Snelshall Priory

{{short description|Ruined Benedictine priory in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} [[File:Snelshall Priory (site) - geograph.org.uk - 216962.jpg|thumb|Site of Snelshall Priory.]] '''Snelshall Priory''' was a [[Benedictine]] [[priory]] in [[Milton Keynes]], [[Buckinghamshire]] in the [[United Kingdom]], built around 1200. The priory was founded after Sybil d'Aungerville granted land at [[Tattenhoe]] to [[Lavendon Abbey]], a [[Premonstratensian]] monastery of 'White canons' who most likely started a cell at Snelshall. This did not thrive and was abandoned about 1207.<ref name="markham1">{{cite book| title=History of Milton Keynes and District (Volume 1)|first=Sir Frank |last=Markham |year=1986 |orig-year=1973 |isbn=0-900804-29-7 |pages=104–105 |publisher=White Crescent Press}}</ref> About 1219, the founder's son brought in [[Benedictine]] monks, increased the endowment and the new monastery began again.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} However Snelshall Priory paid 1 mark a year to Lavendon until 1232, at which point the [[Bishop of Lincoln]] decided that Snelshall owned its own lands and chapel.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} The priory accumulated various land through gifts, but even with all these grants, in 1321 when [[Henry Burghersh]] visited, it was so poor that "the monks scarcely had the necessities of life and had to beg even for these".

Yet the priory remained until the mid-sixteenth century. In 1529, Bishop Longford found "irregularities"<ref name="markham1" /> among the two or three [[monk]]s that remained, and as a result all women, married and unmarried, were barred from the precinct of the priory. Only two women, both over 48 years old and of "unexceptional character", were retained as servants. In 1535, there remained three monks, two [[priest]]s (of which one was a novice), the prior's parents with "all their goods" and eight servants. The house was in ruin, and later that year the [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535|priory was suppressed]] and turned over to [[The Crown]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}}

The house was possibly rebuilt around 1540, possibly by Sir John Fortescue.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} Much of the priory's land went to the Longueville family.<ref name="markham2">{{cite book| title=History of Milton Keynes and District (Volume 1)|first=Sir Frank |last=Markham |year=1986 |orig-year=1973 |isbn=0-900804-29-7 |pages=146 |publisher=White Crescent Press}}</ref> It is not known when the house was demolished.

The stones were recycled to build the nearby [[St Giles's Church, Tattenhoe]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}}

==See also== * [[Bradwell Abbey]]

==External links== * [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40305 Houses of Benedictine monks: The priory of Snelshall', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 1 (1905), pp. 352-353.] ([[Victoria History of the Counties of England]]).

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Buildings and structures in Milton Keynes]] [[Category:Monasteries in Buckinghamshire]] [[Category:1535 disestablishments in England]] [[Category:Benedictine monasteries in England]]