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Cistercian Abbeys: KINGSWOOD Name: KINGSWOOD Location: nr Wotton
under Edge County: Gloucestershire In 1139 Roger de Berkeley offered the abbot
at Tintern the site of Acholt in Kingswood,
so that he could send out
a colony from his overcrowded monastery. Following the foundation
of the abbey at Kingswood, the monks led a very unsettled life.
The
civil war during the reign of King Stephen (1135-54) clearly disrupted
their life and they sought a more peaceful site. The monks purchased
some
land from John de St. John at Hazleton and moved there some time
between 1139 and 1147. In 1147 the lands at Hazleton were recovered
by its previous owner, Reginald de St. Waleric, who drove out
the monks. The community then returned to Kingswood. However,
the
monks were not content to forgo their lands at Hazleton and disputed
Reginald's right to their possession . Their opposition was not
in vain and Reginald finally yielded to their demands and restored
Hazleton to the monks. Most of the community returned there
in 1148 but some remained at Kingswood, which
was later regarded as a grange. Those that returned back
to Hazleton encountered problems obtaining
a water supply. Accordingly,
Richard de St. Waleric relocated the community to Tetbury, but
only a few years later the monks returned to
Kingswood,
to occupy a fresh site. This final move occurred some time
during 1149/50.(1) In due course,
the monks at the new site in Kingswood became
one of the most important wool-producing houses of the Cistercian
Order in Britain.(2) In the
1535 assessment the annual net income of
the house was valued at £232 and the abbey was dissolved
with the larger monasteries in 1538.(3) A
sixteenth-century gatehouse is
all that remains of the site, which has long since been surrounded
by the village of Kingswood. This building is now in the care
of
the English Heritage and is accessible to the public at all reasonable
times.
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