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BRIGHTLEY ABBEY

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Cistercian abbey founded in 1138 with an abbot and 12 monks from Waverley. It was abandoned in 1141 when the site was found to be unsuitable, and the monks moved to Forde (ST30NE15). One of the buildings at Brightley Farm has a single cell plan with original entrance in the right gable end. No original features survive, but it has been suggested that it was a former monastic chapel.

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(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)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

Dorset and Cornwall Notes and Queries 22 1942-6 179 80 (A W Everett)

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

Page(s)116

( 3) Devonshire Association reports and transactions

Okehampton meeting, E H Young 1932 Page(s)59

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 MJF 10-OCT-74

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

DOE (HHR) Devon Dist. of West Devon SEP-1987 64

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FORDE ABBEY
THORNCOMBE

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Cistercian abbey founded in 1136 as a daughter house to Waverley, moved to its present site from Brightley (SX59NE1) in 1141 and dissolved in 1539. Su...

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