page_title: Buildwas Abbey
section_title: Financial and cultural advance
hierarchical_section_title: Buildwas Abbey / Era of growth under Abbot Ranulf / Financial and cultural advance
caption_attribution_description: Relief map of Shropshire, UK. Equirectangular map projection on WGS 84 datum, with N/S stretched 165% Geographic limits: West: 3.25W East: 2.15W North: 53.03N South: 52.27N
context_page_description: Buildwas Abbey was a Cistercian monastery located on the banks of the River Severn, at Buildwas, Shropshire, England - today about two miles west of Ironbridge. Founded by the local bishop in 1135, it was sparsely endowed at the outset but enjoyed several periods of growth and increasing wealth: notably under Abbot Ranulf in the second half of the 12th century and again from the mid-13th century, when large numbers of acquisitions were made from the local landed gentry. Abbots were regularly used as agents by Plantagenet in their attempts to subdue Ireland and Wales and the abbey acquired a daughter house in each country. It was a centre of learning, with a substantial library, and was noted for its discipline until the economic and demographic crises of the 14th century brought about decline and difficulties, exacerbated by conflict and political instability in the Welsh Marches. The abbey was suppressed in 1536 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Substantial remains of the abbey church and monk's quarters remain and are in the care of English Heritage.
context_section_description: Richard I's confirmation of the abbey’s lands, issued from the hand of his chancellor, William de Longchamp in 1189, two years after Ranulf’s death, suggests that considerable progress had been made in acquiring land and other sources of income during his abbacy. In addition to the early endowments, it lists Bishop Richard Peche's grants of a messuage in the Foregate at Chester and of a mill worth four shillings at Burne (possibly Burntwood) near Lichfield; Brockton, Staffordshire, from Gerald of Brockton and his son; Richard of Pitchford's gift of the services of a man called Richard Crasset, who lived at Cosford, Shropshire; half of Hatton, south of Shifnal, from Adam of Hatton and Reginald, his son; half of Walton, Staffordshire from Walter Fitz Herman; land at Ivonbrook, near Grangemill in Derbyshire, from Henry Fitz Fulk; land at Cauldon in north-west Staffordshire from William of Cauldon; and a house from Robert Fitz Thomas, although the location is partially erased.
  The increasing wealth of the abbey was probably reflected in the enrichment of its library. Oxford University's database of the medieval libraries of Great Britain records 57 volumes that belonged at some time to the library at Buildwas, including two that subsequently found their way to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, although Trinity College, Cambridge has by far the largest collection of former Buildwas books. Seventeen of the 57 are definitively dated to the 12th century and a further six possibly so. Two are internally dated to the time of Ranulf. One of these is a copy of works of Augustine of Hippo, with its attribution to Buildwas Abbey and the date 1167 written above the title in red and black letters. A glossed copy of the Book of Leviticus has the date 1179 on the 7th folio.
  The additional income must also have played a major part in the decision to press ahead with construction of up-to-date stone buildings for the monastic community.
caption: Relief map of Shropshire showing locations of nearby estates held by Buildwas Abbey in 1189.
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