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Sandwell Priory
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Sandwell Priory
Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and suffered considerably from mismanagement. It was dissolved in 1525 at the behest of Cardinal Wolsey – more than a decade before the main Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
The founder of Sandwell Priory was William, son of Guy de Offeni. Guy is known to have held West Bromwich around 1140 and was still alive in 1155. William was in charge by 1166 and was succeeded by his son, Richard, by 1212, although he may have survived a little longer.
William Fitz Guy was a principal tenant of Gervase de Paynel or Pagnell, who held the lordship of Dudley, his grandfather having married Beatrice, daughter of William Fitz-Ansculf the great territorial magnate who held much of the Midlands after the Norman Conquest. The promotion of monasticism was evidently a shared interest of lord and tenants. When Gervase founded Dudley Priory around the middle of the 12th century as a daughter house to Wenlock Priory, Guy de Offeni, his wife Christiana and son William donated to it the church at Wombourne for the salvation of their own souls.
It seems that a hermitage stood at the site, next to the well which gives the place its name, for some time before the priory itself was established. However, it was William who firmly established a monastery there: a house of Benedictine monks dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The foundation date is generally given as 1190, although it could have been at least ten years earlier. Gervase's confirmation of William's grants is the main surviving evidence of the foundation and original endowments of Sandwell Priory.
William gave the monks land at the hermitage by the Sandwell to build a monastery – a clear indication of an earlier religious use for the site. The Victoria County History chapter on the priory seems to suggest that William also gave them his share of the church and a house at Ellesborough in Buckinghamshire, although quoting a provision to the effect that it belonged to the barony of Dudley. The relevant volume on Buckinghamshire confirms that the advowson was a grant from Gervase de Paynel, subscribing to William's project as William had subscribed to his.
There were other examples of monasteries replacing earlier hermitages – notably Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire, founded by the powerful FitzAlan family, also in the 12th century. However, William's family were only fairly minor landowners and, although he gave generously from what he had, the priory was not well-endowed at the outset. He was able donate some of his own tenants at West Bromwich. He also gave various geographically defined resources, not all of them now recognisable. There was Wavera in Handsworth – perhaps a water feature like a pond or weir; an assart or patch of farmland taken from the royal forest, called Ruworth; Duddesrudding; an area of land between Petulf Greene and the main road, apparently adjacent to the donation at Handsworth; a puteum – generally a well but possibly a pit - at West Bromwich; a watermill at Grete - by Greets Green, the other side of West Bromwich. William also granted the monks tithes of his own household's production – their breadmaking, hunting, mills, bread, ale, and ferculorum – of the very platters of food cooked in his kitchens table.; and wood for burning and building. A very valuable grant to the monks was pasture in all seasons and for whatever animals they wished in the manor of West Bromwich. The most important endowment was the block of land on the eastern side of West Bromwich parish, along the boundary with Handsworth, which formed the kernel of the priory's estates. The monks exercised manorial jurisdiction over the estates, with the right to hold a manorial court like other landowners.
The endowments of the priory grew piecemeal over the years and successive priors fought legal battles to maintain its rights and privileges. There were major contests between the priors and the Parles family of Handsworth in the 13th century - initially over land but later over advowson of the church at Handsworth, which the priory claimed it shared with Lenton Priory, near Nottingham. The net result of the compromises reached was that the priory lost any share of the advowson but gained a messuage (a house with its adjoining land) worth a mark or 13s. 4d. a year in Birmingham and rent of 20s. a year from a mill in Hamstead, on the River Tame. Another long-running but more intermittent struggle confirmed the priory's advowson at Ellesborough against the challenges of local landowners. Around 1230 Worcester Priory, the Benedictine chapter of Worcester Cathedral, farmed to Sandwell the church at West Bromwich in perpetuity. Sandwell thus took the revenues of the church but agreed to pay 6 marks, i.e. £4, annually to Worcester and to meet all the costs of the church. As with other monasteries, the constitutional crisis of Edward I's reign brought financial difficulties. In 1296 the king seized the temporalities of houses in response to the bull Clericis laicos and retained them until a subsidy of one fifth had been paid. A long list in a Close Roll of February 1297 records those restored on payment of the subsidy, including those belonging to the Prior of Sandwell, who had given the sum to the Sheriff of Staffordshire.
There was a further period of acquisitive activity in the second half of the 14th century, after the Black death had depressed land values. In 1365 Sandwell acquired property at Padbury in Buckinghamshire: a house and a virgate of land – nominally 30 acres. From 1388 there was an attempt to acquire the farm of Alberbury Priory in Shropshire. Alberbury was of the Grandmontine order, a dependency of the mother house in the Limousin, and so an alien priory subject to royal confiscation whenever there was war or even tension with France. It was available to farm at a rent of 20 marks but ultimately negotiations were fruitless. In 1398 the priory was able to appropriate its share of Ellesborough church, an acquisition which required authorisation from the Pope. This allowed to collect the tithes, so long as it made provision for a priest to serve the needs of the parish. The inevitable result was a gradual decline of provision and a decay of the church fabric while the priory used the funds for other purposes. At some point the priory acquired a fulling mill at Fazeley, which it leased out. By the time of its dissolution in 1525 the priory also had two watermills at West Bromwich, and lands in various places around the West Midlands, including Dudley, Tipton, Great Barr, Little Barr, Harborne, Coston Hackett, Wombourne, and Wednesbury.
