More information : Stoneleigh Abbey - Cistercian House, foundation laid on 13th April 1155 by Walter Durdent, Bishop of Coventry. Damaged by fire 1241.(1)
On its dissolution c.1535, the site and demesnes were granted to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. [For plan see AO:61:40:4].(2)
Stoneleigh Abbey - there is nothing left of the conventual church, but the south aisle partially survives in the north side of the house. The semicircular arch at the east end was apparently between the aisle and the south transept. This transept and the building once forming the east side of the cloister can be recognised though much altered, and on the east side of the transept are the remains of the (now blocked up) Roman arches which must have opened originally into chapels. The nave, choir, presbytery and north aisles are gone, tho' probably foundations remain beneath the turf of the lawns.(3)
A Cistercian House, first stone laid April 1155. All external traces of the Abbey church have vanished. It stood upon the open space eastwards of the great sycamore tree upon the lawn and the North Front of the house is built upon the footwalls of its South Aisle. The Norman archway which opened from aisle to transept still stands and the tall Elizabethan block at the Eatern end of the North front is reared upon the foundations of the South Transept. At the Dissolution, Stoneleigh was among the first to be dissolved, and in 1535 the last Abbot surrendered it to the Crown. The Abbey lay a roofless ruin until 1561, which had to be cleared before a house could be built. The Elizabethan building remained substantially unaltered until 1710 and consisted of the existing East Wing built on the site of the Abbey south transept and dormitory under-croft and a corresponding West Wing, the two linked by a Long Gallery at First Floor level, on the site of the Abbey's south aisle. This long gallery remained unaltered, with its double external stairway from the ground level, until 1836. In 1714 work was commenced on the new building on the west side and completed twelve years later.(4)
Stoneleigh Abbey (Remains of) - Cistercian - Founded A.D.1155. The remains of this Cistercian Abbey, with the exception of the gatehouse [SP 37SW13.1,] are embodied in the present and more modern structure which is part Elizabethan, part Georgian. They may be summarized as follows:-
Conventual Church - The south transept and footwalls of the South Aisle, situated in the east and north fronts of the Elizabethan building respectively, are the only visible remains. The outline of the conjectural plan of the Church [taken from (4)] has been superimposed on the field sheet.
Chapter House & Dorter - situated and embodied in part of the eastern Elizabethan wing. A number of round-headed Norman doorways and buttresses constitute the visible remains.
(See GP /AO/ 61/31/4Stoneleigh Abbey from NW.) Chapel, situated at SP 3184 7122, is modern.(5)
(See SP 37 SW 2 - Cryfield Grange- for supposed original site in Warwickshire.)
No change.(6)
(The gatehouse to the abbey has been given a seperate number - see SP 37SW41)
Stoneleigh Abbey. The present sandstone ashlar house is built on four sides of a central open space roughly coincident with the cloister garth of the abbey. It embodies some remains of the abbey, several C12th arched doorways, and portions of the walls. It also has a C14th undercroft, probably that to the dormitory at the South end of the East wing. This is 70' x 28' with a central row of octagonal columns supporting quadripartite vaulting. The Northern wing, (Long Gallery), and East wing date to the 1570's, but incorporate the South transept and South aisle of the monastic buildings. Grade I. (See SP37SW52 for further details of the later buildings at Stoneleigh Abbey House). (7)
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