Ramsey Abbey

Gatehouse of the abbey, 15th century, with ornate oriel window

Ramsey Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey located in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, England, southeast of Peterborough. Very little remains of the former Abbey, as after the dissolution in 1537, the Abbey and all that belonged to it was bestowed on ir Richard Williams (alias Cromwell), (who took his wife's name of Cromwell). She was the sister of Thomas Cromwell, Chancellor to Henry VIII. As Laymen could not occupy large religious buildings; and it was to their interest that the religious character of the buildings should be obliterated; consequently Ramsey Abbey was largely used as a surface quarry to supply material for walls and cottages at hand, and to provide good Barnack stone for new buildings at a distance. As a result large quantities of stone were taken to Cambridge for Gonville and Caius College, King's College and Trinity College, and for the tower in Godmanchester's parish church, as well the west door of that tower being reconstructed as it stood in the Abbey. The parish church tower of Ramsey was also sourced from Ramsey Abbey.

History

Ramsey Abbey was founded in 969 by Saint Oswald, Bishop of Worcester through the gift of a local magnate, Æthelwine. The foundation was part of the mid-10th century English Benedictine reform, in which Ely and Peterborough were also refounded. It paid 4000 eels yearly in Lent to Peterborough Abbey for access to its quarries of Barnack limestone. The important Ramsey Psalter or Psalter of Oswald (British Library) appears to have been made for it around 980. This is not to be confused with another Ramsey Psalter in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (MS M. 302), made between 1286 and 1316.

A Prior and twelve monks formed the original foundation. The Abbey itself was then situated on a peninsula of gravel, known as Bodsey Island, with the impassable fen to three sides. The chapel was replaced by a large, stone-built church over the next five years and thus remained until the Norman Abbot created a much grander project in the 12th century. It was thought to have been founded by Earl Ailwyn (Æthelwine), an effigy of whom is thought to be within the Abbey dating from 1230.

Considerable damage was inflicted upon the Abbey by Geoffrey de Mandeville in 1143; he expelled the monks and used the buildings as a fortress.

This Ramsey Psalter of c. 1310 was a gift to the abbot from the cellarer (facsimile)

In the order of precedence for abbots in Parliament, Ramsey was third after Glastonbury and St Alban's.

The abbey prospered until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 and was an international centre of Hebrew scholarship in the late Middle Ages. In 1787 Mark Noble noted:

The abbey of Ramsey, i.e. the Ram's isle, was one of the richest foundations in the kingdom: the abbot was mitred, and sat in the house of lords as baron of Broughton; the abbey had 387 hides of land, 200 of which were in Huntingdonshire: the monks were not famed for their liberality, if we believe the following ancient lines:

Crowland as courteous, as courteous as may bee,

Thorney the bane of many a good Tree,

Ramsey the rich, and Peterborough the proud,

Sawtry by the way that poor abbay,

Gave more almes than all they.

At the time of the Dissolution there were still 34 monks. Stone from the abbey was used to build Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, King's College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Cambridge. The Abbey lands were sold to Sir Richard Williams (alias Cromwell). Sir Henry Cromwell started to build the present country house (now a school) on the site.

In 1737 the abbey was bought by Coulson Fellowes, MP for Huntingdonshire from 1741 to 1761. It passed down through several generations of Fellowes, who became the Barons de Ramsey, during which time the house was substantially enlarged. In 1931 the family moved their seat to Abbots Ripton Hall at the coming of age of the 4th Baron and in 1937 leased the building for 99 years to Ramsey Abbey School. In 1952 they donated the gatehouse to the National Trust, who allow it to be used as part of the school.

The Abbey today

Ramsey Abbey today

Ramsey Abbey Censer and Incense Boat, early to mid 14th Century AD in the V&A Museum, London

Ramsey Abbey House, the Gatehouse, Almshouses and the parish church can still be seen.

Ramsey Abbey House, the former 17th century home of Sir Henry Cromwell and latterly the seat of the Fellowes family, is currently used by Abbey College to house 6th form facilities and to accommodate lessons.

The Abbey Gatehouse is a National Trust property. Part of the gatehouse was removed by the son and heir of Sir Richard (Sir Henry Williams (alias Cromwell)) to form the main gateway to Hinchingbrooke House in Huntingdon, his newly built winter residence. Today, what remains of the gatehouse also forms a part of the college.

The town's parish church of St Thomas Becket was built ca. 1180-90 as a hospital, infirmary or guesthouse of the abbey. It was originally an aisled hall with a chapel at the east end with a vestry on the north side and the warden's lodgings on the south, but both these have been demolished. The building became the parish church ca. 1222.

When Whittlesey Mere was being drained, a thurible and other silver items were found in the bed of the mere and from the ram's head on one of these pieces were believed to have come from the Abbey. The thurible (or censer), and an incense boat are now in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Also found in the bed were blocks of quarried stone, which are supposed to have fallen from a barge on the way to the Abbey.

Burials

• Saint Felix of Burgundy - his remains were publicly displayed as relics
• Ivo of Ramsey who gave his name to St Ives, Huntingdonshire

Abbots

• Eadnoth the Younger, also Bishop of Dorchester; died at the Battle of Assandun in 1016
• Herbert de Losinga (died 1119), the first Bishop of Norwich

References

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Noble, Mark (1787). Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, and Continued Down to the Present Time,... Vol. 1 (3 ed.). London: C. G. J. and J. Robinson. pp. 5–20. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Lapidge, Michael, ed. (2009). "Ramsey in the Time of Byrhtferth". Byrhtferth of Ramsey: The Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. pp. xv–xxix. ISBN 978-0-19-955078-4.

External links

• Ramsey Abbey page
• Abbots of Ramsey
• Ramsey Abbey Gatehouse information at the National Trust