Netley Abbey

Netley Abbey

Ruins of the church at Netley Abbey
Monastery information
Full name	The Abbey Church of St Mary of Edwardstow (Sanctae Mariae de Loco Sancti Edwardi)
Other names	Latin: Laetus Locus (Happy Place), Lieu-Saint-Edward, Letley
Order	Cistercians
Established	1239
Disestablished	1536/7
Mother house	Beaulieu Abbey
Dedicated to	Virgin Mary and Edward the Confessor
Diocese	Diocese of Winchester
People
Founder(s)	Peter des Roches and Henry III
Important associated figures	William Paulet, Abbot Thomas Stevens
Site
Location	Netley, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Grid reference	SU453090
Visible remains	major ruins of church, monastic buildings and post-Dissolution mansion
Public access	open to the public (English Heritage)

Netley Abbey is a ruined late medieval monastery in the village of Netley near Southampton in Hampshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1239 as a house for Roman Catholic monks of the austere Cistercian order. Despite being a royal abbey, Netley was never rich, produced no influential scholars nor churchmen, and its nearly 300-year history was quiet. The monks were best known to their neighbours for the generous hospitality they offered to travellers on land and sea.

In 1536, Netley Abbey was closed by Henry VIII of England during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the building was converted into a mansion by William Paulet, a wealthy Tudor politician. The abbey was used as a country house until the beginning of the eighteenth century, after which it was abandoned and partially demolished for building materials. Subsequently the ruins became a tourist attraction, and provided inspiration to poets and artists of the Romantic movement. In the early twentieth century the site was given to the nation, and it is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, cared for by English Heritage. The extensive remains consist of the church, cloister buildings, abbot's house, and fragments of the post-Dissolution mansion. Netley Abbey is one of the best preserved medieval Cistercian monasteries in southern England.

Netley was conceived by Peter des Roches, a powerful politician, government official, and Bishop of Winchester from 1205 until his death in 1238; the abbey was founded shortly after his death, in 1239. The founder's charter shows the name of the abbey as "the church of St Mary of Edwardstow", or the Latin "Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae de loco Sancti Edwardi" although the title of the charter simply calls it "Letley"; the present name of Netley is most likely derived from this. The abbey was one of a pair the bishop conceived as a memorial to himself; the other is La Clarté-Dieu in Saint-Paterne-Racan, France. Des Roches began to purchase the lands for Netley's initial endowment in about 1236, but he died before the project was finished and the foundation was completed by his executors. According to the Chronicle of Waverley Abbey, the first monks arrived to settle the site on 25 July 1239 from neighbouring Beaulieu Abbey, a year after the bishop's death. As its founder had died before the vital task of collecting the endowment was complete, the abbey started its life in a difficult financial situation. It is thought that little work took place on the permanent stone monastery until the house was taken under the wing of Henry III, who became interested in the abbey in the mid-1240s and eventually assumed the role of patron in 1251.