Cistercian Abbeys: COMBE

Name: COMBE Location: Combe Abbey Park, nr Coventry County: Warwickshire
Foundation: 1150 Mother house: Waverley
Relocation: None Founder: Richard de Camville
Dissolution: 1539 Prominent members:
Access: Converted into a hotel

Combe was founded in 1150 by Richard de Camville, who married the widow of Robert Marmion, founder of Polesworth Abbey.(1) It was the fifth daughter house of Waverley, the oldest of the English Cistercian houses. By the end of the thirteenth century it had become the wealthiest house in Warwickshire. However, during the fourteenth century the house was burdened by some debt, as were a lot of the Cistercian abbeys at that time. In the assessment of 1535 the house was found to have a clear annual value of £211 and was surrendered in 1539 by the abbot and twelve monks.(2)
After the suppression, the claustral ranges were converted into a house by John Harrington, who demolished the church and used its materials for building work. The house was rebuilt several times over the years and though much of the nineteenth-century house is now demolished, the monastic structures are still visible. The surviving buildings of Combe Abbey have now been converted into a hotel, and the rest of the precinct, owned by Coventry City Council since the 1950s, is incorporated within a public park.(3)