Swineshead Abbey

The Abbey of St Mary, a Cistercian monastery, was founded in 1134 by Robert de Gresley. Gresley and his son, Albert, endowed the Abbey with 240 acres of land and other gifts. The Abbey was originally Savigniac and populated with monks from Furness Abbey, but was absorbed into the Cistercian order along with all the other Savigniac Houses in 1147. In 1170 the Abbot of Swineshead was reprimanded for owning villages, churches and serfs. King John spent a short time in the Abbey after losing his baggage in the fens, and just before his death in 1216. In William Shakespeare's King John, the name of the abbey where King John stayed is misspelled as "Swinsted Abbey" instead of "Swineshead Abbey", and this confusion was common in late-sixteenth century texts, for Swinstead is about 25 miles from Swineshead. It was dissolved in 1536 with the first Act of Suppression, its last Abbot being John Haddingham.

The first documented reuse of the site dates from 1607 when a farmhouse, Abbey House, was built out of the abbey ruins by Sir John Lockton. The Abbey House is a Grade II listed building.

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