History
During the Middle Ages, Missenden Abbey was the monastic home of a community of canons living the Rule of St Augustine. According to the foundation charter, the Abbey was founded in 1133 by William de Missenden, the lord of Missenden manor. De Missenden invited canons from the monastery of St Mary’s in Ruisseauville to establish an Augustinian house, specifically one of the Arrouaisian order to which St Mary’s belonged. Missenden thus became the home of the first abbey in the county of Buckinghamshire and the second Arrouaisian community in England, after Warter Abbey in East Yorkshire.
There is no extant plan of the medieval monastery, but a partial reconstruction is possible based on documentary evidence, excavation work and comparisons with other religious houses of the period. The Abbey Church, which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was located on the North side of the main building, running from west to east, as was typical of the period. Excavated stonework suggests that the church was highly decorated, in a romanesque style. The church housed the largest bell in Buckinghamshire, which weighed more than 2.5 tons.
The abbey has been owned by Buckinghamshire New University since the mid 1990s. It is now used as a conference centre.
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