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BUCKLAND ABBEY

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The surviving remains of Buckland Abbey which are situated between the village of Buckland Monachorum and the hamlet of Milton Combe. The monument includes the upstanding and buried remains of an abbey of the Cistercian Order. The abbey was founded in 1278 by Amicia, Countess of Devon and was colonised by monks from Quarr Abbey in the Isle of Wight, and dedicated to St Benedict. Following its dissolution in 1539 the abbey and home farm were sold in 1541 to the Grenville family. By 1576 Sir Richard Grenville had completed the conversion of the church into an Elizabethan mansion. In 1581 the property was sold to Sir Francis Drake and remained with that family until 1946. In 1949 the house was given to the National Trust and is now principally in use as a museum.

The abbey conforms to the traditional monastic plan in which a church and three ranges of buildings are grouped around the cloister, with ancillary buildings further from the nucleus. The visible remains exist as a number of adapted structures, consisting of substantial parts of the abbey church incorporated into a later mansion, part of the cloister, a barn, a farm building (guesthouse), part of the abbot's lodgings incorporated into a later structure, part of the precinct wall, and two main areas of earthworks. The buried remains are extensive and include the claustral ranges, graveyard, a gatehouse, buildings forming the home farm, and the water management system. For the details of the separate components of the abbey site please see the individual records.

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(SX 48806678) Buckland Abbey and remains of (NAT)
Cistercian Abbey (NR) (Founded AD 1278) (National Trust) (NAT). (1)

Buckland Abbey. The house incorporates most of the Monastic church including the central tower. It was converted into a house in the second half of C16. The shell is C13 with good detail and the Elizabethan work is also striking. See Country Life. vol XXXIX, p338. (2)

Tithe Barn at Buckland Abbey. A particularly fine C15 specimen retaining its old roof and other features. See Country Life as above. (3)

See pamphlet. (4)

Buckland Abbey. Grade I. [See also SX 46 NE 31-4 for associated buildings]. (5)

Additional references. Scheduled. (6-8)

Various architectural and archaeological investigations were undertaken at Buckland between 198301995. These revealed that Buckland had an unusual layout, with the cloisters to the North and a great barn close to the East end of the church. Excavations located the junction of the North transept and east cloister wall foundations, and possible evidence for a porch outside the west door.

Four Medieval inhumations just south-west of the church were excavated.

At the east end of the church was a 14th century stable block with two-storey offices at the east end , altered between 1541-76 into high quality domestic accommodation, and reverting to farm usage in the 18th-20th centuries.

To the east of the monastic are a much damaged 13th century long house or workshop was found by excavation to overlie a double-banked circular enclosure of Iron Age date. (9)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1954

(2) Country Life

39 Page(s)388

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

Tavistock Rural District February 1960

(4) General reference

Copeland GW. 1953. Buckland Abbey: An Architectural Survey

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

West Devon 26/01/1987 Page(s)40-2

(6) Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner 1989 Devon

The Buildings of England Page(s)227-30

(7) Scheduled Monument Notification

23/04/1998

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

Page(s)116

(9) Devon Archaeological Society proceedings

Brown CG 53, 1995 Page(s)25-82

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BUCKLAND MONACHORUM

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The earthworks of water management features situated to the west of Buckland Abbey. An essential part of the design of all abbeys was the provision o...

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Three storeyed 15th century tower, now incorporated into a mid 20th century dwelling, the remains of the abbot's lodgings to Buckland Abbey. The towe...

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The earthworks of three quarries from which shillet (Upper Devonian Slate) was derived in the construction of Buckland Abbey. They are situated in t...

MONUMENT NO. 1141921
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The tithe barn at Buckland Abbey is situated some 20 metres to the east of the abbey church. The barn is a complete, free-standing rectangular struct...

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