Luffield Abbey

INFORMATION

FontID: 20305LUF
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Church/Chapel: Priory Church [disappeared by 1732]
Country Name: England
Location: Buckinghamshire, South East
Directions to Site: Located near Biddlesden and Silverstone. on the border with Northamptonshire. The abbey was located in the present site of the Silverstone motor racing circuit, 200 m. NE of Stowe Corner
Ecclesiastic Region: [Diocese of Oxford]
Historical Region: Hundred of Buckingham
Date: ca, 1133
Century and Period: 12th century (early?), Norman
Church Notes: Benedictine priory founded before 1133; suppressed 1494;
Font Notes:
No entry found for Luffield in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 1, 1905) notes: "The priory of Luffield was probably the first house of this order in Buckinghamshire, [...] and was dedicated to the honour of St. Mary; the name of the founder, Robert de Bossu, Earl of Leicester, shows the date of foundation to have been earlier than 1133." Volume 4 of the VCH (1927) mentions the monastic church being right on the boundary between Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire and adds: "No traces now remain of the former conventual buildings, and even Willis, who visited Luffield on 11 October 1732, found only a piece of the old tower of the church". [NB: not known whether the 15th-century St. Thomas Becket Chapel, located in the same area and also disappeared, had a font in it].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.071, -1.026
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 4′ 15.6″ N, 1° 1′ 33.6″ W
UTM: 30U 635295 5770774

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2016-01-18 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2016-01-18 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.