Surrounded by the longest medieval moat in England, in the East Sussex countryside, Michelham Priory offers the perfect example of a monastery transformed after the dissolution. From Augustinian house to Tudor manor, its stones tell the great religious rupture of the sixteenth century.
An Augustinian priory
Founded in the thirteenth century, Michelham was a priory of Augustinian canons, protected by a vast moat fed by the river Cuckmere and by a fine stone gatehouse. Like most small religious houses, it lived off its lands, its mills and prayer. In 1537, in the first wave of the dissolution of the monasteries ordered by Henry VIII and led by Thomas Cromwell, the priory was closed, its canons dispersed, its goods seized by the Crown.
From ruin to manor
Like so many former monasteries, Michelham then passed to laymen, who adapted the buildings to a new use. Over the sixteenth century the old priory was partly demolished, and what remained was turned into a Tudor house and then a farm: the canons' hall became a domestic great hall, fireplaces were cut, lodgings fitted. The fine medieval gatehouse and the moat were kept. Michelham thus illustrates the ordinary fate of hundreds of English monasteries: not razed at a stroke, but slowly recycled into houses and farms, until their first vocation was forgotten.
What to see
- The medieval stone gatehouse and the long moat (among the largest in England).
- The old canons' hall, become a Tudor great hall.
- The restored watermill and the gardens.
- The reading, in the buildings, of the passage from priory to manor.
Did you know?
Michelham is ringed by a moat nearly a mile and a half long — among the most extensive in England. Dug by the canons to protect and feed their priory, it survived the dissolution and went on serving the farm and then the house. The monks' water, meant for prayer and sustenance, thus stayed faithful to the place, long after the departure of those who had diverted it from the river.
Practical information
Michelham Priory lies near Upper Dicker, in East Sussex, south of London. It is today a site in the care of a conservation body (the Sussex Archaeological Society), open to the public with its gardens and mill. Opening hours and days are liable to change with the seasons; it is best to check them against the official sources before visiting.
Quiz
- What kind of religious occupied Michelham Priory?
- Augustinian canons
- Carthusians
- Templars
- What did the priory become after its dissolution in 1537?
- A Tudor house and then a farm
- A castle
- A cathedral
- What feature surrounds Michelham Priory?
- The longest medieval moat in England
- A crenellated rampart
- A sacred forest