Wardon Abbey

Wardon Abbey stands in Bedfordshire, east of England. Founded about 1135 by Walter Espec, it was one of England’s senior Cistercian houses. The monks chose a remote, uninhabited site on wasteland, naming it St Mary de Sartis. By 1150 the abbey had already founded Sibton Abbey in Suffolk. The village of Old Warden grew around the abbey’s protection. In the early fourteenth century the monks rebuilt the abbey on a grand scale with intricate patterned tiling. The abbey’s wealth allowed lavish decoration, including gilded carvings that still gleamed when fragments were dug up in 1848. By 1252 the monks farmed nineteen granges and grew Warden pears, praised as the best English pears. Shakespeare mentions Warden pies in The Winter’s Tale. After the Black Death the abbey declined and was dissolved in 1537. Henry VIII sold the estate, which was later demolished and rebuilt as Warden Abbey House. Today only the north-east wing of the Tudor mansion remains. The Landmark Trust restored it in 1974 and now lets it for holidays. Anne Woodville and George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent, are buried at the site. Fragments of the abbey’s elaborate tiling are displayed in Bedford Museum.