The ancient religious house at Quarr

By coincidence, the first abbey at Quarr also had a French connection. Its founder, Baldwin de Redvers, brought monks from Savigny Abbey in Normandy in 1131 to start the colony. The abbey was consecrated in 1150. The construction phase appears to have been a long one because a licence to surround the abbey with walls was given in 1340 and this work was still in progress in 1366.

The location on the north shore was well chosen. To the west is a river and a port and to the east a stone quarry, from which the abbey takes its name. Building materials did not have to travel any distance.

The plan of the abbey, drawn from a 19th century excavation, is a conventional Cistercian arrangement, except for building the church on the south side. The church had a total length of 160 feet and a width of 110 feet, making it an impressive building. Other than this, little can be gleaned about its appearance since it was immediately dismantled after dissolution in 1536. The quarried and dressed stone was quite hard and therefore worth salvaging. A lot of the stone from the former abbey was used to build two defensive blockhouses at East and West Cowes in 1539.

The abbey was a prosperous one and by 1536 held the manors of Quarr, Newnham, Arreton, Staplehurst, Sheat, Shaldcomb, Newport, Comley, Fowewod cum Forewey, Compton, Haseley, Lovecombe, Hamstede, Roughbarowe, Bydeborough, Charke in Rowner, together with various properties in many other places in southern Hampshire. The Vlor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 put a value of £134 3s 11d. on the abbey.

It was therefore a tempting property and despite the good report of the commissioners the house was nevertheless dissolved. Sir Thomas Wriothesley, later the 1st Earl of Southampton, acquired all the Hampshire manorial rights on February 17th 1537 and then scooped up the Devonshire properties in November of that year. The abbey itself was leased to John Mill of Southampton in March 1537 for 21 years but in 1544 John and George Mill acquired a grant of the property. It continued in private ownership until it was sold in 1907 to the Benedictine monks of Solesme.

Because so much of the abbey was dismantled in the 16th century and employed elsewhere very little remains of the original abbey. Even some of the foundations were removed. However, there are some walls and ruins remaining to remind us of its medieval heritage.