits of royal patronage were demonstrated by the
construction of a large church (72 metres (240 ft)
long), built in the fashionable French-influenced gothic
style pioneered by Henry's masons at Westminster Abbey.
The high quality and elaborate nature of the church's
decoration, particularly its mouldings and tracery,
indicate a move away from the deliberate austerity of
the early Cistercian churches towards the grandeur
appropriate to a secular cathedral.[4] Construction of
the church proceeded from east to west. The presbytery
and transepts were built first to allow the monks to
hold services, and the nave was filled in over time. It
is not known precisely when the building work began, but
major gifts by King Henry of roofing timber and lead
from Derbyshire in 1251 and 1252 indicate that some of
the eastern parts of the church, and probably of the
east cloister range too, had by then reached an advanced
stage.[3][5] The presence of a foundation stone at the
base of the southeast pier of the crossing inscribed "H.
DI. GRA REX ANGE" (Latin for Henry by the Grace of God
King of the English) shows that the foundations of the
centre of the church reached ground level after 1251,
the year Henry III formally became the abbey's patron.
The church took many decades to complete, and was
probably finished between 1290 and 1320.[5] Dating the
various parts of the building is predominantly done on
stylistic grounds.
Cruciform in shape - The Mistery of Netley Abbey
The Mistery of Netley Abbey - Index |
