Name: SWINESHEAD Location: Swineshead
County: Lincolnshire Foundation: 1135 Mother house: Furness Relocation: None Founder: Robert de Gresley Dissolution: 1536 Prominent members: Access: Private property no public access
Swineshead was founded by Robert de Gresley
in 1135, with a colony arriving from the Savigniac house
of Furness. Swineshead was absorbed
into the Cistercian Order, along with all
the other Savigniac houses, in 1147. In 1170 the General
Chapter of the Cistercian Order reprimanded the
abbot of Swineshead for owning villages, serfs and churches,
which suggests that in its
early days the abbey commanded some wealth and influence. After
the Orders of Savigny and Citeaux were
merged Gilbert of Hoyland
(d. 1172) was appointed abbot of Swineshead. He was previously
a monk at Clairvaux and
had been an intimate friend of St.
Bernard; it seems likely that
he had been moved to Swineshead to ensure that
the community followed Cistercian orthodoxy. Gilbert of Hoyland
was to attain some literary fame during his life at Swineshead
and
continued St. Bernards commentary on the Song of Songs
until his death in 1172. King John is known to have spent a short
time at the abbey just before his death in 1216. In fact, it was
rumoured
that monks of the abbey had poisoned his drink.
In 1535 the net
annual income of the house was valued at £167. Although
the house did not have much of an income at this time, the value
of
the bells and lead alone, which totalled approximately £274,
suggests that Swineshead may have been a fairly large abbey in
its
early days. The abbey was suppressed with the smaller monasteries
in 1536. In 1607 a private house was built on the site which incorporated
some stone from the monastic buildings. The site is still occupied
by the seventeenth-century house which is situated within a landscaped
park. There are no remains of the abbey above gound and the site
cannot be accessed by the public.