More information : The alien priory of Kinsham, mentioned by the Royal Commission,(1) is listed as an alien cell of Benedictine monks, by Knowles and Hadcock,(2) giving the Royal Commission as authority. A doubtful monastic establishment. (1-2)
This has clearly been confused with the alien cell at Great Limber in Lincolnshire and the priory of Augustinian Nuns at Limebrook (SO 36 NE 6). The name Kinsham comes from the description of the site in earlier authorities(3) (4) - "Less than one mile from Kinsham Court, on the left bank of the Lugg and within 200 yds of Deerfold Bridge, (SO 380 652) is the site of a building, either a priory or a nunnery ..." Two buildings are shown here on an early 19thc sale map of Lord Oxford's property of Held farm. "A little more than half a mile up the Limebrook stream are the remains of what is called in the Ordnance map the "Nunnery". It is impossible at the present time to distinguish which was the Nunnery and which was the Priory." In fact, there was only one establishment. The original error seems to have been Tanner's (5) Speaking of Lymbroke, or Lingebrooke he says: "Austin Nuns - there is said to have been an alien priory, cell to Aveney in Normandy, as Mon Angl 1, 1036 (Dugdale) ex pat 16 Ric 2p 3m 26". However in a footnote he notes that "No such Monastery occurs in Du Monstrier's Neustria Pia unless in Mon Angl it be falsely printed for Aulney, which had a cell in Lincolnshire called Limbergh". This has now been identified with Great Limber in Lincs. VCH(6) also use Dugdale's reference (Pat 16 Ric II, pt iii, m26) and state that the manor and church of Great Limber were sold by
the abbot of Aunay in 1393 to the priory of St Anne at Coventry. (3-6)
There is no trace of a building within 200 yds of Deerfold Bridge and there is no local tradition of a priory. (7) |