Ramsey Abbey; Booth’s Hill; Ramsey the Rich; Ramsey the Golden.

• • • Ramsey, Cambridgeshire.
    • OSGB – TL 2918 8503
    • Scheduled Ancient Monument
    • Monument Number 871276
    • Gatehouse Grade I Listed Building.

Benedictine Monastery.

Mound to the south may be a Medieval earthwork built by Geoffrey de Mandeville.

Gatehouse once used as a prison.

969                       Founded. Site given by Ailwine to St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester.

991                       Visited by Bishop Oswald.

993-1008             Aednoth was Abbot of Ramsey. Killed at the Battle of Essenden.

1008-1016          Wulsi was Abbot of Ramsey.

1016-1020          Wythman was Abbot of Ramsey.

1020-1043          Ethelston was Abbot of Ramsey. Killed by an Irish servant.

1043-1080          Alfwin was Abbot of Ramsey.

1080-1087          Alsi was Abbot of Ramsey, previously of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury.

1087-1091          Herbert de Losinga was Abbot of Ramsey.

1091-1102          Aldwin was Abbot of Ramsey – the last English Abbot.

1102-1107          Bernard of St. Albans was Abbot of Ramsey.

1107-1111          Aldwin was Abbot of Ramsey.

1114-1133          Reginald was Abbot of Ramsey.

1133-1161          Walter was Abbot of Ramsey.

1143                      Seized by Geoffrey de Mandeville who evicted the monks and fortified it.

1154                     Repairs completed. They were need after damage caused by Geoffrey de Mandeville. Great Tower built.

1161-1178          William was Abbot of Ramsey.

1163                    Archbishop Thomas Becket obtained compensation for damage afflicted on the Abbey by Geoffrey de Mandeville, from his son.

1180                    Church of St. Thomas à Beckett was built.

1180-1200          Robert Trionell was Abbot of Ramsey.

1192                     New shrines to St. Felix, first Bishop of East Anglia and the two Saxon princes, St. Ethelred and St. Ethelbreth.

1200-1202          Eudo was Abbot of Ramsey.

1202-1214          Robert de Reading was Abbot of Ramsey.

1214-1216          Richard de Selby was Abbot of Ramsey.

1216-1231          Hugh Foliat was Abbot of Ramsey.

1231-1253          Ranulf was Abbot of Ramsey.

1253-1254          William de Akolt was Abbot of Ramsey.

1254-1267          Hugh de Sulgrave was Abbot of Ramsey.

1267-1285          William de Godmanchester (Gurmecestre) was Abbot of Ramsey.

1276                     New refectory completed by Abbot Hugh de Sulgrave.

1277                    Abbot Hugh de Sulgrave made a new water channel to the Abbey and built the Hall and South Gate.

1285-1316          John de Sawtry was Abbot of Ramsey.

13th C                  Gatehouse.

13th C                  Mid: Lady Chapel built or rebuilt.

1316-1342          Simon de Eye was Abbot of Ramsey.

1330                    Queen and princess Eleanor stayed for 2 days.

1330-1342          New Presbytery built by Abbot Simon de Eyre.

1334                     Edward III, his Queen and their household stayed for 14 days.

1342-1349          Robert de Nassington was Abbot of Ramsey.

1349-1379          Richard de Shenington was Abbot of Ramsey.

1379-1396          Edmund de Ellington was Abbot of Ramsey.

1381                     Attacked by peasants.

1396                     Land put aside for the rebuilding of the Lady Chapel.

1396-1418          Thomas Butterwick was Abbot of Ramsey.

14th C                   Special wardens maintained the Lady Chapel.

1419-1434          John Tychmerch was Abbot of Ramsey.

1434-1435          John Crowland was Abbot of Ramsey.

1435-1468          John Stow was Abbot of Ramsey.

1468-1473          William Whittlesey was Abbot of Ramsey.

1473-1489          John Warboys was Abbot of Ramsey.

1489-1506          John Huntingdon was Abbot of Ramsey.

