Cormeilles Abbey

Dovecote at the site of Cormeilles Abbey

Cormeilles Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Cormeilles) was a Benedictine monastery in Cormeilles, Normandy, in what is now the commune of Saint-Pierre-de-Cormeilles, Eure, France. The buildings are now almost completely destroyed.

Foundation

William FitzOsbern and Adeliza de Tosny founded the abbey[1] in around the year 1060, and endowed it richly with lands in England, after the Norman Conquest. He was buried there in 1071.[2] According to Ordericus Vitalis it was one of two religious foundations he established on his estates.[3] The other was the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Lyre.

Later history

The abbey had fallen into disrepair by the fifteenth century. After a series of partial reconstructions, it was suppressed in 1779.[4]

The buildings are now almost completely destroyed, apart from the former abbot's house, the precinct wall and a dovecote.[4] A fragment of vaulting, possibly from a passageway in the cloister, survives in Chepstow Priory Church, displayed on the stump of its crossing tower.

Priories

Chepstow Priory was dependent on Cormeilles, Chepstow having been one of FitzOsbern's grants.[5][6][7] Newent Priory, at Newent in Gloucestershire, was a cell of Cormeilles,[8] as was another priory at Kyre, Worcestershire.

The place name Place de Cormeilles in the historic centre of Chepstow commemorates the association of the two places.

References

  1. ^ Lewis, C. P. (2004). "William fitz Osbern, earl". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9620. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ "Osbern". Dsnell.zynet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  3. ^ The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis (1980, OUP), p. 283, ISBN 978-0198222439
  4. ^ a b Base Mérimée: Abbaye de Bénédictins Notre-Dame, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
  5. ^ Janet E. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000-1300 (1994), p. 34. ISBN 978-0521377973
  6. ^ "St. Mary's Church". Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2019-05-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "Alien houses: The priory of Newent". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2019.

49°14′15″N 0°23′5″E / 49.23750°N 0.38472°E / 49.23750; 0.38472