Name: COMBE Location: Combe Abbey
Park, nr Coventry County: Warwickshire Foundation: 1150 Mother house: Waverley Relocation: None Founder: Richard de Camville Dissolution: 1539 Prominent members: Access: Converted into a hotel
Combe was founded in 1150 by Richard de Camville,
who married the widow of Robert Marmion, founder of Polesworth
Abbey.(1) It was the
fifth daughter house of Waverley, the
oldest of the English Cistercian houses. By the end of the thirteenth
century
it had become
the wealthiest house in Warwickshire. However, during the fourteenth
century the house was burdened by some debt, as were a lot of
the
Cistercian abbeys at that time. In the assessment of 1535 the house
was found to have a clear annual value of £211 and was surrendered
in 1539 by the abbot and twelve monks.(2)
After
the suppression, the claustral
ranges were converted into a house by John Harrington, who demolished
the church and used its materials for building work. The house
was
rebuilt several times over the years and though much of the nineteenth-century
house is now demolished, the monastic structures are still visible.
The surviving buildings of Combe Abbey have now been converted
into a hotel, and the rest of the precinct, owned by Coventry
City Council
since the 1950s, is incorporated within a public park.(3)