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Dissolution
In 1535 the abbey's income was assessed in the Valor
Ecclesiasticus, Henry VIII's great survey of church
finances, at £160 gross, £100 net, which meant the
following year that it came under the terms of the First
Suppression Act, Henry's initial move in the Dissolution
of the Monasteries. At the beginning of the following
year the king's commissioners, Sir James Worsley, John
Paulet, George Paulet and Wiiliam Berners, delivered a
report to the government on the monasteries of Hampshire
which provides a snapshot of Netley on the eve of the
Dissolution. The commissioners noted that Netley
was inhabited by seven monks, all of them priests, and
the abbey was:
A hedde house of Monkes of thordre of Cisteaux,
beinge of large buyldinge and situate upon the Ryvage of
the Sees. To the Kinge's Subjects and Strangers
travelinge the same Sees great Relief and Comforte.
– Sir James Worsley
In addition to the monks, Netley was home to 29
servants and officials of the abbey, plus two Franciscan
friars of the strict Observant part of that order who
had been put into the abbot's custody by the king,
presumably for opposing his religious policies. The
royal officers also found plate and jewels in the
treasury worth £43, "ornaments" worth £39 and
agricultural produce and animals worth £103. The abbey's
debts were moderate at £42.
Abbot Thomas Stevens and his seven monks were forced
to surrender their house to the king in the summer of
1536. Abbot Thomas and six of his brethren—the
seventh opted to resign and become a secular
priest—crossed Southampton Water to join their mother
house of Beaulieu. Abbot Thomas was appointed abbot of
Beaulieu in 1536 and administered it for two years until
it in turn was forced to surrender to the king in April
1538. The monks received pensions after the fall of
Beaulieu; Abbot Thomas ended his days as treasurer of
Salisbury Cathedral, and died in 1550.
Following the dissolution of Netley, on 3 August
1536, King Henry granted the abbey buildings and some
of its estates to Sir William Paulet, his Lord
Treasurer and subsequently Marquess of Winchester. As
soon as he took over, Sir William started the process of
turning the abbey into a palace suitable for one of the
most important politicians in England. He
converted the nave of the church into his great hall,
kitchens and service buildings, the transepts and
crossing became a series of luxurious apartments for his
personal use, the presbytery was retained as the chapel
of the mansion. The monks' dormitory became the
long gallery of the mansion and the latrine block became
several grand chambers. He demolished the south
range and refectory and built a new one with a
central turreted gatehouse to provide the appropriate seigneurial emphasis needed for a classic Tudor
courtyard house. He likewise demolished the
cloister walks to make a central courtyard for his house
and placed a large fountain in the centre. The precinct
buildings were demolished to create formal gardens and
terraces.
Paulet's successors, who included both his own family
and others such as William Seymour, 1st Marquess of
Hertford, who lived there during the Commonwealth, and
the Earl of Huntingdon, inhabited the abbey until the
close of the seventeenth century.
Cranbury Park near Winchester - The Mistery of Netley
Abbey
The Mistery of Netley Abbey - Index
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