Name: FLAXLEY Location: Forest
of Dean, nr Cindeford County: Gloucestershire Foundation: 1151 Mother house: Bordesley Relocation: None Founder: Roger de Fitzwalter, earl
of Hereford Dissolution: 1536 Prominent members: Access: Private property
This abbey was founded by Roger, son of Miles
Fitzwalter, earl of Hereford, in 1151. The site, located in the
forest of Dean, was chosen to mark the spot where his father had
been killed in a hunting accident in 1143.(1) The
first monks arrived
from Bordesley Abbey in Worcestershire,
which was founded in 1138. Between 1151 and 1154 Roger's grants
were confirmed by
Henry,
duke of Normandy and count of Anjou, and reconfirmed
in 1158, following Henry's succession to the throne of England.
Henry II also gave the monks the right take wood and other
building material from
the forest, which was a royal prerogative.(2) In
1234 Flaxley abbey was
used as a safe haven against the Crown when the rebels who had
supported Richard Marshal against Henry III sought refuge here.
Flaxley
was never a wealthy monastery, although it did have a library of
considerable
size, housing almost a hundred books at the beginning of the thirteenth
century.(3) The survey of 1535
valued the annual income at £112,
and the abbey was dissolved with the smaller monasteries in 1536.(4) It
seems that at the time of the Dissolution the abbey
was already in partial ruin, with the church damaged by fire.
During
the late
1530s the abbey was converted into a house and the gateway chapel
became a local church. The small country house, which takes is
name
from the abbey, still occupies the site today and the chapel is
now the parish church of St. Marys. The house is privately
owned and is not open to the public but the general layout of
the
site can be appreciated from St. Marys churchyard.(5)