Castle Acre Priory-Inside The Priors Rooms
After almost a thousand years of development, England’s monasteries – then about 800 in number – were wiped out in the later 1530s during Henry VIII’s Suppression of the Monasteries. At Castle Acre the deed of surrender was signed on 22 November 1537 by the prior, Thomas Malling, and ten monks. They were probably granted small pensions and some, as was also usual, may have become parish or chantry priests. Much of the church was almost immediately demolished.
The priory’s site and lands were then leased to John Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who sold them to Sir Thomas Gresham in 1558. By this time the monastic buildings were being removed, although the prior’s lodging was retained as a house, and stayed in use well into the 17th century. In 1615 the Castle Acre property came into the hands of the lawyer and politician Sir Edward Coke, in whose family it remains today.
Castle Acre Priory-Inside The Priors Rooms
After almost a thousand years of development, England’s monasteries – then about 800 in number – were wiped out in the later 1530s during Henry VIII’s Suppression of the Monasteries. At Castle Acre the deed of surrender was signed on 22 November 1537 by the prior, Thomas Malling, and ten monks. They were probably granted small pensions and some, as was also usual, may have become parish or chantry priests. Much of the church was almost immediately demolished.
The priory’s site and lands were then leased to John Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who sold them to Sir Thomas Gresham in 1558. By this time the monastic buildings were being removed, although the prior’s lodging was retained as a house, and stayed in use well into the 17th century. In 1615 the Castle Acre property came into the hands of the lawyer and politician Sir Edward Coke, in whose family it remains today.