Monument record MDO701 - Medieval Abbey of St Peter, Cerne Abbas

Medieval Benedictine monastery founded in AD 987 and dissolved in 1539. Standing remains comprise the Abbot's Porch, Abbey Guesthouse, Gatehouse incorporated into post-medieval Abbey Farm and North Barn. Earthwork remains of uncertain nature survive to the east. Earthworks seem to include the remains of the precinct boundary. The location of St Peter's Abbey Church and Claustral buildings are assumed to lie to the north and east of St Austin's Well, possibly in open ground to the north and east of the churchyard. Portions of tile pavement have occasionally been unearthed in the eastern part of the graveyard.

Medieval Benedictine monastery founded in AD 987 and dissolved in 1539. Standing remains comprise the Abbot's Porch, Abbey Guesthouse, Gatehouse incorporated into post-medieval Abbey Farm and North Barn. Earthwork remains of uncertain nature survive to the east. Earthworks seem to include the remains of the precinct boundary. The location of St Peter's Abbey Church and Claustral buildings are assumed to lie to the north and east of St Austin's Well, possibly in open ground to the north and east of the churchyard. Portions of tile pavement have occasioanlly been unearthed in the eastern part of the graveyard. At the Dissolution in 1539 it had an abbot and 16 monks. <2>

The Benedictine Abbey of Cerne was traditionally supposed to have been founded by St Augustine but, though there was evidence of a monastery here in the late 9th century, it was in AD 987 that the monastery was founded or refounded by Ethelmaer, Earl of Cornwall and dedicated to St Mary, St Peter and St Benedict. The conventual buildings were destroyed soon after the Dissolution in 1539 and no record survives of the appearance or dimensions of the church or claustral buildings. The church ('A' ST 66640137) seems to have stood on the eastern part of the present graveyard. A 13th century Purbeck marble effigy of an abbot was dug up on the site. All that now remains of the monastic church is an angle of wall bounding St Augustine's Well (ST 60 SE 1).

The Cloisters ('B' ST 66580140) and main conventual buildings must have occupied the ground to the north of the churchyard but no traces survive.
The Abbot's Hall ('C' ST 66530140) was built by Abbot Thomas San (1497-1509). The porch and the adjoining portion of the west wall are all that now survive. The porch is of three storeys with diagonal buttresses and a modern embattled parapet. The outer entrance has moulded jambs and a four centred arch with a two storeyed oriel window above. HHR Grade I.

The Earthworks immediately NE of the abbey site ('D' ST66650146) appear to consist of a series of enclosures with well marked banks and ditches. The south-east end contains three unexplained but well preserved circular mounds each surrounded by a ditch and each within a separate enclosure.

The Abbey Farm ('E' ST 66530136), also known as Abbey House, incorporates part of the abbey buildings, probably part of the gate house, in its 15th century south wing, while the northern wing is early 16th century. The main block was restored in the 18th century. HHR Grade I.

The Guest House ('F' ST 66550136) is a 2-storey building of banded flint and ashlar with a stone slate roof, possibly an earlier Abbot's Lodging; 14th or 15th century. <4>

'A' The remains of the Church consists of a NE-SW angle of wall 15.0 m long 3.5 m high and about 1.0 m thick. Now acting as a retaining wall for the churchyard, it once represented the south wall of the nave and west wall of the south transept.

'B' The site of the Cloisters is a grass covered area with no evidence of its former use.

'C' The Abbot's Hall, also known as 'The Gateway' is in a good state of preservation.

'D' The Earthworks are best preserved in the area of the circular mounds where the perimeter bank averages 2.0 m high with an outer ditch of similar depth. The mounds are 11.0 m in diameter, on average, and 0.8 m high, with surrounding ditches which average 2.2 m wide and 0.4 m deep.<3>

'F' As decribed and in a good state of preservation.

