St Nicholas Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds

 So this entry is coming to you some time after my last post as I felt it was time to refresh the blog and update it a little bit. I came across the photos I took sometime ago, in fact back in 2015. I was on a day out visiting places from my childhood around Norfolk and Suffolk when I came across this site. Having visited Bury St. Edmunds many times before I had never explored this particular area of the town however I am so glad I did on this particular day and I stumbled across a ruin on a fork in the road. 

This ruin looked very much like a church with a grand arched stone window, carefully carved. Flint walls with stone blocks at the ends grew out of the grass to a height of approximately five or six foot. Remains of pillars or decoration could be seen in the form of carved stone pillar bases. 

Knowing nothing of this site I started my usual research on the Internet to see what I could find, I was intriguied by this site and wanted to know more. I was fairly certain that it was monastic in origin however I was uncertain as to what form it was. Was it a church, or maybe it could have been a small abbey, or maybe a buiding linked to the grand abbey at Bury St. Edmunds.

This site is located just outside the town to the east on Eastgate Street.

After sometime of research I found out that the site I explored was once a monastic hospital known as St Nicholas Hospital. It was formed before the year 1224 however an exact date is not known by an unknown abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. It was administered by and consisted of a master, a chaplian and several brethren. 

One of the first recorded entries for the hospital was in 1224. This entry relates to the permission received from King Henry III by the master of the hospital to hold a feast and vigial of the Translation of St. Nicholas. Other entries in history around the hospital have been recorded surrounding pardons and charters which relate to the hospital aquiring land in and around Bury St. Edmunds.

Very little is known about this site, we know it was a hospital but was this a hospital in the sense of a Leprosy hospital, was it to care for the poor and sick. Little information about its use exists. 

My Thoughts on the site

Having stumbled across this site I needed to stop and take a look. I was intrigued and interested to find out more. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain access to the other side of the walls however I explored the side of the walls I could. I took some photos of the wonderful stone and flint work and was very impressed with the old window. It appears as though the walls and stonework are still tended to and repaired when necassary. While the site was not hugh and neither was this particular section of the building it clearly had a monastic tilt to it, it was clear to see that throughout its life it was in someway connected to a monastic life.

 

Background information and reading with some information contained within this post has been adapted from material at https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/suff/vol2/p134

 

 

Creake Abbey

I recently visited Creake Abbey a short drive up the road from North Creake, not far from Fakenham in North West Norfolk. I had visited this site once before and while some of the former monastery buildings and site has since been developed into private residences, it felt oddly strange and eerie as though I was being watched. 

However this time I did not get this feeling, yet it was replaced with another feeling, a feeling of sadness. Now this could be due to the information I had read about the site before hand so I am not saying that I experienced anything paranormal. I owe these feelings to its history and that fact that during 1484 Creake abbey was destroyed after a tragic fire reduced it to nothing more than a large church in physical size. The community at Creake Abbey was wiped out canon by canon until in 1506 the last member of the community the Abbot himself died from the plague.

A little history of Creake Abbey

Creake Abbey went from strength to strength starting life as a small chapel which grew into a hospital and priory. Sir Robert de Narford funded the chapel of St Mary of the Meadows to be built and later extended to become the hospital and priory of St Bartholomew. At this point we know the canons began to follow the rule of St Augustine. 

The priory began to prosper with donations from many generous benefactors such as King Henry III by bestowing the title of abbey onto the complex in 1225. However the canons were unaware that this prosperity would not last and in 1484 tragedy befell that abbey when it was gutted by a fire which ripped through the building reducing the complex to a mere shell of it former glory. Requests were made to fund the rebuilding programme at the site. King Richard III made donations yet these were not enough to rebuild its prosperity especially when further tragedy fell on the abbey in 1506. One by one the canons died from the plague with the abbot being the final inhabitant left also died from the plague in 1506

My feelings on the site

As I strolled around the site I found it tranquil yet also a feeling of sadness fell over me which as I mentioned earlier I attributed to the information I read on the boards dotted around. I got a sense of the 'good' Sir Robert and Lady Alice tried to accomplish by founding this abbey and hospital and also the glory that this site must of radiated in its heyday. 

However a feeling of uncertainty flooded me as I approached some of the original features due to their new and current use. In the photos below you will see the piscinas that were once used to wash the vessels used in daily services are now filled with 'offerings' such as candles, Christian psalms and texts along with stones scribed with messages such as 'RIP Uncle.' I found this to be comforting that people are still using the site as a place of remembrance but also oddly strange as both times I have visited I have been the only person there. 

I would certainly recommend a visit to the site to see what feelings you receive from such as place and while you are there use the benches dotted about to pause and reflect and take in the beauty of nature around you, listening to the birds singing as they wing about in the sky.

Just around the corner is a delightful cafe and craft shops which are also well worth a visit.

Background research and reading credited to English Heritage available at www.english-heritage.org.uk

Leiston Abbey

Leiston Abbey originally started life as St Mary's Abbey at Minsmere in Suffolk. It was founded by Ranulf de Glanville in 1182 however due to unhealthy and undesriable site conditions due to being built on swampy groung the abbey moved from Minsmere to its present location in 1363. Very little is left at the original location due to it being dismantled for building materials to build the new abbey at Leitson, however sections of the proiry chapel can still be seen at Minsmere.

Leitson Abbey was home to a group of Augustinian Canons Regular following the premonstratensian rule. They held many duties including preaching and pastoral work unlike monks.

 Like so many other abbeys, priories and monasteries, Leiston Abbey fell victim to the dissolution of the monasteries, after which is fell into ruin and become a farm with the farm house being built into the ruins of the abbey. Today the site is under the guardianship of English Heritage.