Redlingfield Priory was a medieval nunnery in Redlingfield, Suffolk, England. It was closed in the 1530s. The last prioress, Grace Samson, was awarded a pension, and the estate was given or sold to Sir Edmund Bedingfield.[1]

The priory was founded by Emma de Arras, Countess of Guisnes, a daughter of the Lord of Redlingfield, after the Norman Conquest in 1120.[2] There are some remains, including fish ponds and a building that is now a barn.[3] When the priory closed, its property included an antiphoner, a gradual, an organ in the quire of the priory chapel. There were six nuns, two priests, two shepherds or hinds, and four female servants.[4]

Some of the lead used to roof the priory was sold to Sir Anthony Denny, and Edmund Bedingfield disputed his rights to lead remaining at Redlingfield.[5] More lead from Redlingfield was acquired by Nicholas Bacon for his building projects.[6]

The parish church, which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times,[7] is thought to have been used by nuns.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Marilyn Oliva, The Convent and the Community in Late Medieval England: Female Monasteries in the Diocese of Norwich (Boydell, 1998), p. 196: Joan Thirsk, Chapters from the Agrarian History of England and Wales, 2 (Cambridge, 1990), p. 106.
  2. ^ Vivien Brown, Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters, 2 (Boydell: Suffolk Record Society, 1994), p. 6.
  3. ^ Redlingfield Nunnery and fish ponds, Historic England
  4. ^ Mackenzie Walcott, 'Inventories of Religious Houses at the Dissolution', Archaeologia, 43 (1871), p. 245.
  5. ^ John Caley, Henry Ellis, Bulkeley Bandinel, Monasticon Anglicanum, 4 (London, 1823), p. 25.
  6. ^ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Letters from Redgrave Hall (Suffolk Record Society, Boydell, 2007), pp. 9-10.
  7. ^ "Village celebrates church grant". redlingfield.onesuffolk.net. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
  8. ^ Knott, Simon. "St Andrew, Redlingfield". Retrieved 28 April 2014.