Butley Priory
Butley Priory, sometimes called Butley Abbey, was a religious house of Canons regular in Butley, Suffolk, dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary. It was founded in 1171 by Ranulf de Glanville, Chief Justiciar to King Henry II, and was the sister foundation to Ranulf's house of White canons at Leiston Abbey, a few miles to the north, founded c. 1183. Butley Priory was suppressed in 1538.
Although only minor fragments of the priory church and some masonry of the convent survive at Abbey Farm, the underground archaeology was expertly investigated and interpreted in 1931-33, shedding much light on the lost buildings and their development. The remaining glory of the priory is its 14th-century Gatehouse, incorporating the former guest quarters. This exceptional building, largely intact, reflects the interests of the manorial patron Guy Ferre the younger, Seneschal of Gascony to King Edward II 1308-1309, and was probably built in the priorate of William de Geytone. Having fallen into decay after 1538, it was restored to use as a private house about 280 years ago.
Near-complete lists of the priors survive from 1171 to 1538, together with foundation deeds, deeds of grant, and records pertaining to the priory's manors, holdings and visitations. In addition there is a Register or Chronicle made in the last decades of the priory, and there are sundry documents concerning its suppression. Its post-Dissolution history has also been investigated. In private ownership in the area of the Suffolk Heritage Coast, the Gatehouse is now a Grade I listed building and is used as a venue for private functions, corporate events or retreats.
Foundation
The founders
Butley Priory was founded at the time when nearby Orford Castle was being built by King Henry II to consolidate his power in Suffolk, a region dominated by Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk. Ranulf de Glanvill, born in Stratford St Andrew, Sheriff of Yorkshire from 1163 to 1170, was loyal to the king, and married Bertha, daughter of Theobald de Valoines, Lord of Parham. He became mentor to the King's son, John, and to Hubert Walter, son of his wife's sister Maud de Valoines. A kinsman, Bartholomew de Glanvill, was Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1169, and Constable of Orford Castle. Hugh Bigod's widowed countess, Gundred, was the founder of Bungay Priory, and remarried to Roger de Glanvill; Ranulf witnessed the royal confirmation.The site of Butley Priory, on rising ground overlooking wetland levels fed by waters tributary to the tidal Butley River, was an estate called Brochous, granted as maritagium to Bertha de Valoines by her father Theobald. This part of Butley lies in the Hundred of Plomesgate: at the Domesday Survey of 1086 it formed a manor held by one Hamo from Count Alan, presumably part of the de Valoines tenure which from Parham owed service to the Honour of Richmond.
Ranulf founded the house in 1171 for 36 canons under a prior, for whom he selected Gilbert, formerly a precentor at Blythburgh Priory. Ranulf endowed it with the churches of Butley, Capel St Andrew, Bawdsey, Benhall, Farnham, Wantisden, Leiston and Aldringham, and a fourth part of the church of Glemham, together with various lands in Butley. Ranulf and Bertha also founded a leper hospital at West Somerton in Norfolk, for three lepers, dedicated to St Leonard, and placed it under the governance of Butley Priory.
Ranulf was Sheriff of Lancashire and Keeper of the Honour of Richmond at the time of the Revolt of 1173-74, and, following the defeat of Hugh Bigod at the Battle of Fornham in 1173, Glanvill surprised the Scots at the Battle of Alnwick in 1174 and made William the Lion the king's prisoner. Resuming office as Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1175, he became Chief Justiciar in 1180. Butley seems to have held the advowson of St Olave Jewry with St Stephen Coleman Street, in London, from the Canons of St Paul's Cathedral by 1181. So it is shown in the accounts of Ralph de Diceto, who later made a grant of them to Butley, out of the fee of Ranulf's son-in-law Ralph de Ardern, acknowledged under the seal of Prior Gilbert.
Being granted the manor of Leiston, a few miles north of Butley, Ranulf founded the Premonstratensian Abbey there c. 1183 under Prior Robert, on a marshland isle near the sea. Among its endowments was the church of Knodishall, which with the assent of Gilbert and Robert was transferred to Butley Priory in exchange for their churches of Leiston and Aldringham. Ranulf died at the Siege of Acre in 1190, having divided his estates between his three daughters. In the descent of Bertha's maritagium to her heirs in blood, the patronage of the two convents passed with the manor of Benhall to Matilda, and to her husband William de Auberville of Westenhanger in Kent.
