Denny Abbey
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Denny Abbey is a former abbey near Waterbeach, six miles (10 km) north of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. The site, on an ancient road between Cambridge and Ely, was settled by farmers as early as the Roman period. A group of Benedictine monks, governed from Ely, moved here from their waterlogged monastery at Elmeney (a vanished settlement about a mile to the northeast) in the 1150s, at the suggestion of Duke Conan IV of Britanny. They built a church, Denny Priory, which opened in 1159. The crossing and transepts are the only parts of the original Priory that remain today. In 1169 the monks returned to Ely and the site was handed to the Knights Templar. The Templars built a number of additions, including a large Norman-style arched doorway and an infirmary. By the 1290s the Knights had lost their power, and in 1308 King Edward II had the entire order arrested and imprisoned, confiscating their property. Denny was given to the Hospitallers, who took no active interest in the property.
In 1324 (or 1327) King Edward III gave the Priory to his relative, Mary de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke (died 1377), who built accommodation for herself there. She gave the remainder of the Priory to a Franciscan order of nuns, the order of Saint Clare, also known as the Poor Clares, who were moved from their flood-prone Priory in the nearby village of Waterbeach. Denny Priory was expanded into an Abbey during this period, with comfortable quarters for the Countess above spartan accommodation for the nuns. The abbey was closed in 1539, shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and was taken by the Crown. Its transept and choir were retained as a farmhouse, and the refectory as a barn, but the nave was demolished. In 1628 the abbey passed into private ownership. Pembroke College, Cambridge, which had also been founded by the Countess of Pembroke in 1347, bought the site in 1928.
The abbey and its land remained a farm until they were given in 1947 to the Ministry of Works, which later transferred them to English Heritage. The abbey, partially restored in the 1980s, is now open to the public, and the former farm buildings have been converted into a museum of farming and local history which opened in 1997. The museum houses old farm tools and machinery, and a collection of rare breeds of farm animals.
Note: The spellings Denny and Denney appear with equal frequency in the historical literature. The former spelling seems to be in favour at the time of writing, and has been used throughout this article for consistency.
References
- Denny Abbey Guide, English Heritage 1990, ISBN 1850742634
- Liber Eliensis, charter 141, 1133-1169 (a translation into English, ISBN 1843830159, is in preparation)