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Cistercian Abbeys: NEWENHAM Name: NEWENHAM Location: nr Axminster
County: Devon In 1246 Reginald de Mohun, lord of Dunster,
who sometimes styled himself earl of Somerset, invited Abbot Acius
of
Beaulieu to choose between three sites
in Devon, one of which would then provide the setting for the establishment
of a new daughter-house.
Abbot Acius chose a site on a tributary of the River Axe
and Reginald de Mohun thus organised the lands and endowments
for
the new settlement. Thirteen monks and four lay-brothers arrived
at the site in January 1247.(1) The
abbey took several decades to get
on its feet but by the turn of the fourteenth century the house
seems to have acquired some financial stability.
Abbot John of Croxwell (d. 1324), was a partcularly prudent governor
and his successor, John of Gettingham (1324-38), did much
to
strengthen the abbey’s economy. However, in 1349 the Black
Death killed twenty monks and three lay-brothers, leaving
a community
of just three. Thereafter the abbey seems to have slowly regained
its numbers, with a community of seven monks by 1377.(2) At
the time
of the Dissolution the annual net income of the house was valued
at £227 and the abbey was dissolved with the larger monasteries
in 1539.(3) Only minor fragments
of masonry remain at the site, and
a farm house now lies over part of the west range.(4) The
site is under private ownership and cannot be accessed by the public.
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