HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS
7. THE ABBEY OF BUILDWAS
The abbey of Buildwas was founded in the last year
of Henry I's reign as a daughter-house of Savigny
by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester, on land
belonging to his see. From the first the dedication
was in honour of St. Mary and St. Chad. (fn. 1) After
Savigny and its dependencies were united with the
Cistercian Order in 1147 the traditional dates of their
foundations were carefully preserved in order to
determine seniority at the Cistercian chapters;
according to the oldest lists the foundation-date for
Buildwas was 8 August 1135. (fn. 2) Bishop Roger's
foundation charter survives only in an incomplete
copy (fn. 3) but a confirmation of Richard I states that his
gift included the site of the monastery at Buildwas,
the land of Meole near Shrewsbury with the
burgesses belonging to it and the due called 'greffegh', churchscot from the hundreds of Wrockwardine and Condover, and a man in the territory
of Lichfield. (fn. 4) At this date Savigniac houses were
multiplying in England and one recent foundation
was at Combermere in Roger's own diocese, but the
precise reasons for his choice of this order are as
obscure as the early history of the house. Within a
few years his gifts were confirmed by King Stephen,
an outstanding patron of the mother abbey. Savigny
was situated in Stephen's Norman county of
Mortain and he took a leading part in promoting the
spread of the order in England, until, when western
Normandy was overrun by Geoffrey of Anjou,
Savigny itself passed into the territory of his
enemies. (fn. 5) Stephen's confirmation, which was dated
at the siege of Shrewsbury in 1138, released the
manor of Buildwas, assessed as one hide, from all
secular dues and obligations. (fn. 6) Another grant which
belonged to the period of origin is Philip of Belmeis's
gift of land at Ruckley in Tong, made before 1147
while Buildwas was still a dependency of Savigny;
in return for this Philip and his wife and family were
to be perpetually commemorated in the prayers of
all Savigniac houses. (fn. 7) Possibly, too, William FitzAlan's gift of Little Buildwas, just across the River
Severn from the abbey, was made at this time. (fn. 8) Very
little is known of the first twenty years of the abbey's
history. The name of the first abbot, Ingenulf, is
known only from the foundation charter and the
witness-lists of one or two episcopal charters. (fn. 9)
The abbey was small and poor, for even if the
monks had acquired Little Buildwas in this period
most of the manor was subinfeudated and they
received only light serjeanty services from the
tenant. No trace of permanent buildings earlier than
the 1150s has been discovered; the monks presumably
lived in temporary wooden quarters. Expansion
began, however, soon after 1150. Under a remarkable abbot, Ranulf, who ruled the house from 1155
until his death in 1187, the abbey was raised to a
position of prominence among the Savigniac houses
in the Cistercian Order.
Nothing is known of the family or background of
Abbot Ranulf, but his energy and ability have left
their mark on every aspect of the history of the
abbey. (fn. 10) The church, cloisters, and chapter-house
of Buildwas appear, both from their design and from
details of decoration, to have been built during his
abbacy. (fn. 11) Of some forty surviving books known to
have belonged to the library at Buildwas over a
dozen were written in the 12th century. Two fine
volumes, a glossed Leviticus (1176) and a volume of
St. Augustine (1167), are dated during his rule (fn. 12) and
some books were already being written in the
scriptorium at Buildwas. (fn. 13) The acquisition of
property continued, A general confirmation of
Richard I, issued just two years after the death of
Abbot Ranulf, gave immunity from all secular dues
and listed, in addition to the early acquisitions, gifts
of land in Brockton (Staffs.) from William FitzAlan's vassal Gerald of Brockton; half of Walton
(Staffs.) from Walter Fitz Herman; half of Hatton
in Shifnal from Adam Traynel of Hatton and lands
at nearby Cosford; lands in Cauldon (Staffs.) and
Ivonbrook (Derb.); and a messuage in the Foregate at Chester given by Bishop Richard Peche. (fn. 14)
This last gift was probably connected with the growth
of the authority of Buildwas over other abbeys of the
same order in Wales and Ireland.
No daughter houses were founded directly from
Buildwas. It is named as a house without dependents
in a bull of Anastasius IV (1154), which lists the
Savigniac houses with their filiations. (fn. 15) According to
the same list Basingwerk (Flints.) and St. Mary's,
Dublin, were filiations of Combermere, but in 1156
St. Mary's was assigned to Buildwas as a daughter
house according to Cistercian customs by the
general chapter of Savigny (fn. 16) and Basingwerk was
similarly subjected in the following year. (fn. 17) This
decision was confirmed by the Abbot of Savigny
and, despite several later attempts to undo it by the
subject abbeys and by Savigny itself, it was upheld
each time by the general chapter of Cîteaux. Abbot
Ranulf regularly visited Ireland to discharge his
duties, from at least 1171 and possibly earlier.
