Monastic precinct
The abbey church stood beside an arm of the river
Trent at the south end of the town, with its west front
facing onto the market place. The east end of the
church was demolished after the Dissolution but the
nave, which had been used by the laity in the Middle
Ages, was retained as the parish church until it was
replaced by the present building in the early 18th
century. (fn. 8) The precinct lay on the south side of the
church, and the buildings followed the normal pattern
for Benedictine houses with the dorter, frater, and
chapter house around a cloister. (fn. 9) Part of a 14th-century arch forming the doorway into the chapter house
still survives.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Abbot Laurence (1229-60) gave the almoner a stone
house next to the church, and a cloister adjoining the
almonry was built in the early 1430s. (fn. 10) The 'great hall
by the water of the Flete' built by Abbot William of
Bromley (1316-29) evidently stood south-east of the
main claustral buildings beside the Fleet, a watercourse
flowing along the precinct. Almost certainly used as the
infirmary, which had its own small cloister, (fn. 11) the hall
survives as part of the present Abbey inn. One wing of
the present Manor House dates from the mid 14th
century and may have been the chamber block built by
Abbot John of Ibstock (1347-66). (fn. 12) Abbot Thomas
Feld (1473-93) built what was later called the 'abbot's
chamber', but its site cannot be identified. (fn. 13)
There was a house for the abbey's lay chamberlain by
the later 13th century, and in 1326 he was assigned a
new house near the abbey gate on the west side of the
precinct. (fn. 14)
Wall, Gatehouse, and Grounds
The precinct wall, mentioned in 1324, was in disrepair
in the earlier 1520s, and lay people from the town were
able to get into the grounds, some even living in a
charnel house there. (fn. 15)
The gatehouse on the west side of the precinct had
large polygonal turrets with a linking section, its south
side having been rebuilt in the later 1420s and the
north side some time between 1433 and 1455. (fn. 16)
The garden and fishpond (vivarium in viridario)
which Abbot Laurence (1229-60) gave to the abbey
for the recreation of infirm monks presumably lay in
the south-east corner, beyond the infirmary. (fn. 17) The pool
covered 1 1/2 a. in 1550. (fn. 18) Another pool lay in the 'le
Poleyert' [i.e. the pool yard], where Abbot Bromley
(1316-29) built a dovecot. The yard probably lay on
the north side of the church, where land called the
Pound Yard in 1546 contained a pool. (fn. 19)
Figure 27:
Burton abbey church and surviving buildings: showing (i) west end of medieval church superimposed on plan of present church; (ii) 14th-century house, possibly built as a private residence for an
abbot (Manor House); and (iii) the monastic infirmary (Abbey inn, marked here as The Abbey). The
market hall of 1883 stands over the cloister
AFTER THE DISSOLUTION
The abbey's domestic buildings were used by the
college established in 1541. When the college was in
its turn dissolved in 1545, its possessions included
goods in the great hall, dean's hall, great chamber,
king's chamber, outer (utter) hall and chamber, petty
canons' house with kitchen and buttery, brewhouse,
and bakery. (fn. 1) It is uncertain how those buildings related
to the former monastic arrangements, and when they
were surveyed in 1546 for Sir William Paget only a
great hall and a great chamber with an adjoining
chamber were named, along with the former monastic
dorter, frater, chapter house, and outhouses. (fn. 2) The
survey's measurements suggest that the great hall is
the present Abbey inn and the great chamber the
present Manor House.