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Sandwell Priory
Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and suffered considerably from mismanagement. It was dissolved in 1525 at the behest of Cardinal Wolsey – more than a decade before the main Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
The founder of Sandwell Priory was William, son of Guy de Offeni. Guy is known to have held West Bromwich around 1140 and was still alive in 1155. William was in charge by 1166 and was succeeded by his son, Richard, by 1212, although he may have survived a little longer.
William Fitz Guy was a principal tenant of Gervase de Paynel or Pagnell, who held the lordship of Dudley, his grandfather having married Beatrice, daughter of William Fitz-Ansculf the great territorial magnate who held much of the Midlands after the Norman Conquest. The promotion of monasticism was evidently a shared interest of lord and tenants. When Gervase founded Dudley Priory around the middle of the 12th century as a daughter house to Wenlock Priory, Guy de Offeni, his wife Christiana and son William donated to it the church at Wombourne for the salvation of their own souls.
It seems that a hermitage stood at the site, next to the well which gives the place its name, for some time before the priory itself was established. However, it was William who firmly established a monastery there: a house of Benedictine monks dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The foundation date is generally given as 1190, although it could have been at least ten years earlier. Gervase's confirmation of William's grants is the main surviving evidence of the foundation and original endowments of Sandwell Priory.
William gave the monks land at the hermitage by the Sandwell to build a monastery – a clear indication of an earlier religious use for the site. The Victoria County History chapter on the priory seems to suggest that William also gave them his share of the church and a house at Ellesborough in Buckinghamshire, although quoting a provision to the effect that it belonged to the barony of Dudley. The relevant volume on Buckinghamshire confirms that the advowson was a grant from Gervase de Paynel, subscribing to William's project as William had subscribed to his.
There were other examples of monasteries replacing earlier hermitages – notably Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire, founded by the powerful FitzAlan family, also in the 12th century. However, William's family were only fairly minor landowners and, although he gave generously from what he had, the priory was not well-endowed at the outset. He was able donate some of his own tenants at West Bromwich. He also gave various geographically defined resources, not all of them now recognisable. There was Wavera in Handsworth – perhaps a water feature like a pond or weir; an assart or patch of farmland taken from the royal forest, called Ruworth; Duddesrudding; an area of land between Petulf Greene and the main road, apparently adjacent to the donation at Handsworth; a puteum – generally a well but possibly a pit - at West Bromwich; a watermill at Grete - by Greets Green, the other side of West Bromwich. William also granted the monks tithes of his own household's production – their breadmaking, hunting, mills, bread, ale, and ferculorum – of the very platters of food cooked in his kitchens table.; and wood for burning and building. A very valuable grant to the monks was pasture in all seasons and for whatever animals they wished in the manor of West Bromwich. The most important endowment was the block of land on the eastern side of West Bromwich parish, along the boundary with Handsworth, which formed the kernel of the priory's estates. The monks exercised manorial jurisdiction over the estates, with the right to hold a manorial court like other landowners.
The endowments of the priory grew piecemeal over the years and successive priors fought legal battles to maintain its rights and privileges. There were major contests between the priors and the Parles family of Handsworth in the 13th century - initially over land but later over advowson of the church at Handsworth, which the priory claimed it shared with Lenton Priory, near Nottingham. The net result of the compromises reached was that the priory lost any share of the advowson but gained a messuage (a house with its adjoining land) worth a mark or 13s. 4d. a year in Birmingham and rent of 20s. a year from a mill in Hamstead, on the River Tame. Another long-running but more intermittent struggle confirmed the priory's advowson at Ellesborough against the challenges of local landowners. Around 1230 Worcester Priory, the Benedictine chapter of Worcester Cathedral, farmed to Sandwell the church at West Bromwich in perpetuity. Sandwell thus took the revenues of the church but agreed to pay 6 marks, i.e. £4, annually to Worcester and to meet all the costs of the church. As with other monasteries, the constitutional crisis of Edward I's reign brought financial difficulties. In 1296 the king seized the temporalities of houses in response to the bull Clericis laicos and retained them until a subsidy of one fifth had been paid. A long list in a Close Roll of February 1297 records those restored on payment of the subsidy, including those belonging to the Prior of Sandwell, who had given the sum to the Sheriff of Staffordshire.
There was a further period of acquisitive activity in the second half of the 14th century, after the Black death had depressed land values. In 1365 Sandwell acquired property at Padbury in Buckinghamshire: a house and a virgate of land – nominally 30 acres. From 1388 there was an attempt to acquire the farm of Alberbury Priory in Shropshire. Alberbury was of the Grandmontine order, a dependency of the mother house in the Limousin, and so an alien priory subject to royal confiscation whenever there was war or even tension with France. It was available to farm at a rent of 20 marks but ultimately negotiations were fruitless. In 1398 the priory was able to appropriate its share of Ellesborough church, an acquisition which required authorisation from the Pope. This allowed to collect the tithes, so long as it made provision for a priest to serve the needs of the parish. The inevitable result was a gradual decline of provision and a decay of the church fabric while the priory used the funds for other purposes. At some point the priory acquired a fulling mill at Fazeley, which it leased out. By the time of its dissolution in 1525 the priory also had two watermills at West Bromwich, and lands in various places around the West Midlands, including Dudley, Tipton, Great Barr, Little Barr, Harborne, Coston Hackett, Wombourne, and Wednesbury.
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