Haughmond Abbey

SJ 51 NW UFFINGTON C.P. B5062 (north-west side) 1/76 Haughmond Abbey

GV I

Abbey, now ruinous. Augustinian, founded 1130 by William Fitz Alan of Clun; rebuilt in late C12, abbot's lodgings added C13 and modified C14, including the kitchens; the abbey was suppressed in 1539 and converted into a dwelling. White sandstone rubble and ashlar. The plan lies against (and partially cut into) Haughmond Hill to the east: the church is to the north of the cloister, with chapter house on the east of the cloisters; frater to the south and cellars to the west; the remainder of the layout (unusually) lies to the south with dorter and warming house adjoining a slype south of the chapter house and situated to the east of a court facing the kitchens; the abbot's lodgings aligned at right-angles to the infirmary close the south side of the quadrangle; the reredorter is set diagonally to the east of the abbot's lodgings and adjoins the south end of the dorter range. The infirmary and abbot's lodging is the most substantial part of the ruin, and is now the point of approach to the complex. The church, aisleless and with staggered apses to the transepts is razed; the doorway to the north-west corner of the cloisters remains with shafts, shaft rings and decorated Norman capitals; geometrical motifs on the south side; of the other remains is the west cloister wall containing a large lavatorium; chapter house: with 3 large late C12 arches, the outer pair with smaller windows and the centre a doorway; shafts divide the arches all with foliated capitals; the C16 domestic conversion left massive moulded ceiling beams; the east wall is cut off and has a bay window and buttresses to the angles. Kitchens: 3 chimneys still remain to a respectable height, the centre of C14, the others of C15. Infirmary: of 3 bays divided by buttresses on the south side, window with pointed arched 2-light and transomed trefoil heads. Abbot's Lodging: gable end with angle buttresses to east has an inserted large 3-sided bay window of C15 or early C16 design with 2 Tudor-arch lights to each face within moulded square-headed frames. Excavations in 1975-79 defined the plan of an early C12 Church with subsequent addition of a small cloister, all demolished at the time of the late C12 rebuilding. The site is in Guardianship and is Scheduled as an Ancient Monument. V.C.H., Vol.II (1973), Pp.68-9; B.o.E., Pp.140-143; Medieval Archeology, Vol.XXIV (1980), Pp.210-213, 240-1; David Knowles & J.K.S. St.Joseph, Monastic Sites from the Air, Cambridge University Press (1952), Pp.204-5.

Listing NGR: SJ5418615134