Probably the grant of a messuage in Chester, made
by Bishop Peche c. 1161, was designed to provide a
lodging for the abbot on his journeys. He certainly
went by way of Chester; the Pipe Roll of 1183-4
records a payment by the sheriff of Cheshire 'for the
passage of the abbot of Buildwas to Ireland on the
king's service'. (fn. 18) From the time of Strongbow's
expedition to Ireland he certainly combined furthering the king's interests with discharging his monastic
duties. He was the king's chief representative at the
Synod of Cashel in 1172, when the Irish bishops
accepted the customs of the English Church, (fn. 19)
and he witnessed charters of Archbishop Cumin in
1183 (fn. 20) and of John as Lord of Ireland in 1185. (fn. 21)
He showed his sound judgement by refusing to
overstrain the resources of his house. In 1171-2
Strongbow's uncle Harvey Montmorency offered
Abbot Ranulf lands at Dunbrody (Co. Wexford)
for the foundation of a new Cistercian house. The
abbot sent over Alan, a lay brother whom he trusted,
to report on the suitability of the site. Alan's report
was discouraging. He had, he declared, found a
wilderness where he took refuge in a hollow oak tree
whilst surveying the lands as speedily as possible;
he pronounced the property barren and the inhabitants barbarous. Consequently no colony of monks
was sent from Buildwas and in 1182 Ranulf renounced all rights in Montmorency's gift and all
claims to patronage over the abbey to be founded at
Dunbrody in favour of his better-placed daughter
house, St. Mary's, Dublin. (fn. 22) Later abbots revived a
claim to the visitation of Dunbrody but they had
nothing but trouble from it.
When Abbot Ranulf died on his way to the general
chapter at Citeaux in the summer of 1187 (fn. 23) he left a
monastic community that had been transformed
during the thirty and more years of his administration. Later abbots are more shadowy figures.
but the quiet prosperity of the house that had
characterized his rule continued to the end of the
13th century. Although the revenues were never
very large the economy was sound. Chance and the
will of the donors probably determined the location
of the earliest grants. During the 13th century new
lands were acquired from the leading local gentry,
lesser freeholders, and burgesses of Shrewsbury and
Bridgnorth by purchase as well as by gift, and there
are some signs of an attempt to group the estates for
convenience of administration. The original endowment had provided the monks with a central grange
at Buildwas and one at Meole near Shrewsbury,
which had had no settlers at the time of Domesday (fn. 24)
and was probably mainly pastoral. The gifts of land
in Ruckley provided the nucleus of what was to
become one of the abbey's most important outlying
estates. Situated on the outskirts of Brewood Forest
on the borders of Shropshire and Staffordshire, it
gave the monks an interest in a region that was of
great potential for pasture farming. Hatton and
Cosford were adjacent to Ruckley to the south.
Brockton Grange, which lay some five miles to the
north, beyond Lizard and Blymhill and just in
Staffordshire, provided, with Walton Grange, the
nucleus of a fourth group of estates. Caldon (Staffs.)
and Ivonbrook (Derb.) were more distant outliers.
Later developments took the form of the acquisition
of new demesnes and pasture rights near to existing
granges and of rents in areas more remote but still
convenient for collection. One new centre of cultivation was acquired in south Shropshire and one
outlying grange was allowed to pass to another
monastic house.
Near to the home grange the most important
acquisition was Harnage Grange, in Cound, which
was obtained from Gilbert de Lacy, lord of the
adjoining manor of Cressage, early in the 13th
century. (fn. 25) Gilbert's charter describes the transfer as
a gift but, since when he died in 1234 he was heavily
in debt, (fn. 26) it seems unlikely that he was in a position
to make a free gift; either a sale or a mortgage may
lie behind the transaction. Gilbert's charter included
rights of pasture for oxen, cows and pigs, free passage for the lay brothers and servants of Harnage
going to wash their sheep in the Severn, and the right
to load their barges there. In Cressage itself the
abbot could secure no more than a lease of part of
the manor for 19 years from 1253, for which he was
prepared to pay 100 marks. (fn. 27) About 1250 the monks,
with the agreement of their neighbour Philip of
Benthall, had a ditch dug below Benthall Edge to fix
the boundary between their home grange and
Philip's land. Philip also gave them passage over his
land for stone, coal (carbones), and timber. (fn. 28) In
securing this the monks may have had in mind the
rights that Philip of Broseley had granted them in
his quarries of Broseley a little earlier. (fn. 29) Their
acquisitions immediately north of the river came
later. They received Leighton church from the lords
of that manor in 1282 (fn. 30) and subsequently certain
lands and meadows, partly in exchange for tithe
rights. (fn. 31) In Little Buildwas they secured in 1302
effective possession of the manor from the descendants of Alan of Buildwas, who had previously owed
only a serjeanty service. (fn. 32)
Throughout the century they steadily consolidated their rights in the granges of Hatton and
Ruckley, adding lands and pasture rights in Cosford,
Donington, Upton in Shifnal, and Ryton, (fn. 33) so that
by 1291 this group of properties was one of the most
profitable parts of their estates. They acquired, in a
series of purchases, almost all of Stirchley manor, (fn. 34)
possibly to provide a halting-place between the home
grange and the property in east Shropshire. Further
to the north they were interested only in rents, not
demesnes. Small properties that came to them in
Longdon upon Tern were leased before the end of
the 13th century (fn. 35) and when in 1287 they simplified
their estate administration by parting with the
isolated grange of Caldon (Staffs.) to the Abbot of
Croxden in exchange for his manor of Adeney in
Edgmond, (fn. 36) they made no attempt to cultivate the
demesnes of Adeney, which may already have been
in the hands of the tenants. (fn. 37)
Caldon was the only grange to be exchanged;
elsewhere the properties were enlarged. The lands
near Shrewsbury were extended by the piecemeal
acquisition of the manor of Bicton, to form a new
grange held under Shrewsbury St. Chad. (fn. 38) Outside
the county further grants were received in Walton
and Blymhill (Staffs.), (fn. 39) and the renting of pasture for
400 sheep in Bonsall (Derb.) was presumably
connected with the grange of Ivonbrook. (fn. 40) A new
complex of estates was built up in south Shropshire,
on the Stiperstones and in the hill country east of
Church Stretton. It originated with grants in
Wentnor from 1198 onwards, made by the Corbets of
Caus. Buildwas received first the mill of Wentnor,
then the whole of Ritton, high on the Stiperstones,
and finally the adjoining slopes of 'Hulemore' and
Kinnerton, in the valley north of Wentnor. (fn. 41) This
estate became the site of at least two new granges.
