At Beauvale Priory

There isn't actually much left of the priory buildings

but there is a lot of history to discover about this place.

The remains of  Beauvale Priory are in the Nottinghamshire countryside close to the town of Eastwood.

The Priory was founded by Nicholas de Cantilupe in 1343.  It was one of only nine priories built in the country which were dedicated to the Carthusian Order.  

Here generations of monks lived quietly and peacefully for two hundred years before the Dissolution of the Monasteries when they refused to sign the Oath of Supremacy which acknowledged King Henry VIII as head of the church in England.

Sir Nicholas de Cantilupe had the land raised and a platform built in preparation for the building of a church and accommodation for the first monks to reside there.

The remaining parts of the building appear to be made up of local sandstone and Derbyshire grit stone.

Apparently Carthusian churches were very plain inside usually with no aisles or ornamentation.  Above part of the church and the Prior's House.

The orchard to the side of the Prior's House is the site of the cloisters.

Beauvale was never a rich Priory as the Carthusian beliefs were based on the ideals of its founder St Bruno who believed that each Priory had to be self sufficient and not dependant on funding from other sources. 

Henry VIII couldn't have gained much from the closure of this Priory, just the stone and the land.

The stone above which is placed where the high alter would have been in the priory church commemorates two local martyrs John Houghton and Robert Lawrence, who as Priors of Beauvale refused to sign the Oath of Supremacy at the start of the Reformation and were therefore sentenced to death

Local author D H Lawrence, born in nearby Eastwood, wrote a few times about Beauvale in his novels and short stories. 

He always referred to it as The Abbey.

This fine fellow was waiting to greet us on our arrival,

He kept his beady eye on us as we walked by him towards the ruins.

There is a splendid tea room in the gatehouse at Beauvale but it was full when we arrived and any empty tables had been reserved.  Had it been a finer day there was plenty of outside seating but as you can see from the rain splashes on my camera in the photo below it wasn't the brightest of days so we moved on.

This was our first visit to Beauvale Priory although
we have visited this area of Nottinghamshire quite often as ancestors on my mother's side came from nearby Eastwood, Kimberley and Awsworth.  Her surname was quite common to this area and was used by D. H.Lawrence in his book 'Sons and Lovers'.