Lilleshall Abbey was an Augustinian abbey in Shropshire, England, today located north of Telford. It was founded between 1145 and 1148 and followed the austere customs and observance of the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France. It suffered from chronic financial difficulties and narrowly escaped the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries in 1536, before going into voluntary dissolution in 1538. The site is now in the care of English Heritage and is open all year round with free admission. Volunteers based at Haughmond Abbey regularly attend the site to deliver tours and conduct checks and maintenance. The site is open from 10am-6pm (Apr/Oct) and 10am-4pm (Nov/March). Guide books are on sale at the Haughmond Abbey Visitor Centre.
Foundation
Disputed origins Lilleshall was one of a small number of monasteries in England belonging to the rigorist Arrouaisian branch of the Augustinians. A persistent tale, possibly stemming from William Dugdale, the pioneering 17th century historian of Britain's monasteries, claims that there was an Anglo-Saxon church at Lilleshall, dedicated to St Alkmund.Dugdale, p.146 Even Dugdale sounded a note of scepticism, and by 1825, when Hugh Owen and John Brickdale Blakeway wrote their history of Shrewsbury, the scepticism was dominant and they would allow only they “could not disprove” the existence of the Anglo-Saxon foundation.Owen and Blakeway, p.262 much less the even less plausible tale that Alkmund was actually buried at Lilleshall. It seems that legends of early Lilleshall have developed by confusion with the collegiate church of St Alkmund in Shrewsbury, which was dissolved to provide the funding for the abbey. More recent accounts, from Robert William Eyton's of 1856Eyton (1856), p.229 to the Victoria County History of 1973, entirely skip the Anglo-Saxon period and set the origins of the monastery securely in the years 1145–8, during the reign of King Stephen. These accounts agree that Lilleshall was founded on the initiative of two brothers: Richard de Belmeis, at that time Archdeacon of Middlesex and dean of the college of St Alkmund in Shrewsbury, and Philip de Belmeis, lord of Tong, Shropshire. Both were nephews of Richard de Beaumis, a Bishop of London who had died in 1127, sons of his brother Walter. The younger Richard was later also to become Bishop of London.
The Arrouaisian pre-history Arrouaise lay between Bapaume and Arras. Gosse, the 18th century historian of the community, portrays the region as bandit country in the early Middle Ages.Gosse, p.8-10 He specifies the arrival in 1090 of Heldemar of Tournai and the German Conon or Kuno as the key event in the genesis of the Arrouaisians. Both were court chaplains of William the Conqueror who embraced the Augustinian Rule, and after William's death, set off across France to pursue a series of pilgrimages.Gosse, p.11 Together with a local hermit called Roger or Ruggerius, they established a monastic cell and an oratory, dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St Nicholas. Around this grew a small community of ascetics who recognised Heldemar as their head or provost.Gosse, p.12 Heldemar was murdered and Roger stabbed by a cleric, apparently attracted to the community, who was angered by their calls to penitence. After Heldemar's death on 13 January 1097, reports of miracles and the aura of martyrdom quickly led to recognition of his holiness, enhancing the status of the embryonic monastery. Only a few months later, Conon, his successor, successfully obtained confirmation of the monastery's foundation from Lambert, bishop of Arras.Gosse, p.18 Under their third leader, Richer, Arrouaise Abbey developed relationships with the nobility of northern France, establishing a cemetery in which to inter their benefactors.Gosse, p.25 However, it was under Gervais, a former secretary to Eustace III, Count of Boulogne, elected its head in 1121,Gosse, p.31 that the Arrouaise community became an important reforming force within the Augustinian order.
Although regarded as a house of Augustinian Canons Regular, Arrouaise followed a stricter code of conduct than other Augustinians, modelled explicitly on that of the Cistercians from the time of Gervais.Gosse, p.49 They soon became an international community, as houses were founded in other countries, modelled on the original monastery and termed Arrouaisian.Gosse, p.5-6 The first such monastery in England was Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire, founded around 1140 by Alexander of Lincoln, the local bishop, who suppressed a college of secular clergy to make way for the regular canons.
