Lady St. Mary Priory

Late 7^th or early 8^th century

The priory is reputed to have been founded about this time by Saint Aldhelm.

709

Death of St. Aldhelm

786

Vikings attack and enter Wareham.

800 or 802

Saxon King Beothric was buried either in the nunnery or the adjacent minster, presumably he is still there. He was the last king of the West Saxons. His name may also be spelled Brictric or Brithric.

876

Bishop Asser recorded a convent of nuns in the town.
Danish invaders sacked the town at this time and skeletons found just outside The Priory's walls are thought to be the remains of many of these nuns.

About 900

Alfreda, daughter of Alfred the Great rebuilt the nunnery.

978

King Edward the Martyr was murdered at Corfe when about 16 years of age. His bones were kept at Wareham for two years. About this time the prioress was Wulfwynn, she was of Royal blood.

1015

The Danes again sack Wareham and destroy the minster and nunnery.

1017 - 1035

King Canute (Cnut). He rebuilt many ecclesiastical institutions, it appears that the priory was one of them.

1042 - 1066

King Edward the Confessor. He granted the priory to the Norman Abbey of St. Wandrille. Monks replace nuns in the priory.

1066 - 1087

King William the Conquerer. After the battle of Senlac Field (Hastings) he subdued many Saxon boroughs including Wareham destroying in the process about a third of the town including the properties of the Abbey of St. Wandrille.

About 1100

Robert de Beaumont, Count of Mellent (Later Earl of Leicester) built Wareham Castle and refounded the priory. He arranged the transfer of the priory to the Benedictine Abbey of Lire.

1160

The Earl of Leicester made a grant of fishing rights to the priory.

1291

The total income of the priory was listed as being £20 3/5^d of which £12 2/9^d was contributed by dependent chapels at Church Knowle, East Stoke, Shapwick, Wareham and Winfrith. The connections with French monasteries had long since been broken by war.

1337

King Edward III confiscated the priory's lands. The prior was required to pay to the Royal Treasury £2 per year.

1387

The priory had fallen on hard times. The Monday before Easter an inquisition was held in Wareham. The priory's properties were found to be worth, after all deductions and charges, about £10.

1398

Ownership of The priory was transferred to the Carthusian monastery of Mount Grace in Yorkshire

1419

King Henry V requires prior Walter Elton to transfer allegiance to his Carthusian foundation of Sheen in Middlesex.

1535

The Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII.

1536

The priory closed. Its annual income was estimated at £43 16/8^d. Some ruins of this building still remain.

1554

The Priory was sold to the Reeves and Cotton families. Much of the existing building dates from this period when it was a farm house.

1643

The siege of Corfe Castle (an hour's walk to SSW), from 23^rd June until 4^th August Lady Mary Bankes and a tiny garrison defied 600 Parliamentarians. The siege was raised by Prince Maurice for the King. Captain Lay and a small Roundhead force (thought to number about 200) attacked Wareham upriver from Poole. Battle was joined from Redcliffe to Wareham Quay, The Priory grounds must have seen action yet the house survived. Captain Lay captured the town, 200 prisoners and a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

1644

April 12^th, Wareham taken by the Royalists in a dawn raid. 6 officers, 150 men, 6 ordinance and 200 muskets captured. August 8^th/10^th Assault by 1200 Parliamentarian horse and foot, the outworks fell and the town surrendered.

April 1646

The second siege of Corfe Castle. Lady Mary again resisted the Parliamentarian forces for eight days until the castle fell through treachery. The castle was slighted.

1762

The Fire of Wareham. Being on the edge of town and close to the river the structure of The Priory survived relatively unharmed whilst the main part of the town was entirely destroyed.

1850

Sir William Pitt sold The Priory to the Earl of Eldon, Squire of Encombe

1900

At this time The Priory was the home of Annie Beale who let apartments.

16^th June 1976

On the death of the owner, Mr. John Greenwood late vice-chairman of Boots the Chemist, The Priory was sold to the present owners who wished to open an hotel.

St. Aldhelm

Bishop of Sherborne. He held an estate in the area. He is known to have visited the locality in AD700 and to have founded a religious house. There is no proof that this house was The Priory. No alternative site has been found.

876 invasion

Cressy mentions ...a noble monasterie of religious virgins seated in the same town [Wareham]. This was certainly on the present site. At various times large numbers of skeletons have been excavated in and adjacent to The Priory. Many of the earlier ones were female and thought to be the remains of these same religious virgins. Hutchins tells of a 'cartload of bones' being removed when a cellar was dug, some of them from between two stone slabs. One of these, a broken thighbone, was unusually large.

Abbey of Lire

Also called Lira. The Abbey was founded by William Fitz Osborn, a kinsman of William the Conquerer

Grant of Fishing Rights

This action separated the rights from much of the adjoining land forming a several fishery (Several - severed from other rights). In consequence, long after the dissolution of the monasteries these rights became the subject of protracted legal action. At one time the then holder of the rights attempted to claim the entire river to its source, for a while he was allotted the river as far upstream as Holme Bridge but eventually it was found that rights only existed as far up as Wareham Pool. Curiously the Priory Hotel does hold some fishing rights so the entire fishery doesn't fall under the severance.

Income in 1291

Presumably the temporalities (non religious income) included the tithes of grain ground by the North Mill on the River Piddle which was known to be owned by the priory in 1150.

Priors of Wareham

Not all the Priors are known, a fairly complete list from the 13^th to the 15^th century can be assembled as follows:

Roger	Undated	During the reign of Richard I (1189-1199)
William	Mentioned	1216
Nicholas Bynet	Mentioned	1297
Peter de Deserto	Presented 1302
John Mabere	Presented 1311
Ralph de Coudray	Presented 1323
William de Bally	Presented 1329	Resigned 1332
John de Bediers	Presented 1332
Michael de Molis	Presented 1334
William de Barly	Presented 1343
William de Noys	Presented 1349	Resigned 1354
Robert de Gascur	Presented 1354	Also called Gascourt
Ludovicus de Goulaffe	Presented 1362	Resigned 1362
Peter Ultra Aqua	Presented 1362	Resigned 1364
William de Minquet	Presented 1364
Stephin de Barron		Died 1412
John Kyngeston	Presented 1412
Walter Eton	Presented 1416	Also spelled Eston, Elton & Eltone

Bibliography

• The Victoria History of the County of Dorset. V2

• Hutchins's History of Dorset
  John Hutchins was Rector of Wareham from 1743-1773. His tomb is in The Church of Lady St. Mary where he preached. His great history, his life's work, was saved from the 1762 fire of Wareham by the prompt action of his wife.

• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset See especially V2 Pt.2 p317

• Cressy Church History of Britain

• Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society: Proceedings XIX p82 Article by George Bennett

• Robert Douch Handbook of Local History: Dorset

• Country Life March 4^th 1976 Article on The Priory Garden by A.G.L. Hellyer

• Dorset Life July 1990 Article 'an historic site' on the history of The Priory by Paul Randall.

• Lillian Ladle Wareham, A Pictoral History. Phillimore Press 1994

• Some useful ephemera are stored in The Dorset County Library's "Wareham" file in Dorchester.