Lavendon Abbey

Lavendon Abbey was a Premonstratensian abbey near Lavendon in Buckinghamshire. It was founded between 1154 and 1158 by John de Bidun and dedicated to John the Baptist. The abbey held churches in several counties, including Lavendon and Lathbury in Buckinghamshire, Wootton in Northamptonshire, and others in Bedfordshire and Norfolk. Over time it lost control of most of these churches through legal disputes. Later it acquired new churches at Brayfield, Ashton and Shotteswell. The abbey was closed in 1536 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. At that time it had eleven canons and twenty servants. Its income was about £79 a year. The last abbot, William Gales, received a pension of £12. After the suppression nothing remained above ground of the original buildings. Today the site is marked by earthworks, field boundaries and the remains of two fish ponds. These features form a scheduled monument. The landscape still shows how the abbey once organised its land and water. Visitors can walk among the grassy mounds and see the outlines of the old ponds. The quiet fields around Lavendon preserve traces of the abbey’s long-vanished life.