Cerne Abbey

The abbey was founded in 987 by Æthelmær the Stout. Ælfric of Eynsham, the most prolific writer in Old English, spent time at the abbey as a monk and teacher. King Cnut plundered this monastery during an attack upon the town, but afterwards became a benefactor of it. By the time of the Domesday Book, the abbey had added substantially to its endowment. to the veneration of Saint Eadwold of Cerne, a 9th-century hermit reputedly a brother of Edmund, king of East Anglia. Eadwold lived as a hermit on a hill about four miles from Cerne. The later history appears to have been relatively uneventful; A History of the County of Dorset says that its history is "perhaps the least eventful of any of the Dorset houses with the exception of that of the sisters at Tarrant Kaines". The late 15th-century Guest House of the abbey is also Grade I listed, as is the very elaborate stone vaulted porch of the abbot's hall, built around 1500, which survives in the midst of a wooded lawn, with a Grade II* listed, early 16th century barn lying to its north. A Grade I listed, 14th-century tithe barn, converted to a house in the late 18th century, lies to its east. ==Abbots of Cerne==