Dissolution of the monasteries
Monasteries are religious communities for monks or nuns. Monks and nuns take
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Many monasteries acted as schools for
local children, especially for those who were going to join the religious
community, as hospitals for the sick and as places to stay for travellers.
Figure 1: Burnham Abbey
In 1536 Henry VIII ordered that smaller monasteries were not helping their local
areas and should be shut down. All the monastery lands and possessions went
to the crown. The monks and nuns were given pensions but were not allowed to
marry. By 1540 all monasteries, large and small, had been dissolved and the
land sold off to the gentry and nobility.
Figure 2: Notley Abbey
Do a search on the Unlocking Buckinghamshire’s Past website to find all the
monasteries, abbeys, priories, friaries and nunneries on the database. Read the
descriptions of each. Which of them are described as being ruined, abandoned
or poor before the Dissolution? Write them here and mark where they are on the
map of monasteries in Buckinghamshire that your teacher gives you:
Dissolution of the monasteries
Ruined
Abandoned
Poor
Try to find out what happened to the following monasteries by searching on the
Unlocking Buckinghamshire’s Past website:
Monastery
Notley Abbey
Snelshall Priory
Burnham Abbey
What happened?
Granges
Monasteries often owned farms, or granges, but they were also sold or
confiscated at the Dissolution. Search for the following granges on the Unlocking
Buckinghamshire’s Past website and the sources mentioned there and find out
what happened to them at the Dissolution:
Grange
Grange Farm, Quainton
Stewkley Grange
Grange Farm, Saunderton
Lee
Temple Manor Farm, High
Wycombe
What happened?
Figure 3: Grange Farm, Quainton
Dissolution of the monasteries
What affect did this have on the landscape?
Large areas of land that had once been owned by the monasteries were taken by
the king and sold to the gentry and nobility. Some monasteries were destroyed;
some were converted into houses.
Do a search on the Unlocking Buckinghamshire’s Past website and work out
which monasteries are still standing. Mark where they are on the map of
monasteries your teacher gives you.
Figure 4: Chetwode Priory Church (left) and the remains of Snelshall Priory (right)
How did people feel about the Dissolution?
Your class will be split into three groups. Each group will think about what it
would feel like when the monasteries were dissolved in Henry VIII’s reign. One
group will think about what the monks and nuns felt; one group will think about
what the gentry and nobility felt and the last group will think about what the local
people around the monasteries and nunneries felt. Remember to take into
account everything you have learnt. Each group needs to devise a speech,
performance or song to express how they feel as if they were presenting their
feelings to King Henry VIII.
www.buckscc.gov.uk/archaeology