Name: QUARR Location: nr Ryde County:
Isle of Wight Foundation: 1132 Mother house: Savigny Relocation: None Founder: Baldwin de Redvers Dissolution: 1536 Prominent members: Access: Accessible subject to permission
In 1131 Baldwin de Redvers (d. 1155), lord of the Isle of Wight
and later created earl of Devon (1141), granted some land near
the
north shore of the Isle and in the parish of Binstead to Abbot
Geoffrey of Savigny,
for the purpose of constructing a monastery.
This abbey was dedicated to the honour of the Blessed
Virgin, and
was one of the first Cistercian monasteries to be founded in
Britain.
The
small colony of monks, headed by Abbot Gervase, arrived at the
site some time during 1132. Baldwins initial endowments
included sizeable estates across the island, property at Chark
on the Hampshire
mainland and at Farwood in Devon.(1) Quarr
Abbey was absorbed into the Cistercian Order, along with all the
other Savigniac houses,
in 1147. The community grew quickly and in 1151 sent out a colony
to establish the abbey of Stanley in
Wiltshire. Over a century later,
in 1278, Quarr was chosen again to provide monks for Buckland Abbey
in Devon.(2)
The
Isle of Wight was particularly exposed
to attack and the war with France during the fourteenth century
brought great suffering to the community at Quarr. In 1365,
Abbot
William was licensed to build stone walls to fortify the abbey
against invaders. In 1535 the annual net income of the abbey
was valued
at £134 and the abbey was dissolved with the smaller monasteries
in 1536. The locals attempted to save the abbey by showing how
much
it did to relieve the poor and the seamen, but this had no impact
upon the royal officials to whom the house was surrendered.(3) Within
four years of the Dissolution the abbey had been completely demolished
and the stone used to build new coastal fortifications at East
and
West Cowes. There are few remains of the monastic buildings apart
from a section of the lay-brothers range, which is now
incorporated within a barn, and traces of the kitchen and refectory.
The site
now belongs to the nearby Benedictine abbey of Quarr, and is accessible
subject to permission.(4)