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HARTLAND ABBEY

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Augustinian Abbey founded in 1161-9 on the site of a secular college (which had been founded in the late Saxon period), and dissolved in 1539. Only the cloisters survive, although incorporated in the later Hartland Abbey country house.

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(SS 24052490) Hartland Abbey and remains of (NAT).
St Nectan's Abbey (NR).
(SS 23762488) Abbey Fish Pond (NR). (1)

(SS 240249) Deer Park (NAT). (2)

St Nectan's Abbey founded originally before 1066 for secular canons, being replaced 1161-9 by Augustinian canons. Dissolved in 1539. (3,4)

After dissolution in 1539 the buildings were despoiled and the cloisters converted into a manor house. There was additional building in 1705 which was finally incorporated into a Gothic mansion in 1779. The abbey church extended further east than the present house. (5)

The Abbott of Hartland had two deer parks. Hartland Abbey Park in 1882 covered 55 acres with 80 deer. (6,7)

Hartland Abbey house is, externally, of 18th and 19th century appearance and some fragments of masonry from the Medieval abbey are in Stoke church.

No Medieval park pale could be found and the Tithe Award has no significant names in respect of the abbot's parks. The "Abbey Fish Pond" authorised by the OS. seems to have no other documentation. It is a rectangular ditch, 25.0m by 38.0m, and at most 1.0m deep. It is now dry and generally 5.0m wide. The ditch encloses an area in the manner of a moat but is at least 1.0m above the Abbey River and could only be fed from some other source. This may have been the overflow from St Nectan's Well which could have been diverted eastwards, but there is no sign of this. The small rectangular pit, 0.5m deep, situated on the north side of the earthwork is not connected by any channel. Not only the situation but the construction is illogical for a monastic fishpond and unless some firm evidence can be found to support the published entry it seems possibly no more than an 18th or 19th century ornamental work.
Published 1:2500 survey revised on PFD. (8)

Although there is no direct evidence for the foundation date of St Nectan's Abbey, it is likely that it was founded between 500 and 560 AD and that St Nectan's Church (SS 22 SW 13) functioned as an old English minster and as such is unlikely to have been founded after ca.730 AD. (9)

Hartland Abbey. Formerly listed as Cloister ruins. Grade I. (10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1964

( 2) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1891

( 3) by David Knowles and R Neville Hadcock 1971 Medieval religious houses in England and Wales

Page(s)140,158,426

( 4) The Buildings of England

North Devon 1952 93-4

( 5) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

DoE (HHR) Bideford RD Aug 1955 11 5/11

( 6) General reference

English Deer Parks 1867 90 (E P Shirley)

( 7) General reference

Deer Parks of England 1892 49 (J Whitaker)

( 8) Field Investigators Comments

F1 NVQ 02-DEC-78

(9) Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal

Pearce SM 142, 1985 Page(s)263-4

(10) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

DOE (HHR) Devon. Torridge Dist. JUN-1989 78-9

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HARTLAND ABBEY
HARTLAND

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Country House incorporating the West range, abbot's lodgings, of the Abbey of st nectan (see SS22SW2). Some 14th-15th century work survives in the bas...

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