The Stretton lands were less important: assembled
from miscellaneous modest gifts they amounted to
only one hide in Ragdon, a half virgate in Hope
Bowdler, and small rents in both places. (fn. 42)
All these lands enjoyed the usual Cistercian
immunities from secular obligations; Richard I's
original charter of privilege (fn. 43) was confirmed by
Edward I and later upheld in Quo Warranto
inquiries. (fn. 44) They carried too some of the marks of a
Cistercian estate in the grange organization and
direct exploitation by the community and their
servants, but the scanty references to lay brethren
and the cellarer are not enough to indicate just how
the granges were managed. (fn. 45) The home grange of
Buildwas at least seems to have been completely
inclosed, as Cistercian statutes prescribed. (fn. 46) The
assessment for the Taxatio of 1291 (fn. 47) shows an
estate in which demesne cultivation was important
and stock farming paramount. Temporalities in
Shropshire and Staffordshire were assessed at
£113 19s. 5d., of which £69 (60.5 per cent.) came
from profits of stock and £23 (20.5 per cent.) from
arable demesne farming. Rents, mills, and profits of
courts made up the remainder. Stock was enumerated in the returns only under Hereford diocese,
which included Wentnor and Kinnerton; here the
monks had 32 cows, 300 sheep, 10 goats, and their
young. Grants of pasture rights in other parts of the
estates sometimes mention cattle as well as sheep,
but in the absence of figures in is impossible to tell
whether the monks were merely breeding ploughbests for their own demesnes or sending cattle to
market. Wool was not included in the valuation.
They were certainly exporting wool and it must have
been an important item in their revenue. The right to
wash sheep in the Severn at Cressage and load barges
there (fn. 48) suggests that wool was being shipped downriver to Bristol and Buildwas was one of the abbeys
which was selling wool to Flemish merchants in
1264. (fn. 49) It is the only one of the Shropshire monasteries to figure in Pegolotti's list of monasteries
supplying wool to Italian merchants at a slightly
later date; and its wool fetched a good price. Pegolotti reckoned its annual output at 20 sacks, valuing
it at 20 marks a sack for the best fleeces, 12 marks
for the middle quality, and 10 marks for broken
wool. (fn. 50) If these figures are reliable the gross profits
of the wool must have been between £150 and £200,
which is more than the estimated annual value of all
the other temporalities put together. All the figures,
however, are rough and imperfect (fn. 51) and it is quite
possible that Buildwas, in common with many other
Cistercian houses, was buying wool from other
producers to add to its own clip.
Possibly tithe wool made up a part of the total, (fn. 52)
though very little of the revenue of Buildwas came
from this source. True to Cistercian precepts, it
seems to have avoided the acquisition of churches
and tithes, at least during the first century of its
existence, (fn. 53) and, even when relaxations of the
statutes became common, spiritualities never played
more than a minor part in the economy. In 1535
these were assessed at only £6: £4 for the farm of
the tithes of Leighton and £2 for the farm of those
of Hatton. (fn. 54) The church of Leighton was not
acquired and appropriated until the end of the 13th
century and there is no early reference to tithes
elsewhere. The contrast with the revenues of some
other Shropshire houses, notably Chirbury, (fn. 55) is
striking and suggests a regard for Cistercian precepts. On the other hand Buildwas never seemed
unwilling to receive lands settled by customary
tenants. Most of the assized rents specified in 1291
were from lands acquired in the 13th century, but
the 6s. 8d. due in rents at Little Buildwas may have
been derived from the assarts mentioned in William
FitzAlan's original charter. (fn. 56) Gifts of urban property
also were not refused and some of these, like the
house at Chester, served a special purpose. Thus
when Hugh of Nonant, Bishop of Coventry, gave
them a messuage in Lichfield he explained that it was
to provide a lodging for the abbot as a return for the
unlimited hospitality that the monks owed him as
patron of the monastery. (fn. 57) The rents received from
Shrewsbury in 1255 may have originated in the
tenements of the burgesses attached to their manor
of Meole. (fn. 58) There is no evidence that the monks
had any shops, stalls, or booths, (fn. 59) and their interest
in trade seems to have been confined to disposing of
their own agricultural produce, and possibly for a
time acting as middlemen in the wool-trade. There
is no hint that they ever established tanneries, as
did many other cattle-rearing houses, (fn. 60) but they
certainly had a small iron forge on their demesnes
at Buildwas by the end of the Middle Ages (fn. 61) and,
since coal was not then used for smelting iron, the
coals mentioned in the Benthall deed may point to
some other industrial activity.
