Cormeilles Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Cormeilles) was a Benedictine monastery in Cormeilles, Normandy, in what is now the commune of Saint-Pierre-de-Cormeilles, Eure, France. The buildings are now almost completely destroyed.

Dovecote at the site of Cormeilles Abbey

Foundation

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William FitzOsbern and Adeliza de Tosny founded the abbey[1] in around the year 1060, and endowed it richly with lands in England, after the Norman Conquest. He was buried there in 1071.[2] According to Ordericus Vitalis it was one of two religious foundations he established on his estates.[3] The other was the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Lyre.

Later history

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The abbey had fallen into disrepair by the fifteenth century. After a series of partial reconstructions, it was suppressed in 1779.[4]

The buildings are now almost completely destroyed, apart from the former abbot's house, the precinct wall and a dovecote.[4] A fragment of vaulting, possibly from a passageway in the cloister, survives in Chepstow Priory Church, displayed on the stump of its crossing tower.

Priories

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Chepstow Priory was dependent on Cormeilles, Chepstow having been one of FitzOsbern's grants.[5][6][7] Newent Priory, at Newent in Gloucestershire, was a cell of Cormeilles,[8] as was another priory at Kyre, Worcestershire.

The place name Place de Cormeilles in the historic centre of Chepstow commemorates the association of the two places.

References

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  1. ^ Lewis, C. P. (2004). "William fitz Osbern, earl". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9620. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ "Osbern". Dsnell.zynet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  3. ^ The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis (1980, OUP), p. 283, ISBN 978-0198222439
  4. ^ a b Base Mérimée: Abbaye de Bénédictins Notre-Dame, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
  5. ^ Janet E. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000-1300 (1994), p. 34. ISBN 978-0521377973
  6. ^ "St. Mary's Church". Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2019-05-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "Alien houses: The priory of Newent". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2019.

49°14′15″N 0°23′5″E / 49.23750°N 0.38472°E / 49.23750; 0.38472