Scheduled Ancient Monument: REMAINS OF HOXNE PRIORY AT ABBEY FARM (30602-01)

The monument, which is in two separate areas of protection, includes visible and buried remains of a Benedictine priory, located near the centre of the village of Hoxne. The road through the village runs along the western boundary of the monastic precinct and around the south western corner, and a track which runs eastward from the road defines the continuation of the southern boundary. The first area includes the south western part of the monastic precinct with the remains of a series of fishponds, and the second includes a small moated site in the north western part of the precinct. The priory was a cell of Norwich Priory, centred on the chapel of St Edmund, King of East Anglia. According to an early tradition, St Edmund was martyred in Hoxne in 869 and buried there for a time before his remains were transferred to the place now known as Bury St Edmunds around 903. The chapel was in existence in the 11th century and may have had pre-Conquest origins. According to the foundation charter of Norwich Priory, dated 1101, Bishop Herbert de Losinga, who had a manor at Hoxne, gave to the monks of that priory `the church of Hoxne and the chapel of St Edmund in the same village'. Evidently it was in poor repair, since around 1110-1119 Ralph Dapifer (Steward) of Bury St Edmunds and his wife were granted the chapel and some land adjacent for their lifetimes in order that they might restore and enlarge it. In 1130 Ralph's successor, Maurice of Windsor and his wife returned the chapel and land to the monks of Norwich Priory for the purpose of founding a monastery there, and in the charter which ratified this transfer it is recorded that Ralph had rebuilt the chapel from its foundations. According to the 18th century historian, Blomefield, the monks were housed at first in the bishop's palace at Hoxne and only removed to the site of the chapel around 1226, when the endowment and privileges of the priory were confirmed by Bishop Thomas Blumville. The site of the bishop's palace at that time is uncertain, but it has been suggested that it may have been next to the parish church, on the moated site now occupied by the vicarage, about 1km to the north. The priory was not finally completed until 1267, when the burial ground was consecrated by Bishop Roger de Skerning. Hoxne Priory was a small house of six or seven monks under a prior or warden who was appointed by the prior of Norwich. It held some land in Hoxne and elsewhere, but the principal part of its revenues, which in the 15th century were valued at 27 pounds, came from a manor in Yaxley and from the chapel in Ringshall, which came with 32 acres of land and tithes. Blomefield records that the monks kept a school and maintained two poor boys from Hoxne at their own expense. Shortly before the Dissolution of the Monasteries the last prior, William Castleton, conveyed the property of the cell to Sir Richard Gresham and the monks were recalled to Norwich. Details of the priory buildings and precinct are recorded in account rolls of Norwich Priory dating chiefly from the 14th and 15th centuries. In addition to the chapel the buildings comprised a hall subdivided by a parclose (screen) where the monks would have taken their communal meals, a parlour, a dormitory with a chamber over it, and offices including a kitchen, bakehouse, dairy and brewery. In the surrounding precinct were a malthouse, dovecote and stables, closes for threshing and winnowing, fishponds, a garden in the southern part, and a cemetery enclosed by a wall. There was also a cistern, presumably to collect water for domestic use, and a well known as St Edmund's Well. The only structure identified as being of medieval date and still standing above ground is in the southern part of the monument and comprises a flint rubble wall, which is Listed Grade II, approximately 40m in length and up to 3m high along the western precinct boundary to the south of the driveway to Abbey Farmhouse. This incorporates two blocked openings with pointed arches and evidently survived as the western wall of a building, perhaps also of medieval date, which is shown on an estate map of 1757 but had otherwise been demolished before 1840 when the tithe map was compiled. Dressed stone and architectural fragments from other monastic buildings have, however, been found on the site, and some have been incorporated in the walls of a post- medieval outbuilding. The principal monastic buildings were probably located in the vicinity of Abbey Farmhouse, which is a Listed Building Grade II* dated to around 1540 and standing approximately 50m to the east of the medieval wall. In the southern part of the precinct there are two roughly rectangular ponds. The first of these, which is situated approximately 45m to the south west of the house is largely silted, although seasonally water-filled. The second, some 60m SSE of the house, has maximum dimensions of approximately 15m by 15m and is said to be around 5m deep, the water level being about 1.5m below the surrounding surface. It is clay lined and thought to be spring fed, and it was probably constructed originally to supply and store water for domestic and agricultural use within the monastic precinct. About 20m to the north of the house is a well covered by a post-medieval well house. This is perhaps the well mentioned in the medieval records and it is included in the scheduling. The fishponds run in line northwards from the southern boundary of the monastic precinct, 125m east of and parallel to the western boundary. As recorded on old maps there were three narrow, rectangular ponds, linked end to end. The southernmost pond, which survives essentially intact, though silted, measures approximately 68m in length north-south by up 10m in width at the northern end and remains open to a depth of up to 2m. This is linked to the middle pond by a narrow channel which would probably have contained a sluice to control the flow of water between the two. The middle pond was originally L-shaped, measuring about 65m NNW-SSE with an arm extending westwards from the northern end for a distance of about 35m. This westward arm and the northern end of the north-south section have been infilled but will survive as buried features and are included in the scheduling. The part which remains open is water-filled and measures about 45m in length and 12m in width. The third pond, as recorded on old Ordnance Survey maps, was on the same alignment as the main arm of the middle pond and measured about 62m in length and 11m in width, with an outlet channel about 4m wide extending from the northern end for a distance of approximately 32m. The outlet channel and a small section of the northern end remain open but the rest has been infilled, although it, too, will survive as a buried feature and is included in the scheduling. The system is fed by an inlet at the southern end, probably from a nearby spring. The moated site in the second area of protection is identified as the probable site of the priory dovecote and is rectangular in plan, with overall dimensions of approximately 35m WSW-ENE by 32m. The moat, which is water- filled, is approximately 10m wide and surrounds a central island measuring about 15m WSW-ENE by 13m. On the tithe map of 1840 a broad projection, possibly the remains of a leat, is shown running north eastwards from the north east corner of the moat. This has been infilled but will survive as a buried feature and is included in the scheduling. Foundations are said to have been observed on the island, although the date of these has not been established. A number of features are excluded from the scheduling. These are: the house, the well house and all outbuildings together with a greenhouse and cold frame, garden walls other than the length of flint rubble wall described above, driveway surfaces and hard standings, paving, inspection chambers, a modern cistern at the northern end of the middle fishpond, service poles, modern fences and gates, a timber jetty at the side of the pond SSE of Abbey Farmhouse, and modern timber revetting on the outer edge of the southern arm of the moat; however the ground beneath all these features is included.