Landownership apart, the history of the abbey is
largely that of its place in the Cistercian Order. As a
Cistercian house it was exempt from visitation by the
diocesan and subject to its mother-house of Savigny.
Only one visitation has left any known record: in
1231 Abbot Stephen of Lexington visited the
English filiations of Savigny and issued a series of
statutes regulating internal discipline and external
administration. Buildwas received statutes identical
with those issued to Byland, Combermere, and
Quarr, (fn. 62) a hint that nothing called for special
censure. They are concerned with cutting down
unnecessary conversation and extra dishes and with
tightening up discipline amongst the novices and
lay brethren; they stress the duties of the cellarer in
supervising the granges and instruct all officials
from the treasurer downwards to keep records of
receipts and issues and have them audited at frequent intervals. In the main, however, they make up
a model code for general use and the statute limiting
the number of monks to 80 and lay brothers to 160
has an air of unreality when applied to Buildwas. A
few years before this visitation, when Stephen of
Lexington was trying to restore discipline in the
Irish Cistercian houses, he had shown respect for the
abbot of Buildwas and confidence in the discipline
of his house. Writing from Ireland to the abbot in
the spring of 1228 he explained that he urgently
needed his counsel as well as his prayers in his many
tribulations and difficulties. (fn. 63) After the abbot crossed
to Ireland he insisted on keeping him there; (fn. 64) the
abbot was with him at the Dublin council that
issued statutes for the reform of the Irish houses (fn. 65)
and was entrusted with the visitation of all houses in
the bishoprics of Leighlin, Kildare, and Meath. (fn. 66)
Furthermore, when Stephen wrote to the Abbot of
Clairvaux reciting his measures for the reform of the
Irish houses, one of his recommendations was that
the small house of Kilbeggan should be subjected to
Buildwas, which already had a well ordered daughter
house at Dublin. (fn. 67)
Abbots of Buildwas attended general chapters
regularly throughout the 13th century and were
employed in all the routine work normal for
Cistercians. They were deputed to inspect sites for
proposed foundations at Valle Crucis, Grace Dieu,
and Vale Royal, (fn. 68) they regularly acted as judges in
pleas between other houses, (fn. 69) occasionally one was
punished for failing to execute a mandate. (fn. 70) Sometimes they took their own business to the chapter:
the abbey joined in the cult of local saints and
petitioned in 1239 for the feast of St. Milburga to be
elevated to a major feast of twelve lessons. In 1253 a
similar request was made for the celebration of the
feast of St. Winifred at both Buildwas and Basingwerk. (fn. 71) Royal letters of protection for the abbot going
to Ireland, (fn. 72) or simply going overseas, probably to
the general chapter or to the chapter at Savigny, (fn. 73)
show that the obligations of the order were taken
seriously and that they involved a heavy burden of
travelling. Possibly the serjeanty service of Alan of
Buildwas and his descendants 'to ride with the abbot
anywhere within the four seas' (fn. 74) was no sinecure,
even though it was to be performed at the abbot's
charge.
After the time of Stephen of Lexington there is
no evidence of visitation by the abbots of Savigny or
of their jurisdiction over Buildwas. Contact became
difficult during the wars with France. Later, during
the Great Schism, it became customary to hold
convocations in England to deal with discipline
and these appear to have persisted throughout the
15th century. (fn. 75) The only appointment of an Abbot
of Buildwas of which details have survived comes
from this period: John Tintern, monk of Buildwas,
was promoted per viam compromissi by the abbots of
Woburn and Stratford Langthorne in 1471. (fn. 76)
The relationship of Buildwas with its own
daughter houses in Wales and Ireland was tenuously
maintained in spite of war and political disturbance.
Savigny once laid claim to the filiation of St. Mary's,
Dublin, but the rights of Buildwas were successfully defended in the general chapter of Citeaux in
1301. (fn. 77) This reassertion of authority led to close
contacts between the two houses for a time: at least
two monks of Buildwas became abbots of St.
Mary's shortly afterwards. (fn. 78) The reluctance of the
Irish Cistercian abbots to admit English monks,
which led to a petition in parliament in 1324, (fn. 79)
probably cut short further elections from the
community at Buildwas; though Philip Wafre,
who became abbot in 1337, (fn. 80) has a name closely
associated with Shropshire. (fn. 81) In the mid 14th
century some attempts at visitation were made by
the abbots of Buildwas, who also laid claim, unsuccessfully, to the filiation of Dunbrody. This was a
time of turmoil in the Irish abbeys. A number of
monks of Dunbrody resisted the attempt of Philip
Wafre, Abbot of St. Mary's, to visit their house in
1340 and, although the Irish Cistercian abbots con
firmed his jurisdiction over Dunbrody two years
later, (fn. 82) Buildwas intervened as the mother house.
