Relhan Collection : 324 Waterbeach. Denny Abbey

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The original C12 Benedictine monastery was given to the Knights Templar who used it as a hospital for sick and aged monks from 1170 until 1308. C14 alterations were made by the Franciscan order of nuns, the Poor Clares, who were founded in Waterbeach by the Countess of Pembroke. Their order was dissolved in C16 and the remaining buildings were converted to a farmhouse, with the refectory (<b>323</b>) used as a barn. The N transept of the abbey church became the brewhouse and the S transept the great kitchen with a massive red brick chimney stack, visible in Relhan’s drawing, with other stacks, one of which is smoking. Relhan would have seen the restored C18 house, now partly encased in red brick, which had casement and hung sash windows. It still shows the scars from earlier blocked openings and demolitions. Many of the accumulated changes were removed in 1952 by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works to reveal the structure of the monastic buildings. It is now in the care of Historic England.</p><p>Davis EM pers comm; Taylor 1998; VCH 1967, 1989; Coad 1989 </p></p>