The claustral buildings (dorter, frater, and chapter
house), presumably converted to residential use by the
dean of Burton college, were probably the house in
which Sir William Paget's agents believed in 1546 that
their master intended to reside when in Staffordshire; his
opinion was especially sought about what was to become
of the fountain in the courtyard. (fn. 3) In fact Paget chose to
live in a house he had built at Beaudesert, in Longdon,
but in his will of 1560 he stipulated that he was to be
buried at either Burton or West Drayton (Mdx.),
depending on where he died. (fn. 4) Indeed his withdrawal
from state affairs on Elizabeth's accession in 1558
prompted him to plan a substantial house at Burton,
apparently using the monastic cloister as an internal
courtyard, and his visit to Burton in 1561 or 1562 was
probably connected with the building work. The plan
evidently fell through on his his death in 1563. (fn. 5)
William's son Thomas certainly lived at Burton in
the 1570s. (fn. 6) According to an inventory of 1575, the
rooms in his house there included a gallery (or 'long
entry'), which led to tower chambers and which was
probably part of a range of the converted claustral
buildings. There were also chambers over a gatehouse,
presumably that on the west side of the precinct. (fn. 7) In
1580 Paget and his family occupied a 'great chamber'
and rooms off the gallery. (fn. 8) In 1585, however, what was
described as 'the mansion house' was 'much in decay',
and when plans were made that year to move Mary,
Queen of Scots, temporarily from custody at Tutbury
castle the house at Burton was considered unsuitable
because it was 'ruinous'. (fn. 9)
No later member of the Paget family lived at Burton,
and in 1612 what was called the manor house site was
let to a servant, Richard Almond. By that date the
house was evidently further decayed, and Almond was
not to be penalised if he let 'the great hall' fall into ruin,
along with the kitchen, adjoining gallery, and 'wardrobe chamber' between the hall and kitchen; he was
also allowed to demolish 'the great malting chamber',
and use its timbers to repair other buildings on the
site. (fn. 10) Demolition probably took place soon afterwards,
with the resultant loss of all the abbey's claustral
buildings except the former infirmary (later the
Abbey inn) and the so-called Manor House. One of
those buildings was occupied in 1635 by Ellen Parker,
the founder of an almshouse in High Street. (fn. 11)
The grounds were let in the early 18th century to
George Hayne, the lessee from 1711 of the Trent
navigation. He died in 1723, and although he had a
son, John, the lease passed to George's brother Henry,
along with the navigation rights. By that date there
were two dwelling houses on the site, and in 1738
Henry's lease was renewed after he had made the house
he occupied 'ornamental'. (fn. 12) That house may have been
the present Manor House, which was remodelled in the
early 18th century; the other, known as 'the Stone
House' and then occupied by a Mrs. Orme, was
presumably the present Abbey inn. (fn. 13) Henry was succeeded in 1757 by his son John, who surrendered the
lease in 1775. (fn. 14)
In 1777-8 what was called 'the upper house' (evidently the later Manor House) was prepared for Lord
Paget's agent, William Priest. (fn. 15)
From the 19th century onwards the two principal
houses were the present Abbey inn and the Manor
House. (fn. 16) A third house called the Priory, on the
northern edge of the precinct, was described as newly
built in 1834, when it was occupied by James Drewry,
the son of the proprietor of the Derby Mercury and
then practising as a lawyer in Burton. (fn. 17) Built in a
Gothick style with crenellated turrets and chimney
stacks, the house was demolished when the present
market hall was built on the site in 1883. (fn. 18)
Figure 28:
The Priory from the south in 1839
Gatehouse, Other Buildings, and Grounds
The lower parts of both the north and south sides of
the medieval gatehouse survived in the late 1790s, but
not the connecting arch; houses had been built onto
the ruins and one side was used as a blacksmithy. The
buildings were demolished in 1927. (fn. 1)
In the early 18th century George Hayne erected a
vault and other buildings in the south-east part of the
precinct, presumably in connexion with his lease of
the Trent navigation, (fn. 2) and in 1788 a warehouse and