In April 1342 the Abbot of Buildwas received a
safe-conduct to visit abbeys of his order in Ireland, (fn. 83)
but before September he had been murdered and
Thomas of Tong, a monk of his own abbey, was
under suspicion. (fn. 84) The murder may have taken
place in Ireland and certainly violence continued to
prevail at Dunbrody. (fn. 85) Nicholas, Abbot of Buildwas,
attempted for some years to assert his authority,
even presenting his case in a petition to parliament, (fn. 86)
but St. Mary's amassed documents recording the
agreement of 1182, whereby Abbot Ranulf renounced all claim to jurisdiction over Dunbrody, (fn. 87)
and Buildwas finally conceded the claims of St.
Mary's in the Cistercian general chapter of 1354. (fn. 88)
There is some evidence that an annual pension was
later due to Buildwas from Dunbrody, (fn. 89) and St.
Mary's itself remained subject to Buildwas until
the Dissolution. (fn. 90) Basingwerk also continued as a
daughter house, though in 1466 Henry of Derby,
Abbot of Buildwas, was forbidden to visit or
legislate for Basingwerk during his lifetime after an
unsuccessful attempt to impose an abbot there. (fn. 91) His
successor, John Tintern, was deposed by the
commissary of Citeaux for appointing a secular
clerk to be abbot in a house of his filiation. (fn. 92)
Since Buildwas was situated near the Welsh
border, with a daughter house within the pale of
Dublin, political motives often influenced her
relationship with other Cistercian abbeys. The
resistence of Dunbrody to visitation both by St.
Mary's and by Buildwas may have been due in part
to the strong anti-English movement of the Irish
Cistercians in the early 14th century. (fn. 93) Particularly
striking is the case of the Welsh abbey of Strata
Marcella, a daughter house of Whitland. It began
as a case of internal discipline, when the diffinitors
appointed by the chapter of Citeaux removed the
Welsh abbot and monks from Strata Marcella for
having abandoned the observance of religion and
suspended the Abbot of Whitland's right of
visitation. (fn. 94) Politics intervened when a series of
royal letters of 1328-30, addressed to the abbots
of both Citeaux and Clairvaux, requested that the
filiation of Strata Marcella should be committed in
perpetuity to the abbey of Buildwas, 'where wholesome observance and regular institution flourishes'. (fn. 95)
The last letter makes clear that Strata Marcella was
not only lacking in regular observance but was also a
hotbed of conspiracy against the English. The general chapter of Citeaux, however, was not prepared to
go beyond a temporary appointment of the Abbot of
Buildwas as visitor.
Very little can be known of the internal life of the
monastery. When surnames begin to reveal the place
of origin of some monks all were English. They were
drawn from Shropshire and neighbouring counties,
often from the vicinity of granges of Buildwas or
other Cistercian abbeys. (fn. 96) Some were members of
local gentry families: Henry, Abbot of Buildwas in
the early years of the 14th century, was son of John
Burnell, lord of Benthall. (fn. 97) Normally all of them
proceeded to the priesthood. (fn. 98) Ordination lists
indicate that monks from Buildwas were promoted
fairly rapidly through the minor orders, but not so
uniformly as to suggest that promotion was automatic. (fn. 99) Occasionally in the later Middle Ages they
departed from Cistercian principles by performing
pastoral work outside the monastery; a monk of
Buildwas might be licensed to hear confessions during
the absence of a parish priest, (fn. 100) or even made vicar
of a parish church in the abbey's gift. (fn. 101)
There are no surviving registers or administrative
records, but nearly forty books from the medieval
library preserve a record of the intellectual life of the
monks. (fn. 102) They show that the library founded at
Buildwas in the time of Abbot Ranulf acquired a
fine collection of glossed biblical texts and patristic
works. Most of the volumes were written in the 12th
or 13th centuries. Many are large books with ample
margins, written in good hands; numerous initials
are decorated in bright colours. Though the penmanship is sometimes a little rough, a few, including
one of the earliest volumes, (fn. 103) have delicate designs
and touches of silver or gold. Similarities in decoration prove that some manuscripts come from the
same scriptorium and it is likely that they were
written at Buildwas. (fn. 104) One of the most beautifully
executed, a glossed psalter, was in fact made for
Walter the Palmer of Bridgnorth and bequeathed by
him to Buildwas in 1277. (fn. 105) Eleven initials of excellent
quality have small pictures and intricate foliage on a
gold ground; they are far more delicate and elaborate
than, for example, the rough picture of a Cistercian
monk that ornaments the Sermons of St. Bernard,
written for the use of the monks themselves. (fn. 106) Yet
the red and blue scroll work of the numerous small
initials is sufficiently like the characteristic decoration of other Buildwas manuscripts to raise the
question whether this book too might have been
written at Buildwas. (fn. 107) Here, as at Pontigny, (fn. 108) the
Cisterican statutes severely restricting the ornamentation of texts seem to have been without effect.
The library consisted primarily of works intended
for spiritual meditation: texts of the Bible with
glosses, scriptural commentaries, the writings of the
Fathers of the Church, especially St. Jerome, St.
Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great. Among more
modern works were the Sermons of St. Bernard, (fn. 109)
the Speculum Caritatis
(fn. 110) and De onere Babilonis
(fn. 111) of
Ailred of Rievaulx, the Meditations of St. Anselm, (fn. 112)
and a few works specially devoted to the claustral
life, including the De claustro animae of the Augustinian Hugh of Fouilley (fn. 113) and the De disciplina
claustrali of Peter of Celle. (fn. 114) If the surviving
volumes are representative of the library as a whole
there was little interest in secular learning; a few
letters of Seneca (fn. 115) were plainly there for their moral
content. One of the later-13th-century volumes
contains some elementary works of grammar and
logic by Priscian and Boethius, (fn. 116) and a few fragments from treatises on law and medicine have been
added at the end of volumes of sermons or biblical
texts. (fn. 117) There are several brief chronologies (fn. 118) and at
least one whole volume of history, the Historia rerum
anglicarum of William of Newburgh. (fn. 119)
Marginal notes and additions in hands later than
the texts indicate clearly that in the 13th century at
least this was still a living library. An alphabetical
index has been added in a 13th-century hand to a
12th-century volume of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis
(fn. 120)
and there are later additions to some of the scriptural glosses. (fn. 121) Buildwas is not known to have produced any scholars, though one or two monks took
an amateur interest in history. A few items of local
interest were inserted at the end of William of
Newburgh's History: these include a note that in
1301, after a dispute between Savigny and Buildwas
about the filiation of St. Mary's, Dublin, the Irish
house was subjected to Buildwas by the Cistercian
general chapter. (fn. 122) Possibly the note was made by
William of Ashbourne, monk of Buildwas, who had
been proctor of the Abbot of Buildwas on that
occasion and who dabbled in history. Later, as
Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, he compiled a list of
the early abbots of that house, working from a list of
monastic obits which gave him their names and the
day, though not the date, of their deaths. (fn. 123) At
Buildwas, as at Pontigny, there seems to have been a
decline in the activity of the scriptorium from the
later 13th century. Possibly the universities were
providing for a new type of student; possibly the
intellectual life of the community was drying up.
Cistercian monks were active in the Oxford studium
from the late 13th century, first at Rewley and later
at St. Bernard's College. (fn. 124) There are no names of
monks of Buildwas among the scanty records, but the
few later books surviving from the Buildwas library
include those relating to civil law, medicine, and
logic. Indirect evidence of some contact with Oxford comes from the fact that some of the Buildwas
books were finding their way into the Oxford book
market by the 15th century, (fn. 125) but there are many
channels by which they may have come there. On
the other hand the abbey clearly ran into troubles
in the 14th century, which apparently disturbed the
spiritual and intellectual life of the monks.
Up to that time the abbey appears to have been
normally well-ordered and moderately prosperous.
There were a few disturbances: the monks suffered
from the violence of Robert, Earl of Derby, during
the Barons' Wars, and in June 1265 the king,
'taking pity on their poverty', commanded the
guardian of the earl's lands to repay 100 marks that
he had extorted from them by threatening to burn the
abbey. (fn. 126) There were no major scandals, however,
and, apparently, no serious debts. The monastery
was able to spend freely on lawsuits and on the
purchase of land. Its wool was a useful cash crop and
there were no major building projects to strain
resources. The church and main claustral buildings,
solidly constructed in local sandstone, were completed by the end of the 12th century. The infirmary
court and abbot's lodging were still being built
c. 1220, when Philip of Broseley's grant in the
quarries of Broseley was secured. The royal grant of
thirty oaks from the Forest of Shirlett in 1232 was
explicitly for the repair of the church, (fn. 127) the nave and
transepts of which were roofed in timber. Few
monastic churches have been so little reconstructed
during the Middle Ages: the only substantial later
addition was a large chapel on the south side built
about 1400, and the buildings were in good repair at
the Dissolution. (fn. 128)
Taxation at first was moderate. The abbey owed
an annual apport of 100s. to Citeaux (fn. 129) and was
liable to any levies imposed on the order. These
became more frequent; the standard of contribution
owed by Buildwas is shown by one late-13th-century
levy, when the abbey was assessed at £12 towards a
levy totalling £12,000 from the whole order. (fn. 130)
Exemption from royal taxation, complete in theory,
was gradually eroded. In 1242 the English Cistercian
abbots had stood firm in their refusal to make any
grant to Henry III in either money or wool (fn. 131) and
in 1256, according to Matthew Paris, it was an
abbot of Buildwas who, happening to be in the court,
had a ready answer to a renewed request. 'We
cannot' he said 'give you both money and prayers.
If you violently extort money from us, how do you
expect us to pray devoutly for you in our hearts?
Prayers without devotion have little or no merit.' (fn. 132)
From the time of Edward I, however, Cistercian
wealth was successfully tapped through papal taxes
for the Crusade, loans to the Crown, taxes in or on
wool, and the obligation to provide corrodies for
retired royal servants. (fn. 133) In addition to performing
normal public duties the Abbot of Buildwas was
summoned to more than a dozen parliaments
between 1295 and 1324. (fn. 134)
By the mid 14th century the economy of the
house was not resilient enough to stand new strains.
