Abbot of Ramsey
| Ramsey Abbey | |
|---|---|
Remains of the abbey gatehouse
|
|
| Location | Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Coordinates | 52°26′54″N 0°06′03″W / 52.44833°N 0.10083°WCoordinates: 52°26′54″N 0°06′03″W / 52.44833°N 0.10083°W |
| Area | Huntingdonshire |
| Founded | 969 |
| Built | 10th–16th centuries |
| Demolished | 1537 |
| Official name: Ramsey Abbey (remains of) | |
| Reference no. | 1006838 |
 Location of Ramsey Abbey in Cambridgeshire
|
|
Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded in AD 969 and dissolved in 1537.
The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Most of the abbey's buildings were demolished after the dissolution. Parts of a few buildings survive, and are now Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings.
Ramsey Abbey was founded in 969 by Saint Oswald, Bishop of Worcester through the gift of a local Earl, Ailwyn or Æthelwine. The foundation was part of the mid-10th century English Benedictine reform, in which Ely and Peterborough were also refounded. It paid 4,000 eels yearly in Lent to Peterborough Abbey for access to its quarries of Barnack limestone.
The important Ramsey Psalter or Psalter of Oswald (British Library) appears to have been made for Ramsey Abbey around 980. This is not to be confused with another Ramsey Psalter in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (MS M. 302), made between 1286 and 1316.
Æthelwine at the suggestion of Saint Oswald, Bishop of Worcester founded a small hermitage for three hermits with a wooden chapel at a location indicated by a bull, on a narrow peninsula of gravel called Bodsey with impassible fen on three sides. Impressed by the story Oswald sent a Prior from Westbury (Germanus) and 12 monks to form the Abbey , on the Island of Ramsey. Starting in 969, a large stone-built church was built over the next five years. Two towers stood up at the topmost points of the roofs, the smaller one at the front of the Church towards the west, offered a beautiful sight from afar to people coming to the island. The larger one, in the middle of a four armed structure rested on four columns , connected by arches stretching from one to another in turn, so that they would not loosen and fall down. This abbey building remained until a Norman abbot had a grander church built in the 12th century.
...
Wikipedia