More information : (SX 5986 9733) Richard de Brioniis founded a monastery for an abbot and twelve monks of the Cistercian order from Waverley at Brightley near Okehampton in 1138. Five years later the monastery was abandoned and the monks moved to Ford where Ford Abbey (ST 30 NE 15) was founded. The original site is now a farm and one of the farm outbuildings, a rectangular building with an east west axis, has considerable remains of an ecclesiastical nature. It could possibly have been a chapel. (1)
Brightley. Founded in 1136 by Richard fitz Baldwin de Brioniis for an abbot and twelve monks who five years later moved to Forde. (2)
At Brightley Richard fitz Baldwin founded a religious house in 1133. Twelve monks and a superior named Richard arrived in 1136. In 1141 they moved to Ford Abbey. Probably the old building, now used as a barn, with a round headed entrance under protective arching at one end represents the remains of the chapel. (3)
Brightley is now a dilapidated pig farm and most of the stone outbuildings are obscured by corrugated iron.
There is nothing in the buildings to suggest monastic origin and it is extremely unlikely that any 12th century material has survived. (4)
Former chapel at Brightley, now an outbuilding. Medieval, single cell plan with original entrance in the right gable end. No original features survive. Grade II. (5)
There are several early referenced to the abbey and the remains at the barn, considerd to be remains of the abbey. (6) |