Bruern Explained

Official Name:Bruern
Static Image Name:Bruern Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 994180.jpg
Static Image Caption:House on the Bruern Abbey site
Coordinates:51.867°N -1.636°W
Os Grid Reference:SP2518
Population:62
Population Ref:(2001 Census)
Civil Parish:Bruern
Shire District:West Oxfordshire
Shire County:Oxfordshire
Region:South East England
Country:England
Post Town:Chipping Norton
Postcode District:OX7
Postcode Area:OX
Constituency Westminster:Witney

Bruern or Bruern Abbey is a hamlet and civil parish on the River Evenlode about 6miles north of Burford in West Oxfordshire. The 2001 Census recorded the parish population as 62.[1]

Cistercian Abbey

In 1147 Nicholas Basset founded a Cistercian Abbey here as a daughter house of Waverley Abbey in Surrey. The Abbey held property in west Oxfordshire, east Gloucestershire and at Priddy in Somerset. There seems to have been rebuilding work in the 13th century, as Henry III gave timber in 1232, and two altars were dedicated in 1250.[2] By 1291, the community was heavily in debt, and financial problems continued throughout the later middle ages. In 1382 the abbey also bought the manor of Fifield, Oxfordshire. In 1532 a scandal erupted when Abbot Macy was found to have purchased his office from Cardinal Wolsey with the promise of 250 marks and 280 oak trees from the abbey estates. His attempts to recoup the costs from the abbey's income led to his deposition as abbot. At the Valor Ecclesiasticus survey of 1535 there were fifteen monks, and the abbey had a net income of £124, making it one of the smaller houses. The abbey was dissolved in October 1536. After the dissolution, the Abbey became the property of Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell, Oxfordshire, ancestor of the Cope baronets.

In 1720 a baroque country house was built for the Cope family, possibly on the site of the former abbey. A Georgian cottage in the grounds of the house includes a three-bay vaulted chamber which may be a remnant of the original abbey buildings. Michael Bishop, Baron Glendonbrook, purchased the 18th-century property in 2012. The Abbey has been completely refurbished under his ownership, including the installation of "a large and impressive cantilever stone staircase and twenty-five kilometres of data cabling' as well as a 'large underground car park".[3]

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Area selected: West Oxfordshire (Non-Metropolitan District) . Neighbourhood Statistics

    Full Dataset View

    . . 24 March 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110622111017/http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/viewFullDataset.do;jsessionid=ac1f930b30d73ec370d62b6f4444bc01a4cf1c94ffa8?instanceSelection=03070&productId=779&$ph=60_61&datasetInstanceId=3070&startColumn=1&numberOfColumns=8&containerAreaId=790500&nsjs=true&nsck=true&nssvg=true&nswid=1020 . 22 June 2011 . dead . dmy-all.
  2. Book: Fawcett, Richard . The Cistercian Abbeys of Britain . Batsford . 1998 . Robinson . David . London . 74.
  3. Vickers . Alan . Sympathetic Refurbishment of Bruern Abbey . The Wychwood . 36 . 4 . October–November 2015