St Benet’s Abbey
I wish we had arrived by boat at St Benet’s Abbey, gliding quietly through the meadows, where cows were lowing gently and the buttercups were vast sheets of brilliant yellow. We would like to have moored as visitors have for more than a 1000 years and stepped on to the Abbey grounds with its feeling of peace and tranquillity.
The River Bure may have been diverted and the marshland drained since early travellers used the river for their journeys, but seeing the wherry sails, seemingly floating through the fields most have been a glorious thing to watch.
However we arrived by foot and sat on a bench beside a large cross made from oak from the Royal Estate at Sandringham. It was erected on 2 August 1987 where the High Altar of the Abbey had once stood. We listened to a history of the Abbey on a gizmo cleverly hidden within the back of the seat and to the sound of monks chanting plain song. The music drifting across the water must have added to the delight, and possible confusion, of those on the pleasure crafts on the river.
My idea that the monks lived an impoverished life squelching around in the mud was far from the truth. The Abbey was built on a spit of higher land or holm which curves horn shaped into the marsh, the reason Horning, to one end of the higher land, has its name.
The early history of the Abbey is unclear, because some early documents, thought to be of the period, are now believed to be forgeries, but it would seem that the holm was originally used by a hermit named Suleman. He built a chapel to St Benedict on the site in about 870. Here, history relates, he and his brother monks were killed by the Danes.
Later a religious man, Wulfric, came to the site and with seven companions rebuilt the chapel and established a Christian community. 60 years later King Cnut (Canute) was staying in Horning and endowed the community with land from Horning, Ludham and Neatishead The detail is all rather lost in the mists of time, but the Domesday Book records that this land and more was held by the monastery.
By 1291 the community owned 28 churches and other properties in 76 parishes. They also had the right to dig peat needed for their fires as there was no timber nearby. The holes left gradually filled with water due to a rise in the sea and inland water levels, so that by the 1400s the Broads were born.
Rather than as I had imagined, a group of poor monks eking out a living, the Abbot oversaw a wealthy and complex community, with lay people caring for their lands, stables and daily needs and even a pack of hunting dogs at one point. These belonged to the third Prior Thomas Stonham. It is recorded that he was so keen on hunting that he went daily after Matins all the year round. The cellarer complained that the cost of the upkeep of the pack would be better used supporting the poor.
The monks were not allowed to eat flesh from animals with four legs, so their diet was of birds, swans, geese and ducks and fish. The fish ponds are still visible and it is thought that as well as acting as a larder, they were also pleasure grounds for the monks to walk in quiet contemplation. The monks lives were a round of constant prayer, they even rose in the night to go into the chapel to pray.
In 1381, during the peasants revolt, many rebel tenant farmers of the Abbey, were expected to do unpaid work for their landlord, the feudal Lord, the Abbot. They marched to the Abbey and forced the monks to surrender the court rolls which laid down the services and payments expected of the tenants, these they burnt. But it all proved pointless. They were made to re-swear loyalty after the failure of the riot, accept a fine and give back some of their land.
St Benet’s is the only religious community that was not closed down by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536 -1541). Instead he gave the Abbey to the Bishop of Norwich and he has retained the Abbacy and the ruins to this day. The Bishop of Norwich, in his capacity as Abbot, arrives annually at St Benet’s on the first Sunday of August. standing in the bow of a wherry, his vestments flapping in the wind, and preaches at the service.
When Henry VIII gave the Abbey to the Bishop of Norwich he also gave Ludham Hall which is close by - it was turned into the bishop's palace. The chapel that was added to the hall is now used as a granary but still retains the look of chapel and is a fine building. However, in 1611 it was badly damaged by fire and was subsequently rebuilt. A farming family later lived in the house named Donne. They were related to John Donne the poet (1572-1631).
Ann Donne who was born at Ludham Hall, married a clergyman John Cowper and of their seven children only two survived infancy, one was William Cowper (1731 – 1800) who also became a poet. Ann died while her sons were still young and William grieved for her all his life contributing to his mental health problems. One of his most famous poems On The Receipt of My Mother's Picture Out of Norfolk was inspired by a portrait that was sent to him by his cousin Anne Bodham of Mattishall. Many of his mother’s relatives remained in Norfolk and it was these family connections which encouraged Cowper's return to Norfolk in the final years of his life. He spent his final years at Dereham and is buried in St. Nicholas' Church, where there is a magnificent commemorative stained glass window dedicated to him.
After the Dissolution the majority of the buildings at the Abbey site were demolished and by 1585 was described as “utterly ruinated and wasted”.
The Bishop’s Lodging house became the home of a fisherman Edmund Dye in the late 1500’s, he tended the fish ponds left after the community disbanded. It became the Chequers public house between 1836 and 1856, taking its trade from the passing wherry men. It then became a house until 1891 when it burnt down. It was demolished soon after.
In the 18th century a brick windmill was built into the gatehouse, one of the few buildings to remain standing. The walls of the gatehouse being used to support it. Walking inside the windmill there is revealed fine ashlar flint work, carvings and soaring arches, all part of the old gatehouse. The mill was used to pump water away from the marshes to improve the pasture, it is also thought at one time it was used to grind corn. That too, is now derelict, and is a grade II listed building.
The mill in full-sail has been painted by a number of artists from the Norwich school including Henry Bright and John Sell Cotman. Thankfully early in the 20th century it was felt that the site should be protected and over the years money has been set aside by various bodies to maintain the site and its remains. Finally in 2002 the Norfolk Archaeological Trust took over its care. The Trust made their first major work the restoration of the moorings and riverside, so that the option of arriving by boat may continue as it has done since the very beginning of the Abbey Their aim is to maintain and enhance the site for tourists and Christians for it remains a holy place on consecrated ground.
Charlotte Paton
June 2015