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Cistercian Abbeys: BUCKLAND Name: BUCKLAND Location: nr Plymouth
County: Devon Buckland Abbey was founded by Amicia de Redvers,
the dowager countess of Devon, in 1278. One significant purpose
of her foundation was to provide a memorial church for her family
members, particularly her husband, Baldwin de Redvers, who had
died
in 1245, and her son who had been murdered in 1262.(1) The
abbey was colonised by monks from Quarr,
on the Isle of Wight, which had been founded almost a century and
a half earlier by the first Baldwin
de Redvers, earl of Devon. The monks that settled in the new site
were well provided for and suffered few of the hardships that
many
early Cistercian communities endured at the hands of a hostile
and isolated living environment. The monks at Buckland settled
in a
manorialised landscape, and as such inherited all the feudal responsibilities
that accompanied it.(2) The house
achieved moderate wealth and was
assessed in 1535 to have an annual income of £242. It thus
escaped the first round of closures but was finally dissolved
in
1539. Following the Dissolution the property was bought by Sir
Richard Grenville to provide an estate for his son, Roger. However,
Roger
drowned three years later whilst in command of the ill-fated Mary
Rose. It was thus for Richard’s grandson, who inherited the
abbey, to finish building the home his grandfather had started.
The house was then bought by Sir Francis Drake in 1580. The mansion
was gradually modified over the years to suit the needs of the
family
and after a serious fire in 1938 the house underwent further restoration
and refurbishment.(3) In the
early 1940s Buckland was presented to
the National Trust and the house is now open to the public during
visiting hours.
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