The Ruins of Gracedieu Priory




The ruins of Gracedieu priory



(Photo by J Ryce)


The priory ruins of Gracedieu are located about a mile north-east of Thringstone, in a field close to the A512 road which runs to Loughborough. The ruins are a nationally significant Scheduled Ancient Monument, being a rare example of an Augustinian nunnery dating from the thirteenth century. The site has become renowned for its supposed haunting by a woman in white.

The area contains much of ecological interest with an ancient water meadow and an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) is nearby. Also running through the site are the remains of the transport revolution in the shape of an old canal and the disused railway line. The site is also currently subject to some fascinating archaeological research

GRACEDIEU PRIORY : HISTORY The priory was founded in 1239/40 by Roesia de Verdun for fourteen Augustinian nuns and their prioress. Roesia was buried here in 1247, though at the time of the dissolution some three hundred years later, her remains were exhumed and re-interred in nearby Belton Church. Here her alabaster tomb effigy is well preserved in the North aisle.

Gracedieu standing stone

Above: Standing stone near Gracedieu Priory, 2003

(Photo by Geoff Walker)


One theory about why the nunnery was founded at this particular spot comes from the discovery of a standing stone on the opposite side of the brook, which at one time would have been within the priory complex.
The stone is nearly a yard high and leans to the south; a flat side aligns east-west and a notch in the top, possibly man-made, aligns north-south. The stone appears to be a conglomerate, commonly known as a 'pudding stone' or 'breeding stone', the latter term said to have been derived from the once popular belief that stones grew in the ground.

Archaeological work seems to suggest that the stone is one of fourteen arranged in an elliptical circle which, during the dark ages, would have been very important to local people.

With the rapid spread of Christianity during the middle ages however, the church was keen to either obliterate such remnants of previous beliefs or to incorporate them into their faith. It is possible that the stones which may have formed this circle were destroyed at ground level by building fires around them and then breaking them off. Fragments are still believed to exist under the surface following geophysical research carried out in the area.


Gracedieu standing stone

(Photo by Bob Trubshaw)


Engraving, 1794

Engraving, 1794


It is possible that this 1794 sketch of the Priory was made from the towpath of the Charnwood Forest Canal, which was opened in the same year.

It is not known how exactly how many occupants would have lived at the Priory at any one time during its three hundred year span as a religious house, but it appears to have been a thriving business community.
Nearby lime reserves would have been a great boost to the priory's economy as it would have been used in the production of glass-ware which has been found near the site. Tokens have also been found by archaeologists which would have been used as a type of money to buy and sell goods at the nunnery

In 1536 the prioress, Agnes Litherland, received a licence from the King allowing the foundation to continue, and the convent was re-established "in perpetuity". However, just three years later, in 1539, the poor nuns were turned out, the prioress receiving a scant compensation of just sixty shillings.
One of the commissioners was John Beaumont of Thringstone, who took advantage of his position by buying up Gracedieu at his own valuation. He converted part of the priory buildings into a residence so that the ruins we have today are partly medieval but mainly domestic Tudor (e.g. fireplaces and chimney stacks). Beaumont became Master of the Rolls in 1550, where again he abused his position for personal gain. His misbehaviour at the Treasury uncovered, his estates were surrendered to the King in 1552.

In 1553, Gracedieu was granted to Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, though the widow of John Beaumont regained possession in 1574 and from her it passed to her son, Sir Francis Beaumont, whose third son Francis, born at Gracedieu in c 1584, was the famous playwright. Gracedieu's association with Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, is referred to in Wordsworth's tribute of 1811, carved in stone in the gardens of nearby Coleorton Hall, which succeeded Gracedieu as the Beaumonts' family seat.

Wordsworth wrote...
"The ivied ruins of forlorn Grace Dieu; erst a religious house which day and night with hymns resounded, and the chanted rite, And when those rites had ceased, the spot gave birth to honourable men of various worth. There on the margin of a streamlet wild (Gracedieu brook) did Francis Beaumont sport an eager child."
Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, died in 1616 aged just thirty-two and was buried in Westminster Abbey.


Engraving, 1730

Engraving, 1730


Gracedieu remained in the Beaumont family until it was purchased in 1690 by Sir Ambrose Phillips of Garendon, a wealthy Leicestershire landowner. His occupancy was only brief, though not brief enough to prevent him from pulling down most of the remaining nunnery church in 1696. A descendant of Phillips built Gracedieu Manor in 1833 - 35, close to the ruins, and which is now a Roman Catholic preparatory school. By 1730 Gracedieu was long-abandoned and in ruins. Since then, the extent of the decay that has been wrought with the passage of two hundred and seventy winters can be clearly traced in a pictoral record of the site, made up of successive drawings and photographs. The ruins are now in a critical condition and in the second part of this presentation we will be looking at exactly what efforts are now being made in order to preserve them.


From the railway emankment, May 2001

Above: Gracedieu Priory Ruins seen from the railway embankment, May 1st 2001.

(Photo by Steve Badcock)


GRACEDIEU PRIORY TRUST HOMEPAGE


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