THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF 

 GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



INTRODUCTION 



Monasticism had a very strong influence on the history of Gloucester- 

 shire on account of the great possessions of the religious houses. 



The chief Benedictine monasteries had their origin before the beginning 

 of the ninth century. Gloucester was founded about 68 1, Tewkesbury about 

 715, Winchcombe in 798. Of the smaller houses of the order, Deerhurst 

 was founded about 804, and became a cell of the monastery of St. Denis 

 about 1059. The priories of Newent, Horsley, and Brimpsfield were 

 established as cells of Benedictine monasteries in Normandy in the reign of 

 William the Conqueror. The priory of St. James, Bristol, was founded 

 about 1137, Stanley St. Leonard in 1146. 



Before the middle of the twelfth century the Augustinian canons had 

 four important houses. In 1131 they took the place of the secular canons 

 of Cirencester. The monastery of Lanthony by Gloucester had its origin 

 in 1136; St. Augustine's, Bristol, in 1148. The secular canons of St. Oswald's 

 Minster at Gloucester gave place to Augustinians about 1 150. Beckford was 

 founded as a cell to St. Barbe-en-Auge, about 1135. The priory of St. Mary 

 Magdalen, Bristol, which after the Norman conquest was the only monastery 

 for women in Gloucestershire, was founded for Augustinian canonesses before 

 1 173. In 1260 Horsley became a cell of Bruton, in Somerset. 



Although the Cistercians came to England in 1128, and spread rapidly 

 in the north and in the marches of Wales, the small monastery of Flaxley, 

 in the Forest of Dean, was not founded until about 1151. The more noted 

 house of Hayles had its origin in 1 246. 



The preceptories of the Templars and Hospitallers were established at 

 Guiting and Quenington before the end of the twelfth century. In 1222 

 the Carthusians settled for a few years at Hatherop, but afterwards moved to 

 Hinton in Somerset. 



In the thirteenth century the Friars came to Bristol and Gloucester. 



Westbury-on-Trym, which was a Benedictine monastery in the tenth 

 century, and again after the Norman Conquest, probably became a collegiate 

 church of secular canons in the middle of the thirteenth century. 



Hospitals at Bristol, Gloucester, Cirencester, Berkeley, Lechlade, and 

 elsewhere were founded, some for lepers, others for the sick and needy. 



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