Bungay Priory

Bungay Priory was a Benedictine nunnery in the town of Bungay in the English county of Suffolk. It was founded c. 1160-1185 by the Countess Gundreda, wife or widow of Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, upon lands of her maritagium, and was confirmed to her and her second husband Roger de Glanville by King Henry II. It was dissolved in about 1536. At the time of the suppression it consisted of a prioress and 11 nuns. The priory church, the Church of the Holy Cross, became the Church of St Mary, the parish church in Bungay.[1] Although ruins of the priory remain to the east of the church, any remaining intact buildings are likely to have been destroyed in the Bungay fire of 1688 which severely damaged the church itself.[2][3] The church and the ruins of the priory are a Grade I listed building.[1]

Ruins of Bungay Priory.
Ruins of Bungay Priory.

Date of foundation
The foundation date of c. 1160, proposed in some older authorities,[4][5][6] represents an earliest possible date, and is unconfirmed. Gundreda, daughter of Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick, was the second wife of Hugh Bigod, and not of his father Roger Bigot. Hugh Bigod died in 1176 or 1177, and Gundreda's marriage to Roger de Glanville followed that. The witnesses to Henry II's charter of confirmation to her include John, Bishop of Norwich who was elected in 1175,[7][8] and this charter, made at Geddington, Northamptonshire, is confidently dated to 1188.[9] The original foundation however could have been based upon lands received in connection with her first marriage settlement, and the confirmation prompted by the second marriage.[10]

References
  1. Church of St Mary (including Ruins of Benedictine Convent), Bungay, British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2011-04-30.
  2. St Mary, Bungay, Suffolk churches website. Retrieved 2011-04-30.
  3. Bungay Priory Church. Retrieved 2011-04-30.
  4. W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, New Edition Vol. IV (T.G. March, London 1849), pp. 337-41 (Google).
  5. A.I. Suckling, The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk, 2 vols (John Weale, London 1846), I, pp. 139-51 (Google).
  6. 'Houses of Benedictine nuns: Priory of Bungay', in W. Page (ed.), The Victoria History of the County of Suffolk, Vol. 2 (Archibald Constable, London 1907), pp. 81-83 (Internet Archive).
  7. J.H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville: A Study of the Anarchy (Longmans, Green & Co., London 1892), Appendix M, at pp. 317 (Internet Archive).
  8. R. Mortimer (ed.), Leiston Abbey Cartulary and Butley Priory Charters, Suffolk Records Society (Boydell Press, Ipswich 1979), p. 33.
  9. R.W. Eyton, Court, Household and Itineraries of King Henry II (Taylor & Co., London 1878), pp. 285 (Internet Archive).
  10. S.J. Bailey, 'The Countess Gundred's lands', The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. X no. 1 (1948), pp. 84-103.

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