After the murder of an abbot in 1342 dissensions
arose between the supporters of two rival abbots and
for a few years the goods of the abbey were dissipated by the contending parties. (fn. 135) There is one
acknowledgement of a debt of £100 in 1344. (fn. 136) Six
years later raiders from Powys pillaged the treasures
of the abbey and carried off the abbot and monks as
prisoners. (fn. 137) These abnormal conditions probably
account for the exceptionally small numbers of
monks at Buildwas recorded in 1377 and 1381. (fn. 138)
There were renewed disturbances during Owen
Glendower's revolt: in 1406, after the abbey's lands
had been ravaged by his followers, the abbey was
licensed to acquire in mortmain the advowson of
Rushbury and to appropriate the church. (fn. 139) During
the Wars of the Roses the monks were persecuted by
members of the Leighton family, who tried to make
them repurchase the lands given by earlier Leightons. (fn. 140) If the abbey remained solvent, its economy
had no margin for emergencies. After demesne
farming was abandoned, except on the home grange,
and rents fell, hand-to-mouth devices characteristic of the 15th century were adopted. Leases were
sometimes sold for cash down a number of years
before they were due to fall in (fn. 141) and growing
timber might be bartered to secure provisions for the
community. (fn. 142) Moreover there is no doubt that the
abbey declined from Cistercian standards of
discipline; the visitor appointed by the general
chapter in 1521 described it as 'very far from virtue
in every way'. (fn. 143)
The survey of 1535 (fn. 144) and the report of the
commissioners appointed in April 1536 to survey
the smaller monasteries (fn. 145) give a rough general
picture of the condition of the abbey on the eve of
the Dissolution. In 1535 the gross value of its
temporalities was £123 6s. 10d. and its spiritualities
£10. Allowed expenses amounted to £18 7s. 6½d.
leaving a net income of nearly £111. In 1536 the
total value was out at £142 14s. 6½d. (fn. 146) The principal
estates held in the 13th century still remained in the
abbey's hands, but assized rents and leases had
replaced direct explotation everywhere except on
the home grange at Buildwas. The granges of
Bicton, Cosford, Harnage, Hatton, Kinnerton,
Monkmeole with Crowmeole, Ruckley, Stirchley,
'Ulmer', (fn. 147) Brockton (Staffs.), Walton (Staffs.),
and Ivonbrook (Derb.) were all at farm and rents
were collected from George, Earl of Shrewsbury, for
lands at Upton in Stirchley, from the Abbot of
Lilleshall for property in Longdon upon Tern, and
through the abbey's bailiffs for properties in
Adeney, Albrighton, Bridgnorth, Newport, Ragdon,
Rudge, Sheinton, Shrewsbury, and Sutton Maddock.
The property was administered by a chief steward,
George, Earl of Shrewsbury, who held a number of
similar appointments; (fn. 148) under him routine work
was carried out by a steward of the courts, a general
receiver, and two bailiffs— one for Kinnerton,
Crowmeole, Bicton, and Shrewsbury and the other
for Buildwas, Adeney, Stirchley, and other properties in the east. The demesnes that remained at
Buildwas were worked wholly by hired servants.
There were 12 'hynde servants' in 1536 and 24
dependents living in the community: 7 'yeomen
servants', 3 women servants, 4 persons living on
alms, a priest to serve and discharge cures, 3
corrodiaries (one of them a former abbot), and 6
persons having fees extraordinary. It is conceivable
that the priest was attached to the large chapel built
against the south wall of the nave, c. 1400, and that
he ministered to the needs of the lay members of the
community. The servants who replaced the lay
brothers are not likely to have used the lay brothers'
choir and, since the chapel had no direct communication with the church but was entered only from
outside, it seems to have been intended for the use of
laymen.
Cromwell's commissioners in the late summer of
1535 had found twelve monks, of whom four were
accused of grave moral faults, but by April 1536
there were only eight monks, with the abbot. All
were priests and all except the abbot were of good
conversation and living by report and God well and
devoutly served by the prior and his brethren. And
also good hospitality there kept'. (fn. 149) The house was
'in convenient repair'; movable goods and debts
due were assessed at £57 10s. 6d. and debts owing
only £75 9s. 1d. The lead and bells were valued at
£94 3s. 40d. and 180 acres of wood of 100 years'
growth or more at £120. Though the report was
favourable it was merely a preliminary to dissolution.
With other small houses the abbey was suppressed
later in the same year. The abbot was granted a
pension of £16 (fn. 150) and the other monks were dispersed, some to other religious houses. (fn. 151) In July
1539 the site of the abbey and most of its property
were granted to Edward, Lord Grey of Powis. (fn. 152)
The abbey ruins (fn. 153) lie on the south bank of the
River Severn near Buildwas bridge. Substantial
remains of the church and claustral buildings are in
the care of the Ministry of Public Building and
Works, but the abbot's house and parts of the
infirmary court have been incorporated in a postReformation house in private hands. The main
building period was the later 12th century. The
cruciform church, which measures approximately
160 feet in length, has the remains of a low central
tower; the walls of nave, transepts, and presbytery
are equal in height. Ribbed quadripartite vaulting
originally covered the presbytery and survives in the
four transept chapels, but transepts, nave, and aisles
were roofed in wood. The square east end, built
first, is extremely simple in style, with three tall,
round-headed windows in the east wall; the sedilia
have dog-tooth ornament and are 13th-century
insertions. The bluntly pointed arches of the nave
arcade rest on circular pillars 14 feet in circumserence;
the clerestory windows and other minor openings
have rounded arches. There was no triforium. The
two eastern bays of the nave were apparently
included in the monastic choir with a pulpitum
across the second bay. The north and south aisles,
which were extremely narrow, served as passages
joining the monks' choir with the lay brothers'
church in the nave, and because of the sloping
ground outside there was never a west doorway.
