Buildwas Abbey
Buildwas Abbey was a Cistercian (originally Savigniac) monastery located on the banks of the River Severn, at Buildwas in Shropshire, England - today about west of Ironbridge. Founded by the local bishop in 1135, it was sparsely endowed at the outset but enjoyed several periods of growth and increasing wealth: notably under Abbot Ranulf in the second half of the 12th century and again from the mid-13th century, when large numbers of acquisitions were made from the local landed gentry. Abbots were regularly used as agents by Plantagenet in their attempts to subdue Ireland and Wales and the abbey acquired a daughter house in each country. It was a centre of learning, with a substantial library, and was noted for its discipline until the economic and demographic crises of the 14th century brought about decline and difficulties, exacerbated by conflict and political instability in the Welsh Marches. The abbey was suppressed in 1536 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Substantial remains of the abbey church and monks' quarters remain and are in the care of English Heritage. Foundation Buildwas Abbey was a Cistercian house, although originally founded as a Savigniac monastery in 1135 by Roger de Clinton (1129–1148), Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. The short-lived Savigniac congregation was a reformed and ascetic branch of the Benedictine Order, centred on the Abbey of Savigny in Normandy, and dating only from 1112. Buildwas manor was land previously belonging to the diocese. In the Domesday Book the manor of Buildwas was assessed as one hide and was home to nine households, five of them headed by slaves, four by villeins and one by the reeve. It had a mill and woodland, with 200 pigs. It was then worth 45 shillings, as before the Norman Conquest of England, although the value had slipped a little in the intervening period. The dedication of the abbey was to St Mary and St Chad: the same as Lichfield Cathedral. The foundation charter itself has been lost, but a poor transcription survives among the manuscripts of Roger Dodsworth, now in the Bodleian Library. This was printed by Robert William Eyton, the great Shropshire antiquarian, who considered that the list of witnesses, including parties who were soon afterwards drawn into the civil strife of King Stephen's reign on opposing sides, was designed to suggest an early date for the document – an impression he considered false. The first abbot is named as Ingenulf. The transcript omits details of the bishop's grants to the new abbey. However, these are listed in a confirmation issued by Richard I. Like the transcript, this addresses Roger de Clinton as Bishop of Chester and states that his donation was of Buildwas itself, with its surrounding woodland, assarts and appurtenances; land at Meole, just south of Shrewsbury, with its burgesses and a due (tax) called greffegh; churchscot, a due for the support of the clergy, from the hundreds of Condover and Wrockwardine; et in territorio Licheffelddensi hominem unum nomine Edricum