The Anglo-Saxon monastery

Merewalh, ‘subking’ of Magonsaete, a subkingdom of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, founded the first monastery at Wenlock between 670 and 680.

Called Wimnicas, it was a ‘dual house’ – a community of both monks and nuns. Double monasteries of this type originated in France, and were not uncommon between the 7th and 9th centuries. At their head was an abbess, almost always of royal birth. Wenlock’s second abbess was Milburga, the daughter of Merewalh and his queen Domne Eafe, who was also an important founder of monasteries.  

The monks and nuns at Wenlock and other double monasteries had separate buildings, worshipping in their own churches. The monks’ church was located under the crossing of the later medieval monastery and the parish church stands on the site of the nuns’ church. It was here that Milburga was buried after her death in 715. 

Little else is known about the history of the Anglo-Saxon monastery. It is likely that it remained a dual house until the early 10th century: a charter of 901 says that Wenlock was a minister with a priest in charge. Its four female witnesses are likely to have been nuns. However, at some point in the 10th century, nuns ceased to be part of the community. Their church fell into ruins and the burial place of St Milburga was forgotten. 

Despite this, the male community continued to thrive. Earl Leofric of Mercia (d.1057) presented their church with ‘precious ornaments’.

The priory prospers

It was around 1100 that relics of St Milburga were rediscovered in the ruins of the former nuns’ church. They were moved, or translated, to the monks’ church. A life of Milburga was written by Goscelin de Saint-Bertin, a Benedictine monk famous for his hagiographies (idealised lives) of saints. Miraculous cures were attributed to St Milburga, including the healing of lepers and the restoration of sight to the blind.

The monastery was dedicated to St Michael and St Milburga and two feast or holy days were observed in her honour: 25 June and 23 February, the latter a ‘translation’ feast commemorating the moving of her relics to the priory church. Her relics were carried in procession outside the priory at Whitsuntide (the seventh week after Easter). 

Building works continued at the monastery. A new east end of the church was completed between 1180 and 1200, as was the magnificently sculpted ‘lavabo’ where the monks washed ceremonially before dining. Further gifts of land enhanced the priory’s wealth, and in 1167 it founded its own dependent priory at Church Preen, Shropshire.

Prior Humbert (r. 1221–61) served as an envoy to the Welsh on behalf of King Henry III, who stayed at Wenlock on several occasions in the 1230s. The king also favoured the priory with his patronage, making numerous gifts of timber from the royal forests for building work. This included a grant of oaks in 1233 for the ‘horologium’, probably a clock tower.

The priory’s final years

Richard Synger and his successor, Rowland Gosnell (r.1521–7), were responsible for the last major building works at Wenlock. Synger repaired the vault above the east end of the church, while Gosnell reglazed the nave, and both oversaw building works to other monastic buildings. 

Gosnell was clearly a learned man, composing a chronicle of the priors of Wenlock and ordering the writing of a new set of miracles of St Milburga. Two of six surviving books from Wenlock have his ownership inscription. He also secured permission from the pope to wear the mitre and other ornaments normally reserved for bishops, a much sought-after privilege at this time. 

Gosnell also tried to improve the quality of monastic observance at Wenlock, and forbade the monks to leave the monastery without permission, to hunt and to play dice. However, a faction of monks would not accept his authority. By 1527 he had been forced to resign, and was succeeded as prior by John Bayly.

Chapter house reconstruction by Martin Moss