More information : "According to a papal licence of 1400 Spernall was the original site of the Priory of Cookhill (SP 05 NE 21) and their buildings here, at that date in ruins, included a church and cemetery
a cross-bow shot from the parish church. Cookhill certainly held lands in Spernall, which are described in 1535 as the demesne (terra dominicata) of St. Giles. The chapel of St. Giles, which may have been the original church of the Priory, was granted with other of its lands, to Thomas Broke in 1541 and to Nicholas Fortescue in the following year. It had probably by then been converted into a farmhouse, since in 1547 Thomas Broke was occupying the 'messuage or chapel of St. Giles, called Saint Gyles chapel in Sparnall'... John Fortescue received a grant of 'the messuage and chapel called St. Giles's in 1663. The present farm-house of that name is modern." (1)
Earthworks visible on A/P's (a) north of the farmhouse at SP 094 631 almost certainly mark the site of this early priory.
Surveyed at 1/2500. (2)
This Cistercian priory of nuns was founded before 1198, possibly about 1180, although the exact foundation date is unknown. When it was moved from Spernall to Cookhill in Worcestershire is also unknown but it may have been before 1288 when a charter mentions land held at Spernall. The move, if it took place about 1260, could explain the belief that Isable de Maudit, countess of Warwick, had been the founder. (3-4)
Additional bibliography (5)
[Omitted from Knowles and Hadcock 1971 edition] |