HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS
12. THE ABBEY OF FLAXLEY
The Cistercian monastery of Flaxley, sometimes called Dean, was founded between 1151
and 1154 by Roger, son of Milo Fitzwalter, earl
of Hereford. (fn. 1) According to tradition he chose
as a site the spot on which his father had been
killed while hunting in 1143. (fn. 2) Between 1151
and 1154 Henry, duke of Normandy and count
of Anjou, confirmed to the monks of the Cistercian Order the grants which Roger, earl of
Hereford, had made to them according to the
tenor of their charter, viz. a place in the valley of
Castiard, the land called Westdean, a forge at
Edland, all the land under the old castle of Dean
which remained to be assarted, and the assarts, a
fishery at Rodley called Newerre, a meadow in
Pulmede, all easements in the Forest of Dean,
all the demesne of Dymock, and the lands belonging to Walfric, half the wood at Dymock,
all the tithes of chestnuts in Dean, the lands of
Geoffrey son of Walfric and of Leofric de Staura,
which the earl of Hereford released. (fn. 3) It is clear
from this charter that the site had been given
but the buildings, even if they had been begun,
were not sufficiently advanced for habitation.
There was as yet no convent of monks at Flaxley,
and Henry therefore confirmed the grant to the
Cistercian Order. There can be little doubt
that the first monks of Flaxley came from Bordesley in Worcestershire, which had been founded
in 1138. (fn. 4) In 1158 Henry II gave the monks
of Flaxley a charter confirming his former grant. (fn. 5)
In aid of the building which was in progress
Henry II granted the right of taking wood and
other materials without committing waste in the
forest. (fn. 6) The monks had already built for the
lay brothers granges at Westdean and Wallmore,
where the king had given them 200 acres of his
assarts, with meadows and pastures. They had
the right of common of pasture for their cattle,
swine, and all other beasts within the forest.
When the visitors of the order came to England
in 1187 Abbot Waleran resigned, and Alan, a
monk of Bordesley, was elected in his stead. (fn. 7)
Towards the end of the twelfth century the
abbot and convent were rapidly increasing their
possessions. Many of these lay in the parish of
Westbury-on-Severn, which was only two miles
from Flaxley. (fn. 8) Like other houses of the Cistercian Order, Flaxley was exempted by papal bulls
from the payment of tithes from land which they
brought into cultivation or cultivated at their own
expense, and of all tithes of the young of their
animals. (fn. 9) It was a privilege which pressed hard
on the parish priests. Diminishing tithes probably kindled the bitter animosity of Walter
Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford (ob. circa 1210),
who, amongst other preferments, held the rectory
of Westbury-on-Severn. (fn. 10) The abbot and convent of Flaxley were willing to pay sums of ready
money and take lands for a term of years in
pledge. In 1195 Walter Mapes witnessed an
agreement by which Philip de Dunie pledged
lands in Westbury for terms of eight and twelve
years for 4 marks down. (fn. 11) As the monks of
Flaxley were sheep farmers, it was obviously to
their advantage to secure fresh pastures; the
wool trade was a great source of profit, and
money in hand allowed them to make bargains
profitable to themselves. A notable case occurs
in the acquisition of land at Ragel, afterwards
called Rochelbury. In 1193 Philip de Burci
gave all his land at Ragel to William de St.
Leger in perpetuity at a fee farm rent of 2s. (fn. 12)
As his part of the bargain William de St. Leger
paid a debt of 87½ marks which Philip de Burci
owed to Manasser, a Jew of Bristol, gave him
15 marks down, and paid the rent for three years
in advance. William de St. Leger granted the
land to the abbot and convent of Flaxley to be
held at 2/3 of a knight's fee, and for a yearly rent
of 2s., which after thirty-one years had elapsed
was to be paid, with an additional 2s., to Philip
de Burci and his heirs. At the time of this
grant the abbot and convent gave 20 marks to
William de St. Leger, and he expressly stated
that he paid the debts of Philip de Burci to
Manasser the Jew, out of the money of the
monks of Flaxley.
In 1193 Abbot Alan obtained a bull from
Pope Celestine III confirming the liberties and
immunities which his predecessors had granted to
Flaxley. (fn. 13) As a Cistercian house, Flaxley was
exempt from the visitation of the bishops of
Hereford.
In the exercise of their privileges in the Forest
of Dean, the abbot and convent came into conflict
with the keeper, the constable of St. Briavel's
Castle. Mandates were sent to him by Henry III
in 1226, in 1231, and again in 1232 and 1234,
to allow the abbot and convent of Flaxley to have
all their rights of common of pasture. (fn. 14) In 1217
the constable of St. Briavel's was ordered to allow
them to take timber according to their charters. (fn. 15)
In lieu of the right to take fuel for their use
throughout the forest, in 1227 Henry III granted
the woods around the abbey, strictly defining
their bounds. (fn. 16) Henry II, by the charter of
1158, had allowed the monks to set up their
forge where they willed, (fn. 17) and they had secured
the right of taking two dry oaks for fuel for
the forge every week. (fn. 18) It was represented to
Henry III that this was greatly to the detriment
of the forest, and in 1258, after an inquisition,
he withdrew the privilege and gave them instead
the 'abbot's' woods. (fn. 19)
In 1234, on the occasion of the movement
against Henry III's foreign favourites, the
monastery was embarrassed by the presence of
the followers of Richard Earl Marshal who had
taken refuge there. (fn. 20) On 6 March Henry III
commanded the sheriff of Gloucester to take
with him the constable of St. Briavel's and the
king's coroners of the county, and go to the
abbey of Flaxley to offer to persons there who
were against the king that they should come out
to stand their trial or else abjure the kingdom.
