Malmesbury Castle

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes those parts of the Benedictine monastery, known as Malmesbury Abbey, that are no longer in ecclesiastical use. The Abbey has its origins in the early 7th century as part of a Saxon hilltop settlement. Though its early history is uncertain, there are references to a nunnery founded in c.603 AD, though a more likely date for its establishment is 637 AD when the Irish monk Maeldulph established a hermitage at Malmesbury. The monastery itself was established sometime between 675 AD and 705 AD under the abbacy of Adhelm, though its dedication is not known for sure. However by the 10th century, 965 to 974 AD, the monastery had become established as a house of the Benedictine order. The surviving buildings were commenced under Bishop Roger between 1118 to 1139 AD and completed at around 1160 to 1170. It continued in the Benedictine order until its dissolution on the 15th of December in 1539. The Abbey was subsequently sold by Henry VIII's Commissioners to the clothier William Stumpe, for the sum of 1517 pounds and 15 shillings. He built the present Abbey House on the site of some of the monastic buildings and gave the nave of the Abbey church to the people of Malmesbury as their parish church in 1541. The abbey church was formerly of massive proportions, reaching its peak in the 14th century when the nave and choir were some 86m long, the lady chapel at the east end a further 12m long and 21m wide and the cloister to the north of the church measured 32m square. Following the Dissolution only nine bays of the nave survived to be used as the parish church; this was subsequently reduced to the six bays that survive today following the collapse of the west tower in the 16th century. The monastic buildings, none of which are now upstanding, stood on th

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.