Norman Rule

Monasteries were an important part of the Norman building programme in England. Sixteen monastic foundations in Herefordshire date from the period 1066-1200. The three largest monasteries in the county were Wigmore Abbey, Dore Abbey and Leominster Priory. 

The Augustinian Canons believed in living a life of service and good works, and often took over the responsibility for the parish churches. Their largest house in Herefordshire was Wigmore Abbey, which was founded in 1131 by Oliver de Merlimond, steward of Hugh Mortimer, following a pilgrimage he had undertaken to Santiago di Compostela in Spain (John Leonard, Churches of Herefordshire and their Treasures, Logaston Press, 2000, p. 83). 

Sometimes religious houses had problems. These could be of a financial nature, or perhaps discipline had been undermined. The monks may have lost interest in following the strict rules that governed their way of life. To prevent things from getting out of hand, the bishop would conduct an inspection, known as a visitation.  This is what happened at Wigmore Abbey when Bishop Orleton heard that things were not as they should be. From his report we can see that there were certainly problems. The Bishop made the abbot (the leader of the community) resign and appointed a new one. He also sent some of the worst troublemakers to live in other houses of the order (although it turns out that the other houses did not want them either). Then he gave the remaining canons (as Augustinian monks were known) a new set of rules to follow. They were not allowed to have pages (personal servants) or to own private horses, greyhounds, pigs or sheep. The fact that he spells this out means that the canons must certainly have been hunting, a form of entertainment not usually allowed. The canons must also have been overindulging because he forbade breakfast and limited the meals to two a day, to be taken together in the refectory (dining hall). Perhaps some of the canons were discovered to have been feasting on their pigs and sheep! (David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, Cambridge, 1956, p. 100)

As you can see, visitation records are excellent sources for the historian, and in Herefordshire we are lucky to have a set of bishop's registers in print at the Herefordshire Record Office.

By the beginning of the 12th century many religious orders had become very rich and powerful, and a movement for reform had sprung up. Several new orders were established, three of which had properties in Herefordshire. The Tironensians established a cell at Titley, the Grandmontine order had a priory at Craswall and the Cistercians founded Dore Abbey.

The largest monasteries were usually known as abbeys because their leaders were known as abbots or abbesses. These large abbeys often established priories or small cells in areas far removed from the mother-house. Sometimes monastic orders were given gifts of land or estates which needed some form of supervision. It was not unusual for knights from England to give land to French monasteries. The Benedictine Abbey of Conches in Normandy, for example, set up a cell for only two or three monks at Monkland.

Dore Abbey, a Cistercian foundation, was a daughter house of Morimond on the French border with Lorraine (Germany). This Cistercian Abbey was founded by Robert, the grandson of Lord Ralph of Ewyas, in 1147. (A good source of further information about this interesting abbey and its religious order is Ron Shoesmith and Ruth Richardson (eds.), A Definitive History of Dore Abbey, Logaston Press, 1997.) Dore Abbey itself founded three daughter houses, with varying degrees of success. One of these, Grace Dieu, a few miles west of Monmouth, was founded in 1226 but completely destroyed by Welsh forces in 1233 - a reflection of the perils facing people living in the Marches. Another daughter house, Vale Royal in Cheshire, has a royal connection. When Prince Edward, later Edward I, was imprisoned in Hereford during the Barons' Revolt of 1265, he was cared for by monks from Dore Abbey. Grateful for their kindness, he later provided the means whereby this daughter house could be founded. (D.H. Williams, "The Abbey of Dore", in Shoesmith and Richardson (eds.), A Definitive History of Dore Abbey, p. 22)

[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2002-3]