Of the two outer aisle walls and the large 14thcentury chapel on the south side only the foundations survive.
The lie of the land and the river to the north
determined that the claustral buildings should be
built on the less usual north side of the church, with
drainage towards the river. The east range, with its
stone-vaulted sacristy, chapter-house, and parlour,
is roughly contemporary with the western part of
the church. On the upper floor was the dorter, with a
staircase leading to the north transept. Only foundations remain of the lay brothers' quarters in the
west range and of the north range, including the
refectory, built at about the same time. Building
continued in the late 12th and early 13th centuries,
the east range being continued to form the west
range of the infirmary court. Traces of a piscina are
in the wall of the building replacing the infirmary
chapel on the south side of this court. The surviving
north arcade of the infirmary court has pointed
arches and is of 13th-century construction, and so is
the main part of the abbot's house. There are
substantial remains of a first-floor hall, which
retains two pointed windows and two doorways
which, although round-arched, have early-13thcentury ornamentation. A parlour wing, with roof of
arch-braced collar-beam construction, was added
in the later 14th century and the hall was probably
re-roofed at the same time. (fn. 154) There are foundations
of various subsidiary buildings in the garden of the
house.
Abbots of Buildwas
Ingenulf, occurs from c. 1135 (fn. 155) to 1155. (fn. 156)
Ranulf, occurs from 1155, (fn. 157) died 1187. (fn. 158)
H., occurs 1189 × 92, (fn. 159) and 1204. (fn. 160)
William, occurs 1204 × 6. (fn. 161)
Eustace, occurs 1206. (fn. 162)
Huctred, occurs c. 1210. (fn. 163)
H., occurs 1216 × 22. (fn. 164)
Stephen, occurs 1227. (fn. 165)
S., occurs 1228. (fn. 166)
Simon, occurs 1233. (fn. 167)
Nicholas, occurs from 1236 to 1256. (fn. 168)
William (?), occurs c. 1263. (fn. 169)
Adam, occurs in 1271 and 1272. (fn. 170)
William Tyrry, occurs from 1277 (fn. 171) to c. 1296. (fn. 172)
Henry Burnell, occurs 1298 × 9 (fn. 173) and 1304. (fn. 174)
John, occurs 1318. (fn. 175)
Roger, occurs 1344. (fn. 176)
Nicholas, occurs 1345 (fn. 177) and 1348. (fn. 178)
Hugh, occurs 1352 (fn. 179) and 1355. (fn. 180)
Hugh, occurs from 1391 (fn. 181) to 1398. (fn. 182)
John, occurs from 1402 (fn. 183) to 1407. (fn. 184)
Richard Ardesley, occurs from 1407 (fn. 185) to 1421. (fn. 186)
John Gnossal, occurs from 1428 (fn. 187) to 1443. (fn. 188)
Henry of Derby, occurs 1452, (fn. 189) died 1471. (fn. 190)
John Tintern, appointed 1471, (fn. 191) deposed 1479. (fn. 192)
William Whalley, occurs from 1479 × 85 (fn. 193) to
1520 or 1521. (fn. 194)
Richard Emery, deposed 1521. (fn. 195)
Stephen Green, occurs from 1521, (fn. 196) surrendered
1536. (fn. 197)
The impression of a pointed oval abbot's seal of
the later 12th century, (fn. 198) measuring 15/8 × ¾ in., shows
a dexter hand issuing from the right-hand side and
grasping a pastoral staff. A cross is contained in a
small mitre-shaped projection beyond the pointed
oval, at the top of the seal. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM ABBATIS DE BILDEWAS
The impression of another pointed oval abbot's
seal is attached to a deed of 1250. (fn. 199) It measures
2 × 11/8 in. and shows the standing figure of a bishop,
probably St. Chad, with pastoral staff. Legend,
lombardic:
SIGILLUM AB . . . [BI]LDEWAS
Two seals were in use in the late 14th and early
15th centuries; impressions of both occur on receipts
of the abbot and convent between 1397 and 1421. (fn. 200)
The larger, measuring 2¾ × 1½ in., is a pointed oval
seal depicting the Virgin and Child above, enthroned under a canopy; below, the standing figure
of a bishop (St. Chad?) with pastoral staff, his right
hand raised in blessing; in the field below, four
crosses. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM COMMUNE MONASTERII SANCTE
MARIE DE BULDEWAS
The smaller is an oval seal measuring 1¾ × 1 in.
and shows the Virgin and Child above, seated
beneath a canopy: below, the standing figure of a
bishop with pastoral staff. Of the lombardic legend
only the end, . . . DE BULDEWAS, is legible.