Page 10 - HB- Bordesley Abbey

Redditch Heritage Bordesley Abbey

Confiscated

The monks of Bordesley had plenty of warning that their house was to be confiscated by
the Crown, and quite naturally took all possible steps to protect their future. It is
significant that immediately after the seizure not only did the monks leave the Abbey,
but the township was also depopulated.

It was many years before numbers again became sufficient for the Gatehouse Chapel of
St. Stephen to be re-consecrated for religious seduces. In the meantime it was used as
a byre for cows.

The Abbey lands were granted to Lord Windsor in 1 542 but by this time the greater part
of the Abbey buildings had been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.

When His Lordship entered into his new estates which he had to accept in forcible
exchange for his family lands at Stanwell in Middlesex coveted by King Henry Vlll in
November he found the Abbey in a state of complete desolation. Parts were already
being demolished while others had been put to secular use. One theory is that the
Sheldon family of Beoley were using some of the buildings for weaving shops. The
brothers frater had been turned into a slaughter house.

The only option open to Lord Windsor's party was to occupy the Abbots Grange at
Hewell. This became the family seat for over four hundred years, until it was disposed
of to meet death duties in 1949.

The movement of the seat of administration from the Abbey at Bordesley to the Grange
at Jewell had other and far-reaching effects. The Church at Tardebigge became the
centre of the religious and, therefore, administrative organisation of the district. Lord
Windsor was Lord of the manors of Bromsgrove, Tardebigge and Redditch. Bromsgrove

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