We visited here while based in a log cabin in Sherwood. We were mainly looking for different fungi on this trip, so this visit combined an historic site, with some fungi hunting.
The former Augustinian abbey once belonged to Lord Byron and now has a Mixed Style romantic nineteenth century garden.
The priory of St. Mary of Newstead, a house of Augustinian Canons, was founded by King Henry II of England about the year 1170, as one of many penances he paid following the murder of Thomas Becket. Contrary to its current name, Newstead was never an abbey: it was a priory.
In the late 13th century, the priory was rebuilt and extended. It was extended again in the 15th-century, when the Dorter (A bedroom or dormitory, especially in a monastery.), Great Hall and Prior's Lodgings were added. The priory was designed to be home to at least 13 monks, although there appears to have been only 12 (including the Prior) at the time of the dissolution.
The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534 gave the clear annual value of this priory as £167 16s. 11½d. The considerable deductions included 20s. given to the poor on Maundy Thursday in commemoration of Henry II, the founder, and a portion of food and drink similar to that of a canon given to some poor person every day, valued at 60s. a year.
Despite the clear annual value of Newstead being below the £200 assigned as the limit for the suppression of the lesser monasteries, this priory obtained the doubtful privilege of exemption, on payment to the Crown of the heavy fine of £233 6s. 8d in 1537.
The surrender of the house was accomplished on 21 July 1539. The prior obtained a pension of £26 13s. 4d., the sub-prior £6, and the rest of the ten canons who signed the surrender sums varying from £5 6s. 8d. to £3 6s. 8d.
The lake was dredged in the late eighteenth century and the lectern, thrown into the Abbey fishpond by the monks to save it during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, was discovered. In 1805 it was given to Southwell Minster by Archdeacon Kaye where it still resides.
The value of these sums may seem small but they have to be multiplied by 300 (approx) to get today's value.
Satyr Pan - Classical Mythology. one of a class of woodland deities, attendant on Bacchus, represented as part human, part horse, and sometimes part goat and noted for riotousness and lasciviousness.
The Byron Oak, as it is known, was planted by the young George Byron, later to become one of Britain’s greatest poets, at Newstead Abbey, shortly after he inherited the estate from his great-uncle in 1798 at the age of 10. The oak, and the poem the Byron wrote about in 1807, tell a story that is eloquently relevant to oak collectors and indeed anyone involved with the planting of trees.
Brown Birch Bolette (Leccinum scabrum for Latin lovers) Seen in one of the gardens.
There were many fungi dotted about. This one appealed to me with the abbey as a backdrop
View along one of the paths to the abbey.
The stew ponds are believed to be medieval and to have been made by the monks. The large rectangular pond is believed to survive from the late 17th century garden. What is a stew pond? A stew pond or stew is a fish pond used to store live fish ready for eating. During the Middle Ages, stews were often attached to monasteries, to supply fish over the winter.
The gardens around the house were made by Mrs William Frederick Webb and her daughters between 1865 and 1900. They include a fern garden, a sub-tropical garden, a Spanish garden, a Japanese garden (c1900) and a rockery inspired by Benjamin Disreali's novel Venetia, which was set in Newstead Abbey. The Rose Garden was added by Nottingham City Council, in 1965, and occupies the old kitchen garden.
Dawn Redwood
Beautiful autumn colours.
Home