'A' It is highly doubtful that the angle of wall bounding St Augustine's Well is part of the church. The walling, now stripped of its facing stones, is of cemented random rubble with little strength to it. It is more likely to have been constructed as a retaining wall which purpose it still serves. It stands to a height of 3.5 m above the well and runs for 8.0 m in a NE direction and for 15.0 m in a SW direction. It is about 1.0 m in thickness.

'B' The site of the Cloisters and main conventual buildings is a grass covered area which has at some time been quarried over, probably for the building stone of the abbey buildings.

'C' The Abbot's Hall, also known as "The Gateway", is as described by the RCHM (3) and is in a good state of preservation.

'D' The existing earthworks represent the NE half of the site, the remainder having at some time been quarried away, for flint and marl and doubtless for the stone of the conventual buildings. A perimeter bank with an outer ditch encloses the site on the SE and NE sides. The bank is 14.0 to 16.0 m in width and up to 1.8m in height. The ditch is 6.0m to 8.0 m in width and up to 1.5 m in depth. Within, are several embanked enclosures and a hollow way with banks on either side. In the NE corner are three probably post Dissolution circular pillow mounds, 10.0 to 14.0 m in diameter and 1.2 m in height with encircling ditches. One is contained within a small embanked enclosure. 1:2500 resurvey on PFD.

'E' 'Abbey Farm' is as decribed by the RCHM (3). The only visual remains of the abbey buildings is a fragment of moulded archway from the springing on the west side of a gateway arch in the south end of the south wing.

'F' The Guest House is as described by the RCHM (3) and is in a fair state of preservation. The building is disused. <6>

Although Aethelmaer's Charter (Auth 2), is dated as 978 AD, it is suggested thqat King Edgar granted the Abbey's charter in the 970's and that Aethelmaer's charter dates from the dedication of the Abbey Church. <7>

Guest House of Cerne Abbey. Grade I (see ST 60 SE 79). Cerne Abbey, formerly listed as Abbey House. Abbot's Porch, formerly listed as the Gatehouse. <5>

(See also ST 60 SE 62 for the monastic barn associated with Cerne Abbey).

There is little evidence for a minster at Cerne, and if there was one, itmust have been long before the foundation of the Abbey. <8>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1891 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 66650146) Remains of (NAT) Cerne Abbey (NR) (Benedictine) (ST 66530140) Gate House (NR)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 77-80 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(2) Cerne Abbey, remains, porch, outbuildings and earthworks at the N. end of the village. Apart from the legendary visit of St. Augustine to Cerne there is evidence of the existence of a monastery here in the latter part of the 9th century. It was refounded on the Benedictine model by Ethelmaer, Earl of Cornwall, c. 987 and dedicated to St. Mary, St. Peter and St. Benedict. It was dissolved in 1539 when the revenue amounted to £575.17.10¼ a year. The main block of the conventual buildings was destroyed at an early date and no record survives of the former dimensions or appearance of the church and claustral buildings.
The Church seems to have stood on the eastern part of the present graveyard where portions of tile-pavement have from time to time come to light. On the S. side is the well traditionally connected with the visit of St. Augustine. It forms a rectangular pool with a late masonry enclosure and set up on its W. side are two 17th or 18th-century stone supports of a former bench or table. Bounding the well on the E. and N. are rubble walls of mediæval date and now reduced to the core only except that in the angle a portion of the facing survives. It has been conjectured that these walls formed the angle between the nave and S. transept of the abbey-church. There is evidence that the church was rebuilt in the 12th century but little or no recognisable material of this date survives. A Purbeck marble effigy of an abbot, found on the site and dating from the early part of the 13th century, is preserved in the Farnham Museum, Dorset. The Cloister and main conventual buildings must have occupied the flat ground to the N. of the churchyard, but no trace, even of foundation-mounds, survives on the site.
The surviving buildings of the abbey consist of the porch to the Abbot's Hall, a building called the Guest House to the S. and a barn or outbuilding to the N.

