Haughmond Abbey ( ) is a ruined, medieval, Augustinian monastery a few miles from Shrewsbury, England. It was probably founded in the early 12th century and was closely associated with the FitzAlan family, who became Earls of Arundel, and some of their wealthier vassals and allies. It was a substantial, successful and wealthy house for most of its four centuries, although evidence of abuses appeared before its dissolution in 1539. The buildings fell into disrepair and the church was largely destroyed, although the remains of some of the domestic buildings remain impressive. The site is now in the care of English Heritage and is open to the public throughout the year and free entry. There is a small Visitor Centre on site with an interesting exhibition of the Abbey. The visitor centre is opened and staffed by a team of volunteers daily between 11am and 3pm (times and opening may vary due to volunteer availability). The site is open from 10am until 6pm (Apr-Oct) and 10am until 4pm (Nov-Mar).

Origins

The cartulary of the abbey begins with a statement of its foundation story, as understood at the time it was written down, probably in the Late Middle AgesDodsworth and Dugdale. Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 46

R. W. Eyton, the assiduous Victorian historian of Shropshire, critically considered the cartulary evidence in his 1856 study of the Haughmond's origins, pointing out that it was impossible for all the facts asserted to be true, as William FitzAlan is known to have been still a youth in 1138,Eyton, The Monasteries of Shropshire: their origin and founders, p. 146 when he became involved in the Anarchy of Stephen's reign. Moreover, of the two bulls concerning the abbey issued by Alexander III in 1172, one does not mention the foundation at all, while the other does attribute it to William FitzAlan but does not give a date. Around the time of the dissolution, the traveller and antiquary Leland repeated the cartulary's story of the foundation, with the slight variation of placing the date in 1101.Leland, p. 230 A 13th century chronicle, written locally, gives the date as 1110. Eyton seized upon the earliest charter in the cartulary as giving a fairly secure date.Eyton, The Monasteries of Shropshire: their origin and founders, p. 147 In it, William FitzAlan grants to the community a fishery at Preston Boats, a member of the manor of Upton Magna,Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 268 about 3 km south of the abbey on the River Severn – the first clear indication that the community existed. FitzAlan's grant names the leader of the community as Prior Fulk.Eyton, The Monasteries of Shropshire: their origin and founders, p. 148 Augustinian communities were generally counted as priories, although large, entirely independent houses were called abbeys. The grant also mentions that the monastery was dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and this was to persist throughout its history: a statue of St John with his emblem can be found carved into the arches of the chapter house and his image also appeared on the abbey's great seal.M J Angold, G C Baugh, Marjorie M Chibnall, D C Cox, D T W Price, Margaret Tomlinson and B S Trinder. Houses of Augustinian canons: Abbey of Haughmond in Gaydon and Pugh, p. 62-70. The witnesses were William FitzAlan's wife, Christiana, and his brother, Walter. The grant seems to date from the years around 1135, when Henry I died and a power contest broke out between Stephen and Empress Matilda.

However, it is not certain that William FitzAlan founded or was the first to endow the community. Leland repeats the persistent story that "there was an hermitage and a chapell before the erectynge of the abbey". This suggests some value in considering the founding of the FitzAlan fortunes by William FitzAlan's father, Alan fitz Flaad. He appeared in Henry I's company at least as early as September 1101, when he witnessed important grants to Norwich Cathedral.Farrer, p. 10, nos. 25-6 Thereafter, he is heard of with the king at Canterbury in 1103,Farrer, p. 19, nos. 68-9 in the New Forest in 1104,Farrer, p. 19, no. 80 He seems to have taken an interest in donations of his own to religious houses, as at some point he gave a manor to Norwich Cathedral, a gift the king promised "to confirm when Alan comes to my court"Farrer, p. 54, no. 243 – evidently a regular occurrence. Only later does he appear as a witness to an order given to Richard de Belmeis I, the Bishop of London and the king's viceroy in Shropshire, to deal with a disputed prebend at Morville,Farrer, p. 70, no. 326 presumably a complication of the abolition of the collegiate church there in favour of Shrewsbury Abbey.M J Angold, G C Baugh, Marjorie M Chibnall, D C Cox, D T W Price, Margaret Tomlinson and B S Trinder. Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Morville in Gaydon and Pugh, p. 62-70. Alan appears in this context among a group of Shropshire magnates, including Corbets and a Peverel, probably during Henry I's 1114 military expedition into Wales. It seems to have been around this time that he acquired the abbey site, along with other large estates in Shropshire and Sussex. The estates had been granted by William the Conqueror to Rainald de Bailleul, the Sheriff of Shropshire, in consideration of his shrievalty, and were given to Alan after the death of Rainald's son, Hugh. One of the most important was Upton Magna, in which Haughmond Abbey was located. Eyton places the handover earlier, around the time of a royal expedition to Shropshire in 1109.Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 220 It is possible that Alan was the founder of the original priory, or even that it began before his time, as a small eremitic community, towards the end of the 11th century. Another possibility is that the community was established or nurtured by Alan's widow, variously named as Adelina, Avelina or Evelyn, who seems to have survived him by many years.

