Rewley Abbey

Rewley Abbey was a Cistercian monastery founded in the 13th century by Edmund, the second Earl of Cornwall. It stood in Oxford, beside the Castle Mill Stream, on land that had belonged to the founder’s father, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. The abbey began as a college for six Cistercian monks and grew into a place of study with the same privileges as the college of St Bernard in Paris. By 1294 the number of inmates had risen to sixteen, and the abbey held lands across Oxfordshire, Cornwall and London. The founder granted the Manor of Yarnton, mills in Cassington and advowsons in Cornwall, while Edward the Black Prince later added the advowson of St Stithians. The abbey’s scholars took part in university processions and were recognised as students in royal records. In 1401 an abbot named John is recorded at the house called Loco Regali. By the early 16th century the site had become a grammar school under Henry VIII, but the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Its last abbot, Nicholaus Austen, tried to save the house by offering Thomas Cromwell money, yet the abbey was surrendered and the monks dispersed. A Catholic priest still holds the title of Abbot of Rewley Abbey. Today the only visible remains are part of a wall and gate beside the Castle Mill Stream near the Oxford Canal terminus. Stones from the abbey were reused in the tower of St Mary Magdalen’s Church, and the railway station built on the site in 1851 closed in 1984. An estate of houses now covers the former abbey grounds, but the surviving wall marks where the Cistercian community once lived and studied.