The Abbot's Hall was built by Abbot Thomas Sam (1497–1509). It has been destroyed except for the porch and the adjoining portion of the W. wall of the hall. These are of local rubble with ashlar and free-stone dressings. The hall stood N. and S. but the length and width are indeterminate. The doorway from the porch has moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head with traceried spandrels enclosing shields-of-arms of the Duchy of Cornwall and the abbey. Above the doorway is an internal string-course carved with a Tudor rose, a beast and foliage; in the angle with the former N. wall is a grouped wallshaft with foliated capitals and chamfered bases resting on a half-angel holding a shield; about 12 ft. to the S. is a second grouped wall-shaft of similar character; they presumably supported the timber wall-posts of the roof. Higher in the wall is a late 16th-century window of three square-headed lights with a label, the wall above sets back about three feet, perhaps for a wall-walk. The Porch (Plate 105) is of three storeys with diagonal buttresses and a modern embattled parapet. The outer entrance has moulded jambs and four-centred arch with a label and beast-stops. Above the entrance is a two storeyed oriel-window resting on deep moulded corbelling; the front window on the first floor is a modern restoration except for the outer moulded jambs; the returns have each a window of one cinque-foiled ogee light; at the angles are shafts or buttresses springing from half-angels holding banners with the arms a cross paty for Latimer (?) and three wounds or cloud-bursts; below the window is a range of quatre-foiled panels enclosing shields-of-arms and with enriched string-courses above and below; the arms are:—(a) Duchy of Cornwall; (b) France and England quarterly; (c) Daubeney in a garter; (d) the Abbey; (e) Fitz-James; (f) Latimer (?); (g) Newburgh (?) with a label impaling a border engrailed with a bend over all; (h) Newburgh (?) impaling Wadham. The second floor has a window of three cinque-foiled lights on the face and one on each return; below it is a band of quatre-foiled panels enclosing shields and string-courses with carved paterae; the shields bear:—(a) Tudor rose; (b) portcullis; (c) rebus presumably of Abbot Thomas Sam, a T. with a crozier and a salmon; (d) an O with an owl above, probably for Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter; (e) Uvedale quartering Scures (?); (f) Martin of Athelhampton; (g) a bray or brake for Bray (?). The porch has a damaged fan-vaulted roof, the cones springing from moulded and foliated corbels; the cones have trefoil-headed panels and the spandrel has cusped panelling and a damaged central shield with the rebus of Abbot Sam; at the main intersections are foliage-bosses. In the S. wall of the porch is a cruciform loop, now blocked. In the N. wall are two blocked windows to the porter's room. The Porter's Lodging is of two storeys with a pent-roof. The ground-floor is entered by a doorway from the stair-turret on the E. with a four-centred head. In the W. wall is a window of one four-centred light and a fireplace with a four-centred head. The upper room has a W. window of two plain lights and a fireplace in the S. wall, similar to that on the ground floor.