The sheriff's men, armed with bows and
hatchets, kept watch around the abbey and took
fuel in the abbot's woods. The constable of
St. Briavel's seized the abbot's horses, and was
in consequence excommunicated by Hugh Foliot,
bishop of Hereford. On 20 March Henry III
sent a mandate to the constable to deliver up the
horses, and to the bishop to remove the excommunication. On 28 March he ordered the
constable to recompense the abbot for his burnt
hedges, and commanded that the keepers of
Richard Marshal's servants should remain outside, not inside, the gates of the monastery.
The revenues of Flaxley were never large,
and in 1276 it was one of the poorer houses of
the southern province, assessed only to pay £8
towards the 'courtesy' of £1,000 to Edward I,
when Kingswood paid £13 16s. and Hayles
£14 13s. 4d. (fn. 21) Like a number of other Cistercian
monasteries, (fn. 22) it was heavily in debt. Building
was going on in the reign of Henry III, for on
several occasions the king granted oaks for the
church and buildings of the abbey. (fn. 23) In 1277
Edward I appointed his steward, Ralph of
Sandwich, to the custody during pleasure, of the
abbey of Flaxley, because it was in debt to the
king for a considerable sum, and would so continue for a long time, also on account of a loan
contracted in the Jewry and elsewhere, and of
various immense debts to merchants alien and
denizen, and others. (fn. 24) In 1281 the king issued a
mandate to Grimbold Pauncefort, the keeper of
the Forest of Dean, to take the abbey of Flaxley
under his special protection for three years,
because it was burdened with debt and impoverished both by murrain among the sheep,
upon which the monks mainly depended for
their subsistence, as well as by sheriffs, bedels,
foresters, and others consuming their goods by
faculties, so that the abbey could no longer
perform its customary distribution of alms or
other works of mercy, and the monks were in
danger of dispersion. He was bidden to apply
the revenues thereof to the use of the said abbey,
except such as were necessary for the maintenance of the abbot and convent and their households, and for the distribution of alms to the poor. (fn. 25)
The situation appears to have been one of special
difficulty, and two years later Edward I gave the
custody of Flaxley to Thomas de Basing, a
citizen of London, bidding him apply the issues
to the satisfaction of the multifarious and
immense debts of the house. (fn. 26) A great murrain
among sheep began in 1276 and lasted for several
years. (fn. 27) The debts of Flaxley probably prevented
the convent from restocking their pastures, and
perhaps explain the fact that about the beginning
of the fourteenth century the annual average
sales of wool amounted only to six sacks a year,
the prices varying from 15 to 8½ marks a sack,
when Kingswood was selling forty sacks and
Hayles twenty sacks. (fn. 28)
In 1335 misrule as well as misfortune brought
the monastery once more into grievous pecuniary
difficulties. Edward III gave the custody of
Flaxley during his pleasure to the abbots of
Bordesley and Dore, and the prior of the house. (fn. 29)
In 1353, in consideration of the great losses
which the abbot and convent had sustained from
the deer and other wild beasts of the forest, and
from the expense incurred by many visits from
the king, Edward III granted a yearly payment
of £36 9s. 1d. out of the rents of newly assarted
crown lands in the Forest of Dean. (fn. 30)
As one of the lesser monasteries Flaxley came
under the Act of 1536. On 4 September a
commission was issued for a survey of all those
monasteries in Gloucestershire of which the
revenues fell below £200 a year, with a view
of taking them over on the king's behalf. (fn. 31) The
commissioners reported that at Flaxley there
were seven monks, all priests, 'by report of
convenient conversation.' (fn. 32) Three of them desired to have 'capacities' that they might hold
benefices, the other four wished to continue in
religion. There was one lay brother, and the
household consisted of eighteen servants. The
house itself was in ruin and decay, and the
church had been destroyed by fire; the bells had
been melted and the metal sold for the restoration of the building. There is no evidence to
show how soon afterwards the house was dissolved; on 21 March, 1537, the site and possessions of the late monastery were granted to Sir
William Kingston. (fn. 33) The abbot, Thomas Were,
retired to Aston Rowant in Oxfordshire. (fn. 34) Under
the Act pensions were only provided for heads
of houses; in the case of the Cistercian monasteries the monks who wished to continue in
religion were usually received into the larger
houses of the order, when possible into the
mother house. (fn. 35) Nothing is known of the fate
of the four monks of Flaxley who did not seek
'capacities.' Possibly they were received at
Bordesley.
In 1535 the clear yearly value of the property
was £112 3s. 1d. (fn. 36) The possessions of the
monastery in Gloucestershire included the manors
of Blaisdon, Wallmore, and divers lands and rents
in Newnham, Polton, Howle, Goodrich, Climperwell, Arlingham, Dymock, Newland, Coleford, Staunton, and Little Dean, and the manor
of Rochelbury, in Somerset. (fn. 37)
Abbots of Flaxley (fn. 38)
Waleran, resigned 1187
Alan, el. 1187
Richard, el. circa 1200
William, el. Feb. 1277 (?)
Nicholas, 1288
William de Rya, 1314
Richard Peyto, 1372
William, 1426
— Berkeley, occurs 1476
John, el. 1509
William Beawdley, 1528
Thomas Were, 1532
The abbot's seal, (fn. 39) attached to a deed dated
1316, is in shape a pointed oval, and represents
an abbot standing erect under a canopy, slightly
ornamented, with a pastoral staff in his right hand,
and holding with his left a book on his breast.
The legend is:—
S. ABBATIS DE FLAXLE.
The counterseal represents a hand with a pastoral staff and other ornaments, and the legend is—
CONTA SIGILL' ABBATIS DE FLAXLE.