The Belmeis initiative The Belmeis brothers had acquired land and influence in Shropshire and the surrounding counties mainly as heirs to their uncle, the bishop of London, who had overseen the affairs of Wales and the Welsh Marches on behalf of Henry I Philip was his secular heir and the king transferred many of his ecclesiastical holdings to Richard.Eyton (1856), p.231
The initiative of the Belmeis brothers was far from inevitable. Earlier, Philip had been deeply interested in Buildwas Abbey, which was affiliated to the Congregation of Savigny (and later absorbed into the Cistercian Order). He was admitted to the Savignac lay fraternity and made a gift of land at Ruckley, near Tong, in return for himself and his wife being commemorated in perpetuity in the prayers of Savignac communities. However, in the early 1140s he gave land at Lizard, Staffordshire, “to found a Church in honour of St. Mary for Canons of the Order of Arrouase, who had come from the Church of St. Peter at Dorchester, and are serving God and St Mary there.”Eyton (1856), p.230 He gave the canons the right to collect wood for fuel and for building and also donated two Leicestershire churches – at Blackfordby and Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
The small colony of canons from Dorchester struggled to establish themselves. Lizard proved unsuitable, so they moved first into Donnington Wood, near Wrockwardine, and then to their final home at Lilleshall, a move that was complete by 1148. This was expedited by Richard Belmeis, who seems to have been considerably younger than his brother and had been ordained as a deacon in order to take full possession his offices and estates only in 1128. These included the deanery of St Almund's and four of its wealthy prebends: Lilleshall, Atcham, Uckington and Preston Gubbals. At the Domesday survey these had been in the possession of a Norman priest called Godebold (after whom Preston Gubbals is named), apparently a crony of the regional magnate, Roger Montgomery.Owen and Blakeway, p.263 It is likely Gobold's son Robert continued this loyalty to the Montgomery dynasty and lost his inheritance by supporting the revolt of Robert of Bellême, as the estates passed to the elder Richard de Belmeis and then to his nephew. The young Richard devised a radical scheme to dissolve the ancient college of secular canons and divert the wealth of its deanery and prebends to the new Arrouaisian community of regular canonsOwen and Blakeway, p.265 - a parallel to the foundation of Dorchester Abbey.
The country was in the grip of the Anarchy of King Stephen's reign, so great care was taken to ensure assent from a range of powerful interested parties. The changes at St Alkmund's, a chapel royal, necessitated a charter from King Stephen, which he granted in 1145 at Bury St Edmunds.Cronne and Davis, p.173, no. 460 This confirmed Richard's donation of all his holdings to the canons at Donington Wood and also promised the remaining prebends as they fell vacant.Eyton, Antiquities, Volume 8, p.214 The very eminent witnesses included Imar of Tusculum the Papal Legate of Lucius II; Robert de Bethune, the bishop of Hereford; Rotrou de Warwick, the bishop of Évreux; William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey and Robert of Ghent, Stephen's Chancellor. Pope Lucius died shortly afterwards and his successor, Pope Eugenius III, a Cistercian, was a friend of Bishop Alexander, the great patron of the Arrouaisians in England, whom he received twice in successive years.Eyton, Antiquities, Volume 8, p.215 He ordered Roger de Clinton, the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, to issue a charter confirming Richard's gift to the canons and Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, subsequently also issued a confirmatory charter, this time mentioning that the foundation is to be an abbey in the woods at Lilleshall.
To ensure the abbey's future, it was vital to secure the approval of Empress Matilda, who was contesting the throne. Richard de Belmeis had previous contact with the opposition and was with Matilda at Oxford in 1141, when he witnessed her charter to Haughmond Abbey.Eyton (1856), p.232 She issued a confirmation, now definitely to Lilleshall Abbey, in 1148, apparently at Falaise.Cronne and Davis, p.173, no. 461 Her son and heir gave his consent as Duke of NormandyCronne and Davis, p.173, no. 462 and again when he became King Henry II.
The abbey was seen as a royal foundation, notwithstanding the role of the Belmeis brothers, because it replaced St Alkmund's, a chapel royal. This gave it both advantages and responsibilities. Philip of Belmeis' property passed via his daughter to the la Zouche family, who occasionally pretended to have advowson. In practice, however, all abbots elect were presented for approval to the king.
Dedication The dedication of the abbey was to Mary, as the first charter of Philip de Belmeis implied. This is confirmed by the abbey seal used in the 13th century, which is inscribed: SIGILLUM E[CCL]ESIE BEATE MARIE DE LILLESHULL - The Seal of the Church of St Mary of Lilleshall.
The monastic life The abbey's community were Augustinian Canons Regular or conventual canons, not technically monks. Although the Arrouaisians were at first noted for their austerity of life, they were less enclosed than Benedictine or Cistercian monks. Arrouaisian houses were noted for the high quality of their liturgical observance. A prayer roll of about 1375 confirms that this was so at Lilleshall more than two centuries after the foundation.
There was a large number of benefactions from lay landowners and these often came with requests to be buried or prayed for at Lilleshall or for membership of the fraternity of the abbey. Late in the 12th century, for example, John Lestrange, a local baron with holdings further afield, got into a dispute with Ramsey Abbey over the church at Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk.Eyton, Antiquities, Volume 10, p.266-7 In a settlement acceptable to all, he gave the church to Lilleshall Abbey, for the health of his own and his wife's souls. Shortly afterwards he added the church at Shangton in Leicestershire, adding specifically “the body of his wife Amicia when she shall have gone the way of all flesh.” Similarly, Robert de Kayley gave the abbey two thirds of his land at Freasley, in Dordon, Warwickshire, on condition that it accept his body for burial. This suggests that its monastic life quickly built up a reputation for holiness that could be acquired by proximity, and one that clearly persisted into the later Middle Ages. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, spent two days at the abbey, together with his wife Katherine Swynford and a large retinue. He had fallen ill after the 24th parliament of Richard II's reign was held at Shrewsbury, dissolving on 31 January 1398. Gaunt himself, his wife, and his squire, William Chetwynd, were received into the fraternity, and Gaunt made a gift of twenty pounds of gold.