Rise of canons regular During the later 11th and early 12th centuries,
Benedictine monasticism centred upon large religious communities in cities, with imposing buildings, powerful abbots and scholars, and considerable affluence. In contrast there arose a desire to follow a more primitive type of religious life, as
canons regular in smaller, secluded communities. The
Augustinian houses of canons began to be established on this principle. The first house of canons regular in England was at
St Botolph's Priory, Colchester, which was reorganized on a conventual basis before 1106. Around 1108,
Holy Trinity Priory was founded with clergy from St Botolph’s, under the patronage of
Queen Maud. Ten years later,
Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, gave the church of
Chich, Essex to the canons of Aldgate; presumably in support of his project,
King Henry I granted the churches of Blythburgh and
Stowmarket to him, and, it appears, to
St Osgyth. By 1121, the canons of Aldgate had established the
Priory of St Osyth at Chich. Its first prior
William de Corbeil was advanced to
the see of Canterbury in 1123, interrupting the Benedictine dominance of the English church.
The cell at Blythburgh Although the exact arrival date of canons at Blythburgh is unknown, by 1147 a charter of King Stephen mentions two canons established there. The
Ipswich house of canons at Holy Trinity Priory had been founded by 1133; Blythburgh probably remained only a cell of St Osyth's until
King Henry II granted to the abbot of St Osyth's, c. 1164-1170, the right to appoint or remove the prior at Blythburgh, privileges later ratified by
Pope Innocent III. Although paying an annual tribute to the mother house, the prior and convent of Blythburgh acted independently in the acquisition of lands. The Dunwich historian Gardner observes that priors of Blythburgh, being nominated by the abbot and convent of St Osyth's, were on every occasion presented to the
Bishops of Norwich, for their institution, by the Lords of the
Blything Hundred, successively the Claverings, Audleys, Uffords, and Lords Dacre, as patrons.
Competing foundations The Cartulary's editor found no consistent pattern of patronage towards the priory. The many religious houses of the neighbourhood, including
William de Chesney's
Carthusian house at
Sibton Abbey (c. 1149), the
Cluniac house at
Wangford (a cell of
Thetford Priory), the many religious houses of
Dunwich, and Roger fitzOsbert's Augustinian foundation at
St. Olaves Priory, Herringfleet, were in competition to attract funding. In 1171 the
Precentor of Blythburgh (whose office implies a fully organized community) was chosen to become the first prior of
Ranulf de Glanvill's larger Augustinian house for 36 canons at
Butley Priory (1171). Gilbert satisfied his very influential patrons: he continued at Butley until his death around 1195, playing his part in the exchange of endowments with Ranulph's
Premonstratensian foundation at
Leiston Abbey in 1183 (then located at
Minsmere), assisting in the foundation of Leiston's daughter house at
Langdon Abbey in Kent in 1192, and taking on the governance of Ranulf's
leper hospital at
West Somerton in Norfolk:
The lordship The lordship of Blythburgh is traced from
King Stephen's grant to John son of Robert de Chesney, and after his death to his brother William in 1157. Margaret de Chesney became William's senior heir in 1174: her first husband
Hugh de Cressy dying in 1188/89, she remarried to
Robert fitzRoger, lord of
Warkworth, Northumberland. Robert was also lord of
Horsford and of
Langley, Norfolk, where he founded a
Premonstratensian abbey in 1195/98. He died in 1214: Margaret secured her inheritance, and was succeeded at her death in 1230 by her son Roger de Cressi, and in 1246 by his son Hugh (II). Hugh and his brother Stephen both dying in 1263,
Robert fitzRoger, a descendant of Margaret de Chesney's second marriage, became lord of Blythburgh until 1310, and in 1278 confirmed all the grants to the priory made by his predecessors. His son
John fitzRobert, also called de Clavering, was lord of Blythburgh from 1310 to 1332, and was granted in Suffolk the Hundreds of
Blything and
Waineford in 1313, for life.
Spiritual holdings The priory's chief spiritual holdings, apart from Blythburgh Holy Trinity and the chapel at Walberswick, were the churches or chapels lying immediately above Blythburgh along the tributary valleys of the Blyth. The earliest of these acquisitions were the churches of
Bramfield, given by Eudo son of Oger de Bramfield, and
Blyford, granted by members of the Criketot family. Both were confirmed to the priory by Bishop
William de Turbeville (1146-1175).
Wenhaston church was held as a
moiety in 1281 (when confirmed by
Archbishop Peckham), not including the chapel of
Mells in the west. Its close neighbour,
Thorington church (beside the Bramfield brook descending to the Blyth), the
advowson of which was granted to the priory by the rector of St John of Dunwich, was appropriated in 1347. The church of
Claxton, Norfolk, confirmed by William de Kerdeston, was evidently granted to Blythburgh in connection with fitzRoger's foundation at Langley Abbey in the adjoining parish.
