Castle Acre Priory, Castle Acre, Norfolk

Photograph taken July 1997 © Copyright Historic England Archive Photo Library ref: k970927

Castle Acre Priory was a Cluniac monastery founded in 1090. The surviving remains include the early 12th-century church, the prior's house and a porch which originally formed the main entrance to the cloister. The priory was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1537 and granted to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. By 1558 the buildings were being demolished. The prior's lodgings were retained for use as a house. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2010).

Location

Norfolk Castle Acre

Period

Medieval (Middle Ages) (1066 - 1484)

Themes

A nunnery was first documented here in 603. A monastery was founded during the abbacy of Aldhelm (c675-705). It became Benedictine in the reign of Edgar (959–975) and remained so until dissolved in 1539. The final Abbey Church was built circa 1160-70 and had 13th/14th and 15th century additions. The 431 feet (131 m) tall spire, collapsed in a storm around 1500. The west tower fell around 1550. As a result of these two collapses, less than half of the original building stands today. The abbey was closed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 by Henry VIII. It was sold, with all its lands, to William Stumpe, a rich merchant. He gave the abbey church to the town for continuing use as a parish church, and filled the abbey buildings with twenty looms for his cloth-weaving enterprise.
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Castle Acre Priory, Castle Acre, Norfolk

Location

Period

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