Eynsham Abbey

Eynsham Abbey stands on a quiet site in the village of Eynsham, Oxfordshire. Founded in 1005 by Æthelmær the Stout on land granted by King Æthelred, it replaced an earlier minster from the 7th or 8th century. The abbey became a Benedictine monastery and remained active until 1538. Its first abbot was Ælfric, a prolific writer of the late 10th century. In 1072 Bishop Remigius moved his see to Lincoln but briefly annexed Eynsham’s revenues. After monks returned in 1091, the community grew and new buildings rose in the 13th century. The abbey flourished in the Middle Ages with around twenty-five to thirty monks. Adam of Eynsham, a noted abbot, wrote a life of Saint Hugh of Lincoln. By 1390 the abbey’s income reached just over £772, drawn from rents and the sale of wool and livestock. By the 16th century numbers had fallen and in 1538 the monastery closed under the Dissolution. Its last abbot, Anthony Kitchin, later became Bishop of Llandaff. After the Dissolution the site passed to Sir George Darcy and later the Earl of Derby, whose tenants took stones for village houses. Today the scheduled monument shows two ruined towers and part of a wall. Excavations between 1989 and 1992 uncovered human bones and many artefacts. Some finds are kept at the Oxfordshire County Council Museums Resource Centre in Standlake. Visitors can walk the abbey precinct and see the surviving fragments of the medieval complex. The quiet churchyard and village lanes frame the remains, offering a sense of the abbey’s long history.