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TUPHOLME ABBEY

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Premonstratensian monastery founded between 1155-65 and suppressed in 1536. The remains take the form of a group of earthworks, standing remains and buried archaeological deposits identified by aerial survey, which cover an area 350 metres by 300 metres. The centre of the monument is occupied by the standing remains of the south wall of the abbey's refectory, a Grade I Listed structure. The wall is comprised of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and the remains of six lancet windows and a reader's pulpitarchitecturally date it to the early 13th century. Low earthwork banks immediately north of the refectory wall defining a sub-rectangular area 18 metres by 13 metres, are interpreted as representing the location of the claustral range. The stone foundations of a rectangular building situated 70 metres south of the refectory wall are thought to represent the abbot's lodging. The core monastic buildings probably lay within an inner court, perhaps defined by a wall. This inner court lay within a larger monastic precinct which would also have been defined in some way and which would have had a gatehouse at the main entrance. The antiquarian Stukeley made a sketch of the gatehouse in 1726. It is thought that this structure was demolished by the end of the 18th century. The exact location of the gatehouse remains unknown but it is likely to have stood along the northern boundary of the monument. Surrounding the core monastic buildings are the earthworks of extensive water control features, including ponds and channels. In the southern part of the monument a series of four partly water-filled linear depressions up to 200 metres in length and 7 metres in width aligned on a north east-south west axis are interpreted as monastic fishponds. A further linear depression on the north western side of the monument is similarly interpreted as a soilmark to the south west. Scheduled.

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(TF 14416822) Abbey Farm and remains of Tupholme Abbey (GT) (Premonstratensian).

Founded 1155-66 and suppressed in 1536; all that remains of the Premonstratensian abbey of Tupholme is the south wall of the frater. The moated site to the south-east (TF 1448 6815) has no connection with the abbey and may be of later date. Several depressions to the south, some waterfilled, may have been fishponds or millponds. Scheduled. (See GP: AO/LP/63/116).

Published 1:2500 survey revised.

Extant remains of the Abbey comprise the south wall of the frater standing to a max height of c.8m; it is in good condition but is not preserved. Adjacent monastic earthworks consist of the now fragmentary precinct ditch - utilised in the south-east facing arm as a chain of fishponds, and an isolated fishpond at TF 1432 6835. A further original series of ponds/stews centred to TF 1435 6805 (portrayed on OS 25" 1st Edn) has now been ploughed out. Centred at TF 1448 6816 is a substantial homestead moat; the south-east/north east arms of which have been co-joined to an original monastic pond; the grass covered island shows little evidence of disturbance and a house site could not be traced.

Abbey Farm is now deserted.

AM survey of 13.10.64 revised. (1-7)

(TF 1425 6825). Pottery scatter and building material: worked stone and tile and a Neolithic flint saw-blade collected from edge of field, now in Lincoln City and County Museum (LM36.76). (8)(9)

TF 144 682. The remains of the Premonstratensian monastic house lie in a pasture field of earthworks around the standing fragment of the S wall of the monastic refectory. To the W, earthworks until recently in pasture now lie in arable: their general form has been recovered by aerial photograph transcription (scale 1:2500) both as earthworks and as soil- and crop-marks. Further features to the E, also now destroyed in arable, have similarly been transcribed from soil- and crop-mark evidence. The earthworks comprise elements of the abbey including an extensive water-management system. The majority are, however, principally associated with the post-Dissolution conversion of the monastic buildings into a grand secular residence, with associated gardens (see TF 16 NW 19). This had a life of approximately 150 years. At its destruction, surviving medieval fabric was selectively retained as ornamental landscape features going with the new Tupholme Hall (TF 1467 6886). There is also evidence of two later post-medieval farmsteads on the site (see TF 16 NW 20 & 21).

The above description is summarised from a 1:1000 scale RCHME survey conducted in January 1989, the products of which are deposited in the NMR. (10)

Elements of Tupholme Abbey described by authorities 1-10 were transcribed at a scale of 1:10,000, as part of the RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP Project, including precinct boundary ditches and fishponds.

The moat described by authorities 1-7 at TF 1448 6816 is probably a Post-Medieval garden feature and is part of record TF 16 NW 19. (Morph No. LI.554.2.1-3; LI.554.2.5)

This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database. (11)

Scheduled (12)

Listed Building (13)

Additional Reference (14)

The abbey site was reassessed from recent reconnaissance air photographs, as part of the Witham Valley project. The series of fishponds/ stewponds and the monastic precinct boundary ditches, which lie to the west and south-west of the abbey remains, have been levelled. They are now visible as cropmarks and more of the precinct ditch is visible (TF 1423 6823) than when first transcribed from air photographs (see authority 11) as part of the Lincolnshire NMP project. The transcriptions from both NMP projects need to viewed together.
(15)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1956

( 2) edited by William Page 1906 The Victoria history of the county of Lincoln, volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)206-7

( 3) by David Knowles and J K S St. Joseph 1952 Monastic sites from the air

Cambridge air surveys Page(s)172-3

( 4) General reference

Ministry of Works. 1961. Anient Monuments of England and Wales, 64

( 5) Aerial photograph

J K S St Joseph BR/92 undtd

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 FRH 04-NOV-64

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

F2 FDC 01-MAY-75

(8) Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology Lincolnshire history and archaeology

12 (1977) Page(s)71

(9) Externally held archive reference

SMR files, Lincoln City and County Museum

(10) Field Investigators Comments

Wayne Cocroft/JAN-1989/RCHME: Tupholme Abbey

(11) RCHME/EH Aerial Photographers Comment

Yvonne Boutwood/01-NOV-1994/RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP

(12) Scheduled Monument Notification

08-DEC-1997

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

East Lindsey 06-SEP-1985

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

Page(s)192

(15) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR TF 1468/30 17710/27 11-JUL-2002

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Medieval or post medieval field boundary ditches are visible as cropmarks on air photographs. They lie to the north-west of Tupholme Abbey. The parall...

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