Despite his reservations about the self-contradictory sources, Eyton concluded that the foundation date lay between 1130 and 1138 and that the founder of the abbey "in all respects was the first William Fitz-Alan".Eyton, The Monasteries of Shropshire: their origin and founders, p. 153 However, William FitzAlan's grant of the Preston Boats fish weir, around 1135, was clearly not a foundation grant: there was already a small but growing community when it was made. The Victoria County History account tends to give more weight than Eyton to the possibility of an earlier origin. Augustinian communities often began as small gatherings around a noted hermit before growing into established monasteries, or even small religious orders: the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France, which had a Shropshire community at nearby Lilleshall Abbey, is an example.Angold et al. Houses of Augustinian canons: Abbey of Lilleshall in Gaydon and Pugh, p. 70-80. At Haughmond, the remains of a very modest early church were discovered beneath the floor of the later, more ambitious building, during the 1907 excavations:Hope and Brakspear, p. 285 this may date back to the time of Prior Fulk or earlier. Despite these reservations and qualifications, the most recent account of William Fitz-Alan, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, simply treats him as the founder of the abbey, and it was certainly he who placed it on a secure basis, even if he was not the originator.

Early growth and confirmations

William FitzAlan took the side of the Empress and was exiled from the region from 1138 until at least 1153. However, endowments continued in FitzAlan's absence. The Empress gave Haughmond land and a mill in Walcot, Shropshire.Eyton, The Monasteries of Shropshire: their origin and founders, p. 149 The land grant at least is generally thought to date from Matilda's time at Oxford in the summer of 1141, when she temporarily had the upper hand in the civil war.Cronne and Davis, p. 145-6, nos. 377-8 The abbey took the precaution of getting Stephen's approval for these valuable gifts – assuming that Stephen's grantCronne and Davis, p. 145, no. 376 of the same property actually was later, which is not absolutely certain. When Henry, Duke of Normandy, the future Henry II, appeared in England in 1153, he was induced to issue a charter at Leicester, confirming his mother's grants.Cronne and Davis, p. 145-6, no. 379 This strategy of obtaining triple grants during the Anarchy was followed also by Lilleshall Abbey.

An early benefactor of Haughmond was Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, who donated the right to fish in the Dee and take 6000 salt fish free of tolls.Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 292 Ranulf brought a number of Welsh magnates into the civil war, initially on the Angevin side. This brought gifts of some Welsh churches to the abbey, including that at Trefeglwys, in Arwystli, and at that at Nefyn, which was donated by Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd.Lloyd, p. 613, note 5. In 1155, the year after Henry II took the throne, his supporter, William FitzAlan, finally regained his Shropshire estates. William then donated the church at Wroxeter to Haughmond.Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 288 This was a portionary church – staffed by a number of canons, dividing the income, but not forming a structured college. FitzAlan stipulated that the abbot must maintain five secular clergy at Wroxeter and send five canons to participate in the celebration of the feasts of St Andrew, St George, and St Denis. He also declared he would increase the number of canons at Wroxeter, thus benefiting Wroxeter and Haughmond simultaneously. He declared this was "so that they might have a full convent",Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 311 implying that he intended the church to evolve into a college, probably as a family chantry. If that was his intention, it never materialised. Notably, the donation refers to Abbas de Haghmon, the Abbot of Haughmond, indicating that the house had grown in size and status.

As the wealth of the abbey increased, the rebuilding of the church and abbey was begun. Over the next twenty years it was constructed in a late Romanesque style, funded mainly by the FitzAlans and their vassals, especially the Lestrange family. However, there were royal donations, including assarts around the abbey site, which were granted by an early charter of Henry II.Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 291 These signalled that the abbey was closely associated politically with the Angevin dynasty. This was reinforced by the appointment of Alured, the king's former tutor, as abbot, probably in the 1160s.Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 299 It was Alured who in 1172 obtained two bulls from Pope Alexander III, confirming the early grants, giving the abbey extra-parochial status,Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 7, p. 291-2 including the right to bury whoever willed it, and conferring on the canons the right to elect their own abbot.Dodsworth and Dugdale. Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 936 The king added still more charters when he was at Shrewsbury later in his reign, probably in 1176, updating the list of endowments conferred upon the abbey by that time.

Endowments and benefactors

The following is a list of notable properties donated to Haughmond Abbey in its first century, based on the account of the abbey in the Victoria County History.