15th C                  Gatehouse rebuilt.

1506-1507          Henry Stukeley was Abbot of Ramsey.

1507-1539          John Lawrence (alias Warboys) was Abbot of Ramsey.

1535                     Visited by Thomas Bedyll, one of Henry VIII’s commissioners.

1536                     Visited by Thomas Bedyll, one of Henry VIII’s commissioners.

1539                      Dissolved – Sir Richard Williams sold parts of it off for building materials.

16th C                   Gonville and Caius College, Kings College, and Trinity College were mostly built out of materials from the Abbey.

1600 c:                  Gatehouse converted into a house.

1627                      Sir Oliver Cromwell lived in the remainder of the house.

1804-1806          Gatehouse altered.

1839                    Gatehouse altered and enlarged.

1970                    Field Investigation.

1998                    Geophysical Survey by Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit.

2005-2006          Excavated by Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit.

References & Bibliography

Brayley. E. W. 1808. The Beauties of England and Wales: or Delineations, Topographical, Historical, And Descriptive, Of Each County. Volume 7. Available at http://books.google.com.au/books?id=7B5JAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Capper. B. J. 1825. A Topographical Dictionary of the United Kingdom. Available at http://books.google.com.au/books?id=OC87AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Clarke. H. 1984. The Archaeology of Medieval England. Blackwell, Oxford.

Cownie. E. 1998. Religious Patronage in Anglo-Norman England, 1066-1135. Boydell & Brewer Press.

Demarest. E. B. 1927.  ‘Consuetudo Regis’ in Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. The English Historical Review, Vol. 42, No. 166 (Apr., 1927), pp. 161-179.

DeWindt. A. R., & DeWindt. E. B. 2006. Ramsey: The Lives of an English Fenland Town, 1200–1600. The Catholic University of America Press.

Duchess of Cleveland. 1889. The Battle Abbey Roll with some accounts of the Norman Lineages. Vol III. William Clowes and Sons, London. Electronic edition Linton, MA, http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll3/chap02.htm.

Dugdale. W. 1676. The Baronage of England. T. Newcombe.

Fleming, R, 1998. Domesday Book and the Law: Society and Legal Custom in Early Medieval England. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Green. J. A. 1997. The Aristocracy of Norman England. Cambridge University Press.

‘Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of Ramsey’, in A History of the County of Huntingdon: Volume 1, ed. William Page, Granville Proby and H E Norris (London, 1926), pp. 377-385. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol1/pp377-385.

King. E. 1994. The Anarchy of King Stephen’s Reign. Oxford University Press.

King. V., & Stephen. E. J. 1974.: Government and Anarchy.  Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 201-217.

Lewis. C. P. 1989. The King and Eye: A Study in Anglo-Norman Politics. The English Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 412 (Jul., 1989), pp. 569-589.

Mooers. S. L. 1984. Patronage in the Pipe Roll of 1130. Speculum, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Apr., 1984), pp. 282-307.

Neilson. N. 1899. Economic Conditions on The Manors of Ramsey Abbey. Sherman & Co.

Nicholas. K., & Smith. D. M. 2006. English episcopal acta: Ely 1109-1197, Volume 31 of English Episcopal Acta, Ed Karn, N.. Oxford University Press.

Norgate. K. 1969. England under the Angevin Kings. Vol II. Burt Franklin.

Platt. C. 1995, Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to 1600 A.D. Routledge.

Poole. A. L. 1993. From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216. Oxford University Press.

Power. D. 2004. The Norman Frontier in The Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries. Cambridge University Press.

Rositzke. H. A. 1951. The Peterborough Chronicle: Translated with an Introduction. Columbia University Press.

Timbs. J., & Gunn. A. 2006. Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales – Their Legendary Lore and Popular History. Vol 2. Read Books.

Tymms. S. 1832. The Family Topographer; being a compendious account of the ancient and present state of the counties of England. Volume 1. Available at http://books.google.com.au/books?id=OC87AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false