Shulbrede Priory

Shulbrede Priory is a former medieval monastic house in West Sussex, England; it became the home of the Ponsonby family, including the first Lord Ponsonby. It is a Grade I listed building.[1]

Shulbrede Priory

Early history

Shulbrede Priory was originally known as Woolynchmere Priory, being situate in the parish of Linchmere, which was at that time spelt Wlenchemere.[2] It was founded as a house for canons of the Augustinian order, towards the end of the 12th century, by Sir Ralph de Arderne.[2]

As built, it was very much larger than the portion now surviving.[2] To the north was a cruciform church oriented towards an east facing altar, with north and south transepts dividing the nave from the chancel.[2] The length of the church, from east to west, was about 140 feet and, from the north to the south transepts, about 98 feet.[2] To the south of the nave were cloisters, around which were grouped a Chapter House and Warming Room to the east, a refectory to the south, and a buttery, parlour and other buildings to the west.[2]

In about 1234, Ralph Neville, Bishop of Chichester agreed with the Abbot of Séez (Sées in Normandy, France) to appropriate the church at Shulbrede to the Priory, having previously been a "daughter" of the church at Cocking.[3]

Since the dissolution

At the dissolution of the monasteries, the Priory became part of the Cowdray estate, which retained it until 1902.[2]

The only portion of the Priory buildings which remained standing was the range of buildings to the south of the cloisters.[2] This includes the parlour leading into the former cloisters, the buttery (an undercroft) and above it what was originally the prior's chamber or guests' hall.[2] This was at some point divided into smaller rooms, and one of the partition walls was decorated with wall paintings, which can still be seen.[2] The paintings are of birds, animals, women in Elizabethan dress, the Royal Arms of King James I, and animals with inscriptions in Latin referring to the birth of Christ.[2]

Ponsonby ownership

From 1902, Shulbrede Priory became the family home of Arthur Ponsonby, later (1930) created first Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, and his wife, who was the daughter of the composer Sir Hubert Parry.[4] Parry composed some piano pieces called Shulbrede Tunes, which were musical portraits of the members of the Ponsonby family.[5] Lord and Lady Ponsonby had a son, Matthew Ponsonby, later the 2nd Lord Ponsonby, and a daughter, the "Bright Young Thing" Elizabeth Ponsonby,[6] whose family home this was.[7]

Until 1925, when copyhold was abolished, the Court Baron of the Manor of Linchmere and Shulbrede was held in the priory.[2]

When Lord Ponsonby died in 1946, his widow continued to live at Shulbrede Priory.[2] It was the home of their granddaughters, Laura Ponsonby, who died in 2016, and Kate Russell,[8] who still lives there with her husband.

Listing

Shulbrede Priory became a Grade I listed building in 1959.[9]

References
  1. Historic England. "Shulbrede Priory (1025945)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  2. Salzman, L F (1953). "Volume 4 s.v. Linchmere". Victoria County History; A History of the County of Sussex. pp. 67–70. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  3. Page, William. "Houses of Augustinian canons: Priory of Shulbred". A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2 (1973). Victoria County History. pp. 81–82. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  4. s.v. Ponsonby of Shulbrede, 1st Baron. Who Was Who.
  5. R A Jones (2004; online edn, May 2007). "Ponsonby, Arthur Augustus William Harry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2013-05-29. All the family are musically portrayed in Hubert Parry's delightful piano pieces Shulbrede Tunes. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. Cracroft-Brennan, Patrick. "Cracroft's Peerage". Retrieved 2013-05-29. Hon Elizabeth Ponsonby (b. 26 Dec 1900; dsp. 31 Jul 1940), mar. 5 Jul 1929 (div. 1933) as his first wife John Denis Cavendish Pelly (b. 23 Jul 1903; d. 1989), 1st son of Maj William Francis Henry Pelly by his wife Rosa Theodora Davy, dau. of William Vinicombe Davy
  7. R A Jones (2004; online edn, May 2007). "Ponsonby, Arthur Augustus William Harry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2013-05-29. The couple's first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1900 and their son, Matthew, in 1904. All the family are musically portrayed in Hubert Parry's delightful piano pieces Shulbrede Tunes. While at Oxford in the 1920s Matthew became a friend of Evelyn Waugh, and his sister, Elizabeth, whose exotic life in the social set known as the bright young people caused her parents much anguish, became in part the model for Waugh's heroine Agatha Runcible in his novel Vile Bodies. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. Németh, Robert (18 Oct 2011). "Building Opinions". Retrieved 2013-05-29. amongst the current residents are Laura Ponsonby and Kate Russell, great-granddaughters of Sir Hubert
  9. "British Listed Buildings". Sulbrede Priory, Linchmere. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  • Shulbrede Priory, an article about Shulbrede Priory by Chris Lea, dated 7 January 2013, and illustrated with a variety of photographs of the building in its current form.

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