Binham Priory (Norfolk)

Introduction

Among the most complete and impressive monastic ruins in Norfolk, is this Benedictine priory with a well-documented history. The nave, with its splendid 13th-century west front and great bricked-up window, is now the parish church, displaying a screen with medieval saints overpainted with Protestant texts.

The church is built of local flint and Barnack limestone. The stone was brought from Northamptonshire by river and sea in barges, and up the river Stiffkey. Most medieval churches looked very different from how they appear today. They were usually covered, both inside and out, with lime-washed plaster. Traces of this can still be seen on the west front, and the interior may have been decorated.

The priory was endowed with the entire manor of Binham, making the prior the Lord of the Manor, together with the tithes of thirteen other churches in Norfolk. Originally it had 8 monks, rising to 13 or 14 in the 14th century before falling back to 6 immediately before its suppression in 1539, and its annual income had dropped to £140. This site is maintained by English Heritage.

Open all year round at any reasonable time.

History to the present day

St Benedict founded the Benedictine order around the year 526. Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, Durham Cathedral and Norwich Cathedral were Benedictine houses, and others included Bury St Edmunds, Glastonbury and St Albans. Binham Priory was founded as a cell of St Albans Abbey in 1091 by Peter de Valoines. He was a nephew of William the Conqueror who gave him the land at Binham, which according to the Domesday Book originally belonged to a freeman named Esket.

The priory was endowed in the reign of Henry I, probably about 1104, although the building was not finished until the middle of the thirteenth century. The list of priors starts with Osgod in 1106.The Abbot of St Albans was allowed to stay for eight days a year, unless invited to stay longer, and to have no more than thirteen horses in his train. The number of monks was to be no less than eight, and the heirs and successors of the founder were to remain patrons and protectors. With the notable exception of Richard de Parco, Binham suffered much from unscrupulous and irresponsible priors, who quarrelled with St Albans, sold the priory silver, wasted money on lawsuits and even indulged in scandalous behaviour.

About 1212, the priory was besieged by Robert Fitzwalter. The Abbot of St Albans had removed the prior so Fitzwalter produced a forged deed of patronage stating that the prior could not be moved without his consent, and laid siege to the Priory. The monks were forced to eat bran and drink water from the drain-pipes. When King John heard about it he swore 'By God's feet, either I or Fitzwalter must be King of England' and he sent an armed force to relieve the priory. Fitzwalter fled for his life.

The deaths of about twelve monks of Binham are recorded in an obituary of St Albans from 1216 to 1253, which includes the story of Alexander de Langley one-time Prior of Wymondham who became insane through overstudy. When his outbursts of frenzy could no longer be tolerated, he was flogged and kept in solitary confinement at Binham until his death. He was buried in chains in the churchyard.

Richard de Parco was prior from 1227 to 1244 and we have an account of his activities in the chronicle of Matthew Paris. He was honourable and diligent, and acquired property from which he secured income. Thus the windmills of Edgefield and Wells were charged 1½ marks to provide two cassocks and three other garments, and on the days when the monks had no gruel or cheese, the church of Ryburgh was responsible for their provisions.

Richard de Parco also covered the cloister with lead, rebuilt the larder, with a solar chamber, added a new stable, and a stone wall from the gate to the chapel of St Thomas. His most important and ambitious work was to construct the west front, and yet in spite of all his building activities there was a balance of £20 when he left.

In 1285 Edward I stayed at Binham for several days. In 1317 William de Somerton became prior. He spent vast sums on the pursuit of alchemy, and sold two chalices, six copes, three chasubles, seven gold rings, silk cloths, silver cups and spoons and the silver cup and crown in which the Host was suspended before the altar. Also the Abbot, Hugh of St Albans was making exorbitant demands, so that it was difficult to buy food for the monks. When Abbot Hugh proposed to visit Binham, the prior and his friends the Earl of Leicester and Sir Robert Walpole forcibly resisted the visitation. Edward I ordered the arrest of the prior and the monks, who at this time numbered thirteen. Six monks were imprisoned but de Somerton escaped to Rome. Eventually he was reinstated but in 1335 debts again caused him to flee, leaving a deficit of £600.

The records of the priory were burnt during the Peasants Revolt of 1381 at the instance of John Lister, a Binham man, who was the leading spirit of the rising in this part of Norfolk.

In 1433 the prior and the monks resisted the visit of the Bishop of Norwich, but the village people, who were on bad terms with the priory at the time, made him welcome.  In 1461 came the eccentric Prior William Dyxwell. He wandered about from place to place like a vagabond. He was deposed in 1464 but re-appointed a year later for life.