| Summary : Premonstratensian abbey founded 1193, dissolved 1536. Remains comprise parts of the church, west range, chapter house, dorter, frater, infirmary, two gatehouses, tithe barn and part of the precinct wall together with extensive earthworks of associated banks, ditches and enclosures. Some remains are incorporated into later buildings on the site. Dependency: Blackwose (from 1203). |
More information : [TR 2752 4198] St Radigund's Abbey (remains of) [NAT]
[TR 2756 4206] Gatehouse (remains of) [NAT]
[TR 2773 4184] Gatehouse (remains of) [NAT] (1)
The Premonstratension Abbey of St. Radegund or Bradsole was founded in 1193 and dissolved in 1536. The site was excavated by Hope who found the existing buildings to date from the foundation of the abbey.The course of the precinct wall and ditch, and other walls and water courses can be traced. Scheduled.
[See plan AO/LP/63/78 (5)] (2-6)
The remains of St. Radegunds Abbey consists of parts of the church, West Range, Chapter House, Dorter, Frater, Infirmary, two Gatehouses and a Tithe Barn and the precinct wall; together with associated banks, ditches and enclosures. Earthworks re-surveyed at 1:2500 (See GPs AO/64/120/3-7) (7)
Ruins of St Radegund's Abbey (the uninhabited portions) Grade II* Monastic ruins. 13th century. Rubble and ashlar, flint. At present forming the entrance gate-house and forecourt to St. Radegund's Farmhouse, the remains represent the cloister of the Premonstratensian Abbey of St. Radegund. Tower of 3 storeys, the topmost ruinous, of coursed flint, decorated with triangular ashlar blocks. Two large offset buttresses with central 16th century red brick semi-circular arch, and 4 chamfered lights on first floor. Originally the tower of the church. To south and east of the tower further portions of masonry survive, in part to full height, cut through especially c.1590 representing remains of nave of church with moulded doorway to tower and with the remains of cellarer's building and guesthouse, forming west range of cloister, with the north gable end of this range surviving full height. The standing buildings are surrounded by extensive earthworks, a scheduled Ancient Monument, with isolated blocks of masonry, the most extensive of which is a length of walling, about 30 metres north-east of the tower/gatehouse, about 6ft high, running about 10 metres north-east, and returned about 30 metres south-east. For history of Abbey see main entry on St. Radegund's Abbey Farmhouse. (TR 24 SE 26) (For full description see list) (8)
Additional bibliography. (9-12)
Additional bibliography - not consulted. (13-16)
The embanked precinct boundary encloses an inner enclave which hosts the cloisteral range and outbuildings as well as fishponds. This inner enclosure is best preserved on the south side where the perimeter survives as a medial ditch 5m wide, 0.6m deep and flanked by banks also 5m wide standing to a height of around 0.5m. At its southern end the linear boundary links into the larger, external precinct enclosure; to the north east it turns through 90 degrees and extends southwards to the precinct boundary close to the ruined gateway. Here, the precinct boundary is very heavily walled and has at some stage been robbed of stone. Isolated outcrops of masonry do survive, as well as fragments of an earlier gateway that gave access to Buckland and Poulton. At the angle change there are the very prominent remains of a former structure whose presence is now demarcated by rubble walls defining a rectangular hall or barn c.38m in length and 15m wide. The inner enclosure to the north of the Abbey ruins survives as a broad and deep ditch which leads to the main precinct boundary at the north west but to the south east leads into an amorphously sunken area which looks to have been drained at an earlier stage. Indeed, there is a strong impression that much, if not all of the course of the inner enclosure, as well as parts of the precinct boundary, particularly that on the west, may, at one time, have held water.
The dense concentration of earthworks to the east of the cloisteral range represent the robbed remains of ancillary buildings once associated with the Abbey. Prominent amongst these is the former church extending on an east-west alignment from the Tower. Only the outline walls can now be seen standing to a height of 0.5m where best preserved, exposed by a combination of stone robbing and late nineteenth century excavation (Hope 1882), but the east end of the Lady Chapel is clearly represented by faced wall foundations and a low bank. The layout of the remainder of church is obscured. Some 40m to the south of this a small square enclosure marked now by a low rubble bank and, on the east side by a fragment of standing masonry, are the remains of the infirmary. Other irregular earthworks in the intervening space between the two buildings, an area known as the Canon's cemetery, are likely to be spoil from episodes of demolition and stone-robbing as well as antiquarian excavation.
The cloisteral range and attendant buildings sit within a walled enclosure, small stretches of which can be seen to the north and east of the church and whose course to the south can be seen reflected in the line of the modern fence. The remainder of its circuit is fragmentary with only a small stretch of bank and external ditch, aligned north east-south west, surviving and roughly heading in the direction of the Tithe Barn, once the Great Guest House. If the walled enclosure did extend this far it would have formed part of a rectangular enclosure covering approximately one hectare. It must be noted, however, that the cloisteral range and associated buildings sit somewhat eccentrically in relation to this enclosure wall. The orientation of the wall itself, being north east-south west, is at odds with the traditional north-south alignment of the monastic buildings; indeed the line of the wall, if projected beyond where it survives as standing fabric to the north of the church, would meet the north east corner of the north transept at an unusually acute angle. This may indicate that the wall is a later alteration, constructed from re-used monastic masonry, an interpretation that is supported by visible sequencing here as the wall can be seen to overlie an earlier scarp.
Close to the north east corner of the cloisteral range there is a rectangular fishpond, 32m in length, 14m wide and at least 2.5m deep, and further to the south, but attached externally, there is a low walled annexe within which there are the slight remains of at least one, now heavily infilled, pond, rectangular in outline, narrow, 5m wide and up to 40m in length. (17) |