The patronage, 1190-1300
William and Matilda de Auberville founded Langdon Abbey, a Premonstratensian house near West Langdon, Kent, in 1192, as from Leiston Abbey: the foundation was given under the hand of Abbot Robert of Leiston and attested by Prior Gilbert of Butley. In 1194 Matilda's nephews, Thomas de Ardene and Ranulf fitz Robert, brought suit against the de Aubervilles for their share of Glanville's inheritance: William de Auberville died c. 1195, and his heirs became wards of Hubert Walter. In c. 1195 Butley elected its second prior, William, a choice confirmed by Pope Celestinus III who granted them the perpetual right of free election.Philippa Golafre quitclaimed half the Hundred of Plomesgate to Hugh de Auberville, heir of William and Matilda, at Easter 1209. Hugh died c. 1212, whereupon William Briwere paid 1000 marks for custody of his lands, his heirs and their marriages. In 1213 Prior Robert received the advowson of the church of Weybread from Alan de Withersdale. Hugh's brother Robert de Auberville became a justiciar and constable of Hastings Castle during the 1220s. Joan de Auberville, wife of Ralph de Sunderland, held Benhall in 1225, but with the patronage of Butley Priory it descended to Hugh's son William. The Prior Adam, who carried through a painful dispute with the prioress of Campsey Priory in 1228-1230, probably hosted Henry III's visit in March 1235. William de Auberville attempted to assert rights of advowson at Butley Priory, but was successfully resisted, and came to a concord by which he quitclaimed advowson to the prior and convent and renounced rights of wardship during vacancy. At much the same time his kinsman Robert de Valoines did the same for Campsey Priory.
William died before 28 January 1248, and soon afterwards, 30 March to 1 April, the King visited both Leiston and Butley. William's daughter and heir Joan de Auberville married first Henry de Sandwich, and secondly Nicholas de Crioll of Croxton Kerrial, to whom she brought the Westenhanger estates. In dealing with her inheritance, at assizes of 1258 they claimed from Joan's mother Isabel two parts of the manor of Benhall with its appurtenances. In this interval were Priors Peter and Hugh, and after it came Prior Walter. Butley received an advowson in Essex in 1261 from Robert de Stuteville, and another in Norfolk from Lady Cassandra Baynard in 1268.
Nicholas de Crioll gave Benhall with its appurtenances to his son Nicholas the younger, and consented when the heir settled it in lifetime dower upon his bride Margery, daughter of Sir Gilbert Pecche. Prior Robert, who succeeded Walter, had given way to the troubled Prior Thomas by 1277/78. Margery was living when in c. 1290 her husband gave the manor and its appurtenances to Guy Ferre the younger, who for this concord gave to de Crioll a Sore-hawk. Nicholas de Crioll the younger, who died in 1303, retained his patronage of Langdon Abbey.
The Priory church and cloister ranges
Excavations in 1931-1933 in and around the farm, led by J.N.L. Myres, revealed much about the layout and phases of development of the priory church and claustral buildings, which had been on a grand scale. The rectangular area now occupied by farm buildings was the site of the central complex and contains some standing remains of the Refectory or Frater on the south side, and of the Reredorter on the east side. The central tower of the priory church was still standing when an engraving of the Gatehouse was made in 1738, and sizeable parts of the church's eastern works remained before being removed in c. 1805.In addition to foundations and buried walls, the excavators found a large number of decorative tiles of various kinds. They belonged to different periods of building. Of special note were several examples of 13th century "embossed" tiles, about 5 inches square and an inch thick, with striking designs of symmetrical interlacing foliage and winged heraldic animals under clear green glaze. These had been pressed from moulds shaping the images in rounded bas-relief. Others of later types, some still in their original floor positions, were of pressed heraldic, geometric or foliate designs in a red clay matrix with white ball clay infilling, or in some cases painted in slip, before glazing. They show that the convent church and cloisters were not visually austere. The early embossed tiles have been found at related sites including Orford, Leiston Abbey and Campsey Priory, and the later types are also characteristically East Anglian. The Butley tiles are a core reference collection in developing knowledge of this subject.
The priory church
Myres believed that the plan of the priory complex was laid out in the founding phase, but that the only masonry construction belonging to Ranulf's time was represented by the footings of the original church, later rebuilt. With a large west doorway, its nave was 132 feet long and 34 feet wide, without aisles, opening into a crossing with north and south transepts each about 28 feet square. This stood across the open area just north of the old farm buildings. The presbytery, also without aisles, extended some distance eastwards across the present farm track towards the cottages and lane opposite, but later rebuilding and digging had removed its footprint.In the second phase of patronage, c. 1190-1240, the church was almost entirely rebuilt. The eastern end of the church was enlarged to some 70 feet east of the crossing, probably forming five bays, with choir aisles, probably of four bays, to north and south. The north transept was extended 12 feet northwards, and small outer chapels were added to the east side of both transepts. The nave was rebuilt with 10-foot aisles on both north and south sides, the eight columns of the nine nave arcades resting on the former nave footings. New substantial piers were built for the crossing, no doubt to support the tower above. The west wall was completely rebuilt two feet east of its former position. A turret staircase is thought to have existed at the north-west corner. The church was thus some 235 feet in overall length.
During the 14th century the choir aisles were rebuilt to the full width of the transepts, and to a length of five bays. The east walls of the transepts were replaced, each containing a single arch. A beautifully carved piscina of this date, thought to have come from the priory church, is preserved in the Gatehouse. The south choir aisle contained a number of important burials in stone coffins.