Lands and rents The priory drew its rents mainly within the Deanery of Dunwich, from a patchwork of mostly small endowments.
Richard I's confirmation charter of 1198 begins with several in
Dunwich itself: the
Taxatio of 1291 shows that the priory received rents from the Dunwich churches of St Peter, St John, St Leonard (the lazar-house), St Nicholas, and All Saints. Dunwich received its charter and seal from King John in 1199 and again in 1215.
Edward II Inspected and confirmed Richard's charter to the priory in 1319. It was inspected again in 1326, together with the priory's other lands and rents, in response to the prior's petition for a full new charter confirming the priory's holdings of old, which he requires because his franchises have been infringed by bailiffs and people of the country: this is the second
Inspeximus, printed fully in the
Monasticon. These, taken with the Cartulary and the
Taxatio, reveal an expected concentration of holdings in
Bulcamp and the neighbouring parishes of Blythford, Wenhaston,
Holton St Peter,
Henham,
Sotherton and
Westhall, in the Blyth hinterland. To the west these extended around
Halesworth, in the parishes of
Heveningham and
Huntingfield,
Chediston,
Linstead Magna,
Brampton, and
Spexhall: to the north they lay in the coastlands at
Covehithe (North Hales),
Frostenden,
Reydon,
Benacre and
Easton Bavents. They continued into the Waineford Deanery to
Willingham St Mary,
Redisham,
Ringsfield,
Barsham,
Shadingfield and
Beccles, continuing also into
Lothingland and across the
Waveney into that corner of Norfolk, but avoiding that division of the
Waineford Hundred known as
The Saints. To the south they extended through the hinterland of Dunwich, including the manor of Hinton Hall which became a
grange of the priory, and to
Westleton,
Darsham and
Yoxford.
The priory church The priory church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is represented by a few visible remains. It appears that in the 10th or 11th century there was a building (presumably a church) on this site, aligned ritually west to east but in fact somewhat north-west to south-east. The position of its western end is not known. A section of wall some 8.7 metres long and 3 metres high, forming part of the south side of the structure, remains standing. It has a flint rubble and
lime mortar core, and was faced with neat horizontal courses of flint nodules with a decorative course of Roman tile, and two flint courses laid diagonally in herring-bone fashion. A surviving
quoin is dressed with
ashlars of Quarr stone, a non-local
Oligocene limestone not found elsewhere on the site. It is believed that a corresponding wall stood about 8 metres to the north of this. This building (or part thereof) was retained to serve as the
nave (probably without
aisles) of a new church built between circa A.D. 1190 and 1220, or thereabouts. The eastern end of the nave now opened into a central tower
crossing supported on four large corner
piers, one of which (the north-western) still survives as a rubble core to the height of some 7.7 metres. These piers form a square of almost 9 metres, from which there extended a
presbytery or choir to the east, and large
transepts to the north and south. The south transept was 12 metres in length (its south-western corner located by excavation), and a fragment of the east wall of the north transept is still standing. Little of the chancel remains, but a trench possibly representing the position of the east wall contained prepared flints suggesting a knapped flint facing and a rather extensive presbytery. A solitary coffined grave lay aligned on the central axis of the presbytery towards its eastern end, a ceremonial position for a burial of importance inside the church structure. The ashlar cladding of the western piers, sufficiently preserved at the base for identification as of
Norman-Early English Transitional style, show a curved plain facing on the west side over a basal plain roll moulding, with slender engaged shafts at the angles with the plain north and south faces. The ornamented western side of the piers is puzzling, since they must have abutted upon the older nave walls: yet it seems an opening was left at this point at ground level on both sides of the nave, maybe intending to demolish the old nave and build a new one with
arcaded aisles (never undertaken). These openings must have given into a covered space, and doorways in the western walls of the transepts suggest outer structures (but not aisles) both north and south of the nave. If the antiquarian views tell us anything, it is that the walls of the crossing (and perhaps of the nave) rose fully to an upper register of
fenestration. On the north side of the nave the ground level was noticeably lower than the interior floor-level, and a flight of steps went down from the transept's west doorway into a walkway or
ambulatory about 3 metres wide. This walk went along the outer side of the nave and the transept west wall, and was contained within a narrow wall, of which the stump of the south-eastern corner angle survives. This has been interpreted as meaning that the priory's
cloister was (unusually) on the north side of the nave, where it would normally be in the corresponding position on the south. A large hole in the pier fabric suggests the fixing at this corner of a timber transom or
tie beam to support the walkway roof structure. The surviving part of the south wall of the nave has no windows, making place for the outer structure inferred from the openings from the nave and the south transept. The prolonged evolution and development of this church, intended or actual, exceed what might be expected of a house of moderate wealth intended for only a few resident canons. ==Dissolution==