The ‘Guest House’ stands on the N. side of the graveyard at its W. end. It is of two storeys and was built in the 15th century. It has been suggested that this was the earlier Abbot's Lodging. The building was presumably done by Abbot John Vanne (1458–70) whose initials appear on a fireplace removed from the building and now in the Abbey Farm. The gabled W. wall is faced with alternate courses of knapped flint and stone. It has a doorway of c. 1500 with moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head with foliage-spandrels and a label; N. of it is a 15th-century window of two trefoiled lights in a square head; on the first floor is a 15th-century window of two pointed lights with tracery in a two-centred head. The N. wall retains the E. side of a 15th-century doorway with a two-centred head; set partly in the blocking is a later 15th-century window of two cinque-foiled lights in a square head with a label and returned stops; further W. is a 15th-century window of two trefoiled lights. Towards the E. end of the wall are the remains of three original windows. Near the middle of the wall on the first floor is a 15th-century oriel-window, restored and reset; each of the three faces has a window of two trefoiled and transomed lights; the oriel rests on moulded corbelling and has buttresses at the angles; on either side of the oriel are two windows, all four originally similar to one window of the oriel, but mostly lacking the mullion and transom. The S. wall formerly extended further to the E. and in the broken end is the jamb of a former window. Inside the building is a large inserted chimney-stack of the 15th century; there are remains of various blocked and altered windows. In the W. room is an early 16th-century moulded ceiling-beam, but the floor of the room above has been otherwise removed.
The Barn, 130 yards N.N.W. of the ‘Guest House’, is of seven bays with a much repaired roof of collar-beam type. The walls are of chalk and stone rubble. The barn was built probably in the 15th century, but the porches are modern. The gabled S. wall has a doorway with chamfered jambs and four-centred head; above it is a fragment carved with 13th-century foliage. The W. wall formerly extended further to the S. and in the broken end is the jamb of a former archway. In the E. wall are two loop-lights.
Much of the materials of the abbey has been reused in various houses in the village. Amongst these the most important are the 15th-century remains, perhaps of a reredos, with elaborate vaulted canopy work and pedestals; these stones are built into the wall W. of the New Inn, into the W. front of the house, Barnwells, in Abbey Street (Monument 5) and preserved in the same house. Other fragments of various dates are to be found in the yard of the New Inn (mainly 13th-century), on the first floor of a house in Long Street 60 yards S. of the church and in the modern entrance gateway to the churchyard. In the house Barnwells are some mediæval slip-tiles with conventional foliage and shields vair and fretty.
The Tithe Barn, see Monument 25.
The Earthworks immediately N.E. of the abbey-site appear to consist of a series of enclosures with well-marked banks and ditches. Their general form is shown on the plan (p. 80). In the enclosures at the S.E. end are three well-preserved circular mounds each surrounded by a ditch and each within a separate enclosure. The purpose of these mounds and enclosures has not been explained.’

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 03-FEB-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Knowles, D, and Neville Hadcock, R, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales, 62, 470 (Monograph). SDO11249.

<4.1> Ordnance Survey, OS 74/088/224-25 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18896.

<5> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 133-4 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<6> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F2 ASP 22-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<7> Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset 31, 373-6 (Serial). SDO18894.

<8> Hall, T A, 2000, Minster Churches in the Dorset Landscape, 90 (Monograph). SDO10264.

<9> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 1217608 (Index). SDO14738.

Cerne Abbas Abbey/ink survey

<10> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 1217611 (Index). SDO14738.

Cerne Abbas Abbey/ink survey

<11> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 1217614 (Index). SDO14738.

Cerne Abbas Abbey/pencil survey

<12> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 881830 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Earthworks in the precincts of Cerne Abbey, Dorset. Original drawing, includes profile of earthwork

<13> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF1217601 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Cerne Abbas Abbey, Dorset. Contents : 3 plans

<14> Historic England, Historic England Archive, FL00622 (Index). SDO14738.

Cerne Abbey and the Abbas Giant, Cerne Abbas, Dorset. This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.

<15> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OS55/F36/4 (Index). SDO14738.

CERNE ABBEY PORCH OF ABBOTS HALL AT GATEHOUSE FROM SOUTH. Photographer: UNKNOWN

<16> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OS55/F36/5 (Index). SDO14738.

CERNE ABBEY GUEST HOUSE FROM NORTH. Photographer: UNKNOWN

<17> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OS55/F36/7 (Index). SDO14738.

CERNE ABBEY ST AUSTIN'S WELL FROM SOUTH. Photographer: UNKNOWN

<18> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OS55/F36/8 (Index). SDO14738.

CERNE ABBEY EARTHWORKS ASSOCIATED WITH CERNE ABBEY FROM NORTH. Photographer: UNKNOWN

<19> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OS55/F37/2 (Index). SDO14738.

CERNE ABBEY MEDIEVAL MONASTIC BARN FROM SOUTH. Photographer: UNKNOWN

<20> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199023 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 20 2025 10:57AM