Post by Dave on Sept 30, 2018 17:08:43 GMT
Cornworthy Priory, Village & Dittisham Shoot, 30th September 2018
The piece below I wrote this morning before setting off to do a photo shoot of the Priory. I was unable to gain access to the site and after talking to a few villagers I found out they are all up in arms as the farmer who owns the land the Priory is on, has now blocked any access to it just two months ago. . For generations the good Cornworthy folk and people wanting to see the remains that are there have been able too.
As a result I did a small shoot around the village and then headed over to Dittisham as a few years ago I covered a football match there, but did not explore what else was there. I parked in the car park not knowing how steep it was down to the ferry point on the banks of the River Dart.
It was easy enough going down and there arte some wonderful cottages to see, the best one of all right on the bank of the river itself. Many looked as if they were now just holiday cottages, but others looked to be permanent homes.
I enjoyed my afternoon, but just a bit disappointed I could not do the shoot I had planned to do of the Priory, maybe the villagers will win in the end and the farmer will restore the access he should never have taken away in the first place.
This mornings piece.
While searching for Devon ruins a while ago on Goggle, I came across some pictures of the gate house of the former Cornworthy priory and I put it on my list of places to visit. Trying to find out about the history of the priory has been interesting, but some sites seem to have the wrong information.
One local site it stated Cornworthy Priory was a small Augustinian priory, founded around 1238 by Eva de Braose in memory of her husband William de Braose. He was a Marcher Lord, involved in campaigns against the Welsh insurgencies, but was publicly hanged in 1230 after being captured by the Welsh prince Llewellyn the Great.
But after doing some further research It seems William de Braose was not captured by the Welsh prince Llewellyn the Great, but he did hang him as William de Braose was the lover of Joan, King John's illegitimate daughter and the wife of Llywelyn the Great who caught them in his bedchamber together.
Following her husband's execution, Eva held de Braose lands and castles in her own right. She is listed as holder of Totnes in 1230, which she held until her death so it is safe to assume she founded Cornworthy Priory.
In early 1234, Eva was caught up in her brother Richard's rebellion against King Henry and possibly acted as one of the arbitrators between the King and her mutinous brothers following Richard's murder in Ireland. This is evidenced by the safe conduct she received in May 1234, thus enabling her to speak with the King. By the end of that month, she had a writ from King Henry granting her seisen of castles and lands he had confiscated from her following her brother's revolt. Eva also received a formal statement from the King declaring that she was back in "his good graces again” She died in 1246 aged forty three and her body is listed as either being lost or destroyed.
The priory was managed entirely by nuns, 13 in the beginning but though the years the number gradually decreased over the 200 years of its existence up until the closure as part of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. After the Dissolution the priory buildings were converted to a residence, by the local Harris family, and the surrounding land was later used as an orchard.
The priory buildings are known to have included at least a church, infirmary, chapter house, dormitory, refectory and cloister. No trace remains above ground of any of these; the only surviving component is the gatehouse.
This gatehouse is largely from the 15th century and is a rectangular building that has two passageways, the taller one was intended for wheeled vehicles, the other for pedestrians.
The gatehouse is now roofless and on one side there is an opening that has a locked iron door on it leading to a spiral staircase contained within an adjacent rectangular turret, that led up to the upper floor, but it is not publicly reachable.
Dittisham