workshop beside the Fleet were let to John Port, a hat
manufacturer. The buildings were known as the Soho
by 1823. (fn. 3) Burton corporation acquired the site in
1921 (fn. 4) and used it for new premises of Burton technical college, opened in 1955; part of the Soho warehouse was retained when an extension was built in
1969. (fn. 5)
A lease of the Pound Yard, or the Arbour as it was
known by 1612, (fn. 6) was taken by the parish vestry in
1829, and the southern part was used as an additional
burial ground. (fn. 7) The pool in the northern part, still in
existence in 1760, had been filled in by 1837. (fn. 8)
SURVIVING HOUSES
Abbey Inn
The present Abbey inn, converted from the former
monastic infirmary, forms a broad U-shaped building,
running north-south along the bank of the Fleet. The
north wing, which dates from the 14th century, has a
large window opening at its east end, originally filled
with reticulated tracery and probably intended to light
a first-floor chapel. There was formerly a structure with
a vaulted undercroft (for which springers remain) on
the north side of the wing. The hall range, which had a
large chimneystack at the north end of the east wall,
retains an arch-braced double purlin roof dated
c. 1445-70. (fn. 9)
First recorded as the Abbey in 1818, it was then
occupied by an attorney, Samuel Lowe. (fn. 10) Between 1825
and 1839 it was the home of Peter French, the minister
at Holy Trinity church, (fn. 11) who may have been responsible for the square bay window which existed by 1839
on the east side at the north end of the main block. (fn. 12)
The occupier in 1851 was Robert Thornewill, the son
of a Burton ironmaster, Thomas Thornewill of Dove
Cliff, in Stretton. (fn. 1) Alterations made to the house by
Robert, and described as 'fanciful' by Lord Anglesey's
agent, (fn. 2) included a turret, tall chimney stacks, and black
and white mock timber-framing to the west and east
fronts; the exterior was decorated on the west side with
a statue and medallions depicting a Burton abbey seal,
a theme continued in wood panelling in the main
reception room. (fn. 3) Thornewill died in 1858, and in the
1860s the house was occupied by a brewer, James
Finlay. (fn. 4) By 1871, however, Thornewill's widow and
son, also Robert, were living there and they continued
to do so until the later 1880s. (fn. 5)
Figure 29:
Remains of gatehouse to monastic precinct from west, 1790s
Figure 30:
Former monastic infirmary (now the Abbey inn) and St. Modwen's church from south-east in
1790s
By 1888 the tenant was a New Street brewer, John
Allen Bindley, whose initials and coat-of-arms appear
on a fireplace in the kitchen at the south end of the
main range; the fireplace also has the text, 'He filleth all
things living with plenteousness'. (fn. 1) Bindley also added
the canted bay window on the east side of the kitchen,
bearing the Paget family's motto 'Per il suo contrario'
(meaning 'By its reverse'), words repeated on glass in a
porch also added by Bindley on the west front. (fn. 2)
In 1910 the building was occupied as the clubhouse
for Burton Club. A brick and timber extension on the
west side at the north end was built that year as a
billiard room, and it was enlarged to the north in the
late 1920s. In 1975 the club retreated to first-floor
rooms in the north end of the main range, and the rest
was converted into the present public house, called the
Abbey inn. (fn. 3)
Manor House
The present Manor House retains as its north wing a
medieval chamber block belonging to an open hall that
has been largely rebuilt. The wing has an arch-braced
roof of 1340-58, which unusally has a collar purlin
without crown posts. (fn. 4)
Called the Manor House in the earlier 1790s, it was
then the home of Thomas Finlow, whose improvements probably included the addition of a bay
window on the west side of the main range. (fn. 5) By
1834 the occupier was the marquess of Anglesey's
agent, Charles Hodson, and in 1841 his successor,
Thomas Landor. (fn. 6) Landor died at Burton in 1864, and
his successor John Darling used the house when in
Burton until his retirement in 1889. (fn. 7) In 1920 the
house and 3 a. were sold to Burton corporation,
which let the house to a solicitor, Thomas Auden,
the son of the vicar of St. John's, Horninglow; the
grounds were laid out as the present war memorial
garden in 1922. (fn. 8)