Muchelney Abbey
The Church of St Peter and St Paul in the background. In the foreground are the ruins of the main Abbey building.
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 Location within Somerset
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| Monastery information | |
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| Order | Benedictine |
| Established | 10th century |
| Disestablished | 1538 |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Cynewulf, Centwine, Ine, Æthelstan and Æthelred |
| Site | |
| Location | Muchelney, Somerset, England |
| Coordinates | 51°1′0″N 2°39′14″W / 51.01667°N 2.65389°WCoordinates: 51°1′0″N 2°39′14″W / 51.01667°N 2.65389°W |
Muchelney Abbey is an English Heritage property in the village of Muchelney in the Somerset Levels, England. The site consists of ruined walls showing the layout of the abbey buildings constructed from the 7th to 16th and the remaining intact Abbott's House. It is next to the parish church in which some of the fabric of the abbey has been reused.
It comprises the remains and foundations of a medieval Benedictine abbey, the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon abbey, and an early Tudor house dating from the 16th century, formerly the lodgings of the resident Abbot, which is now a Grade I listed building. The ruins of the abbey have been scheduled as an ancient monument.
The abbey was founded in the 7th or 8th century, damaged by Viking raids and rebuilt and refounded in the 10th century. It owned and managed local land. The buildings were expanded from the 12th to 16th centuries until its dissolution in 1538. Most of the buildings were demolished and the stone used in local buildings, although the Abbot's House and reredorter survive. Some of the tiles and other decorative features from the monastic church were reused in the adjacent parish Church of St Peter and St Paul. Since 1927 the ruins have been in public ownership.
The site of the Abbey was effectively an island in the marshy and frequently flooded Somerset Levels. There is believed to have been a religious building erected on the site as early as 693, with a charter being granted by Cynewulf in 762, although the Benedictine monks were not established there until the 10th century. Viking raids in the area damaged some of the fabric of the abbey and necessitated rebuilding. The refounders of the Abbey are not completely clear; however in a document of 1535 (drawn up following the Valor Ecclesiasticus), Centwine, Ine, Æthelstan and Æthelred are claimed as founders. Tradition suggests that Æthelstan's contribution was penance for the murder of Atheling Edwin in 933 or following victory at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. The charter of King Ine is known to be a forgery, however it may have some basis in fact. The charters were placed in the Museum of Somerset in 1946 on permanent loan from Lady Ailesbury.
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