Dame Elizabeth Shelley, Last Abbess of St. Mary's Abbey, Winchester by JOHN PAUL I HE important Benedictine nunnery of St Mary, the Nuns' minster or Nunnaminster, was founded by Alfred the Great's wife, Eahlswith, at the end of the 9th century on Ta site near the centre of Winchester.1 Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, completed the building, and after Alfred's death, Eahlswith spent the rest of her days in the new abbey. She may even have been appointed as abbess, but according to Leland, the antiquary, it was Edburga, Edward's daughter, who became the first abbess. Nunnaminster was the earliest of three important religious houses for women to be established in Hampshire. With the creation of the large, house of Romsey in about 907 and that of Wherwell in approximately 986, the establishment of Nunnaminster exemplified the predilection of early royal founders for the spread of monastic life as a religious and civilis­ ing influence in the kingdom of Wessex. In the century after its foundation, the nunnery seems to have been stricken by poverty, a misfortune which was to recur in its career, but which was not peculiar to its own long history. Rather than the fact of Nunnaminster's poverty, however, it was Bishop Ethelwold's desire of introducing stricter discipline in religi­ ous life which prompted him almost to re-found and re-endow the nunnery in 963. Ethelwold had been a monk at Glastonbury with Dunstan and it was through Dunstan's influence that he was eventually made Bishop of Winchester.2 Acutely aware of the deterioration of English monastic life, which fell much below the monastic standards of the influential abbeys of Northern France and Flanders, it was the new Bishop who resolved upon an improvement of the religious and moral status of the monks in his large and important diocese. Acting generally with considerable severity, his thorough measures achieved their object; and not only was Nunnaminster re-founded, but also the Old Minster (forerunner of the Cathedral Priory) was re-constituted as a Benedictine monastic community, the lax seculars being turned out or, at least, those among them dismissed who declined to accept the monastic habit. Like all religious houses, St Mary's had its varied difficulties and changes of fortune in the succeeding centuries. During the civil war in Stephen's reign the abbey was burnt with many other churches in the ancient capital by Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester. Records of its later history are rather meagre, but there is evidence that poverty continued to be an embarrassment to the community, and we find that there is a complaint to the Pope about it in 1343 and again in 1346. The effect of the Great Pestilence and that of the cattle plague which followed was serious, since they resulted in much reduced rents from Nunnaminster's lands, the unproductiveness of which was caused by scarce and expensive labour. All this formed the subject of a further appeal to the Pope in 1352 for the appropriation of the church of Gretford in Lincolnshire—an appeal which succeeded, for Gretford was still among the nunnery's properties mentioned at the Suppression Commissioners' visitation in 1536.3 1. Carpenter Turner, B, Churches of_ Mediaeval Winchester (Winchester, 1957), p. 37. The remaining early historical facts are based on details in V.C.H. 2, p. 116 and p. 122 et seq. 2. D.N.B.: Ethelwold. 3. V.C.H., p. 123; P.R.O. E315/400 £. 24 et seq. 6o DAME ELIZABETH SHELLEY St Mary's, associated with the royal house in its earliest days, may, in the members of its community, have been distinguished by a note of gentle breeding throughout its long life. This distinction was, to some extent, possibly derived from the Crown's exercise of the right of nominating a nun to the abbey at each coronation. It certainly seems to have been found there during the convent's last years and, significantly, among a large number of aristocratic children being educated there, were two girls of Plantagenet origin. The community was not small in size, since in 1536 it numbered 26 nuns and 13 lay sisters, but, probably on account of the considerable amount of education which the convent under­ took, the household itself was a large one. An important feature of the nunnery was the presence of as many as five chaplains, who did not, of course, form part of the monastic -community.4 These chaplains may have been necessary to assist the Abbess or her subordinate officers in 'managing the community's temporal affairs.5 One acted as confessor, and all probably lived in common in the convent. Nunnaminster, although an influential house, was only of moderate wealth. The Valor of 1535 gives the annual