page_title: Flixton Priory
section_title: Early endowments
hierarchical_section_title: Flixton Priory / The foundation phase, 1256–1292 / Early endowments
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of a window in the parish church of St Remigius, Dunston, Norfolk, showing early 14th-century stained glass representing Lady Margery de Creke, who at the time held the patronage of the parish and was Prioress of Flixton, kneeling before St Remigius
context_page_description: Flixton Priory was a nunnery under a prioress following the Augustinian rule, which formerly stood in the parish of Flixton in the north of the English county of Suffolk, about 3 miles south-west of Bungay. It was founded by Margery de Creke in 1258, and was dissolved in 1536–37. It was the poorest of the nunneries within the Diocese of Norwich. The site of the priory, which was enclosed by a moat, was at the present Abbey Farm, where little apart from the position in the landscape and a small section of standing wall remain to be seen. It was scheduled as an ancient monument in 1953. It is privately-owned and is not open to the public. It is suggested that some parts of the masonry may have been re-used in St Peter's Hall at St Peter, South Elmham.
  There are plentiful charters and other deeds and documents relating to the history of the priory. Eighty-four charters collected by Thomas Martin of Palgrave which were purchased by Thomas Astle entered the Stowe Collection, and passed from the Ashburnham Collection to the British Library. An 18th century abstract of their contents is bound into the miscellaneous volume Stowe MS 1083, at fols. 56-84.
context_section_description: A short distance from the priory, at the foot of the lane, stood the parochial church of St Mary's, its large west tower of late Anglo-Saxon date topped by a Rhenish helm spire. The patronage of the church was held in two moieties, one belonging to the Bishop of Norwich and one to Margery de Creke. In 1260 Margery conveyed the messuage and two carucates of land, and her moiety of the advowson, to the priory, and Rannulf de Combs conveyed 20 acres of land at Flixton worth £1 a year. The advowson and appropriation of the church of Dunston, Norfolk, in 1264, and the advowson of Shipmeadow, Suffolk, in 1269, were conveyed to Prioress Beatrice (de Ratlesden), who had succeeded Alianora by 1263. At about this time the advowsons of North Creak and Helmingham also came to the priory.
  Margery outlived her two elder sons, who died without offspring: in 1272 she held Hillington and Westhorp from Robert de Tateshal. She gave a house and lands and the advowson of the church in Combs to the priory in c. 1275. In 1280, after petition, she granted the patronage of the priory to the Bishops of Norwich, then William de Middleton (1277–1288). She died about 1286, when the Combs lands, until then held in Bartholomew's name, passed to the third son, John de Creke. John lived only until 1289, leaving as heir his sister Sarra, wife of Roger fitz Peter fitz Osbert.
  Successive escheats necessitated the renewal of the priory's endowments. In 1289 Prioress Beatrice conveyed her right of advowson of North Creak and Combs churches to Roger and Sarra, who in turn granted or regranted to her the manor of Flixton and moiety of the church, the advowson of Helmingham church (with land), a house with 26 acres in Wilby, Suffolk, a house with 29 acres in North Creak, and the advowsons of Dunston and Fundenhall, in pure alms. A grant of the watermill at Flixton and a mill at Combs was received from William de Colchester, and renewed in 1292 at Sarra's death, when an inquisition was held into the priory's temporalities, and an extent taken (counting only Dunston and the moiety of Flixton churches), showing a value of £43.18s.2d. In the same year the priory granted a free chantry to Adam de Walpole in the chapel in his manor at Shipmeadow.
  The church of Dunston is dedicated to St Remigius. It was much restored in the early 20th century. If the 14th century glass in the chancel is original to this church, it may refer to the patronage of Flixton Priory in the image of a kneeling veiled woman, perhaps Margery de Creke herself, praying before the saint.
caption: A patroness praying to St Remigius: Dunston, early 14th century.
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