Durford Abbey

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes the remains of a Premonstratensian monastery and a later threshing barn, along with its associated water wheel and water-powered drive shafts, situated on the northern bank of the River Rother c.3km east of Petersfield. Some of the monastic buildings survive as ruined structures and fragments incorporated within a later farmhouse and outbuildings. Elsewhere, the abbey survives in the form of earthworks and below ground archaeological remains. Historical records suggest that the monastery, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist, was founded by Henry Husey in 1161. A series of misfortunes during the 14th and early 15th centuries, including two serious robberies and a fire in 1417, after the church tower was struck by lightning, contributed towards its subsequent decline. The abbey was dissolved in 1534, after which time it passed into secular ownership, and in 1784 the then owner, Lord Stawell, carried out a substantial programme of alteration and rebuilding on the site. In common with most religious houses, the main buildings are ranged around a square, inner cloister yard. The frater, or refectory, fronted the southern side of the cloister yard and the surviving fragments of its undercroft, or below ground storage room, are represented by in situ masonry, including the apexes of three arches, incorporated within the lower courses of the southern and western walls of a later stable block, Listed Grade II. Around 16m to the south west of the stable block is the base of a round column, also interpreted as an in situ fragment of the original southern range. Surviving elements of the western range, including some in situ medieval masonry, form part of the fabric of the later farmhouse, which mainly dates to the 1784 rebu

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.