value as £245, with a net yearly value of £179, but, as will later be explained, these figures were a considerable understatement. At the time of the intended suppression in 1536 the value of the lands and possessions was given as some £330, and the value of the woods, which seem to have constituted a considerable proportion of the total real property, was as much as £231.6 Besides the church of Gretford in Lincolnshire, the convent owned some seven manors— Erchefountt (which included 'a great wood of oaks' of 100 acres) and All Cannings in Wilt­ shire, andfive in Hampshire, ...of which the most valuable was possibly Froyie. Froyle had long been associated with the wool trade and for centuries the productiveness pf the old native textile industry of Hampshire had been nourished by the wool which came .from.the flocks of sheep reared extensively on the Downsi The sheep industry was of con- : siderable significance in the county as early as the 13th centiiry, and we learn that the fleeces rpf sheep from Froyle in 1241 reached a total of 837.8 'Large wool' was a special feature of the fleeces, and the Abbess of St Mary's obtained from the flocks five weys valued at the fairly tonsiderable sum of £8 6s. 8d. in the tenth year of her rule, about the middle of the 13th century.9 When, in later years, the enclosure movement gained impetus and the manor of Froyle possibly became involved in it, the value of the wool produced would have been con­ siderably enhanced. Nunnaminster with its church and associated buildings was no doubt a worthy external 'memorial to its royal founders and patrons, the church itself being probably more exquisite and majestic than the elegantly symmetrical abbey of Romsey, still today in a fine condition of preservation. The Commissioners of 1536 described the convent as being in a 'very good state of reparation, standing nigh the middle of the city and of a great and large compass'.10 The neighbourhood was filled 'with many poor households which have their only living of the said monastery. And have no demesnes whereby they may make any provision, but live only by their hands, making their provision in the markets'. These 'poor households' must 4. E315/400, f. 24 et seq. 5. V.C.H. 2, p. 122. 6. E315/400, f. 24 et seq. 7. V.C.H. 5, p. 475. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. 10. E315/400 f. 24 et seq. 6l HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB PROCEEDINGS have found the fair of St Giles on St Giles' Hill overlooking the city a source of profit for their wares and labours. The Fair, which originated in a grant from William Rufus and became one of the great fairs of the country, was at first prescribed for the vigil, feast and morrow of St Giles, but its subsequent normal term of sixteen days could be extended on occasions by specific grants to as much as 24 days.11 'Overspill', so to say, of people from the Fair must have sometimes proved a source of irritation, and perhaps of trouble, to the cloistered nuns, since Nunnaminster was situated not far from the scene of business and gaiety. Nothing remains of the abbey church. That it was of surpassing splendour is clear from the testimony of Camden, writing at the beginning of the 17th century. There were, he says, many noble buildings in the city of Winchester, but 'time has destroyed them, though I cannot but take notice of the nunnery, founded by Aelfwide [sic], wife to King Alfred, it having been so noble a pile (as the ruins of it still show)'.12 Had Winchester not been a city of so many churches, Nunnaminster might, like her sister of Romsey, have been spared to serve as a noble parish church after the Dissolution, but it went the way of so many abbeys. A simple plaque on the wall of a building overlooking pleasant, trim gardens bears witness to the fact that there was once lived on the spot a hallowed life of piety and peace. Although destruction at St Mary's was more complete than at many other religious houses, it is possible to form some idea of the extent of the abbey buildings and of the precincts from evidence in contemporary documents. The Abbess's lodging stretched from the church, which was, presumably, orientated, to the frater north and south, with associated 'houses of offices', such as the buttery, pantry, kitchen and larder.13 Other abbatial buildings were the gatehouse, the barn, the baking and brewing houses, with 'the garner next to them', the stable and the mill.14 The abbey mill, a substantial possession, considered useful at the time to the Crown, was preserved and is still in existence, whilst at the south-eastern end of the High Street side of the precinct there was another mill, the Posterne Mill of the abbey of Wintney.