St Albans Abbey, St Albans, Hertfordshire
St Albans Abbey from the north-west. The great medieval abbey church developed on the site of the shrine to St Alban, who died in 209 AD, and was one of the earliest Christian martyrs. Offa, King of Mercia founded a monastery here in 793 which came under Benedictine rule. Both monks and nuns were admitted throughout the 9th and 10th centries, in separate houses. King Edgar reformed it to Benedictine rule in about 970. There were 50 monks at the Abbey in 1190, and about the same number at the Dissolution in 1539. After the reformation the church was sold to the town and became its cathedral.
