The foundation began in a modest way about 960 A.D.
in a small wooden cell housing three men who had renounced the sinful pleasures of the
flesh. Shortly afterwards, Ealdorman Aethelwine (Duke Ailwyn), made the acquaintance
of Bishop Oswald at the funeral of a nobleman who had died suddenly at the King's court.
The outcome was that the Bishop, at the Duke's request, undertook to take charge of
the building of a suitable monastery to fulfil a vow which the Duke had made on recovering
from a serious illness. On returning to his diocese Oswald sent the Venerable Ednoth
to Ramsey; he enlarged the chapel found there and built the necessary offices according to
the manner and form shown him by the Prelate.
We have a description of the foundation of
the Abbey contained in the Liber Benefactorum, one of the oldest and finest of our
national monastic chronicles. A modern translation of the text
of Part I of the chronicle has been produced by Dr Susan Edgington and a group of
local scholars and it is from this translation that the following extracts are taken.
Ealdorman Aethelwine (Ailwyn) and Bishop Oswald discuss the founding of the monastery
dedicated to St Benedict:
Oswald: If .... you should have a place in any
district or estate under your jurisdiction suitable for those who have preferred monastic
religion, I should recommend to you to build a monastery there for the honour of God.
 |
Archbishop Oswald of York, one
of the founders of the Abbey, with his feet on a ram,- the emblem of the Abbey. Detail from the illuminated lettering created by
Andrew Bainbridge, a Year 10 student at Ramsey Abbey School, and inspired by the
Ramsey Psalter.
Click on the image
for the complete version. |
Aethelwine: Venerable
father, I have a certain estate, by right of my inheritance, which the local people call
Ramsey, surrounded by marshy fen, suitable enough, I think, for a dwelling for such men as
you mention; for it is both cut off from the arrival of men and privy to solitary
tranquility. It is, moreover, a place well wooded with different sorts of trees,
having a pleasant plain of fertile turf in a certain fold of its land, clad in a lush
fleece of grass as pasture for flocks to graze. ....
| Indeed a few years ago when I
was burning up with fever of a very severe illness, and I was waiting for nothing other
than the benefit of death to end my increasingly oppressive lassitude |
 |
A drawing, now in the County
Record Office, by the anitiquary William Stukeley (1687 - 1765) of the monument supposed
to be of Ealdorman Aethewine, (or Earl Ailwyn as popularly called). Aethelwine was a man of great power in King Edgar's
England, involved in the monasteries reform movement. |
.....I received the promise of
favourable health from blessed Benedict, the father of monks, who added his instructions
that as soon as I recovered my bodily strength I should go and build a monastery there in
honour of God and in memory of that same father.
back to top
Concerning the
situation of the island which is called Ramsey:
In the eastern corner of the
Huntingdon territory, which the channel of the River Ouse confines with boundaries of
marshes, a notable island is situated, the most beautiful of the fen islands in proportion
to its size......muddy rough ground stretching between divides that place on the western
side from solid land by some two bow shots.
| This place, once upon a time,
used to welcome ships in the calm bosom of its pleasant bank, and they only just reached
it on a sluggish current with a fair breeze; now with hard work and expense the muddy
abyss has been filled up by a pile of wood, sand and likewise stone, and is approached on
foot by a public way or by a solid track from the same direction...... |
 |
A map of Ramsey c1684, made
by Jonas Moore, now in the County Record Office.
Even after the great drainage works of
Cornelius Vermuyden, it still conveys the impression of the "Raven's Island"
from which Ramsey gets its name. |
This
island is garlanded beautifully roundabout as much with alder thickets as reed beds....The
same place besides is encircled by eel-filled marshes, by far-reaching meres and by still
pools sustaining a variety of fish and swimming birds. One of these meres is Ramsey
Mere, named after the island, which greatly excels the other waters nearby in beauty and
fertility, on that side where the greater wood of the island is thicker, beautifully
lapping its sandy shore in the place called Mereham, and offering a delightful sight to
those who view it.
back to top
The building of
the monastery
Then after winter had passed,
when spring was already putting forth its head strewn with flowers, there was a
distribution of assembled treasures, and the craftsmen were sought out and brought
together, the length and breadth of the basilica to be built were measured out, the
foundations were laid deeply on account of the nearby marshiness all around, and were
pounded strongly with repeated blows of rams into a dense strength to support the
burden. The workmen, therefore, laboured continuously, as much from eager piety as
from love of pay: while some brought together stones, some made mortar, and others helped
by raising them on high by means of a wheeled device, so, with the Lord providing
progress, the work rose higher daily. Two towers also stood up at the very topmost
points of the roofs; the smaller of them, at the front of the basilica towards the west,
offered a beautiful sight from afar to people coming to the island; the larger one,
indeed, in the middle of the four-armed structure, rested on four columns, connected by
arches stretching from one to another in turn, so that they would not loosen and fall
down. Compared with the design which that ancient age used to follow in building, it
was a remarkable enough edifice.
back to top
The Dedication of
the monastery
In the year of Our Lord's
incarnation 974 on the 8th November it was solemnly dedicated by St Oswald, with Christ's
blessing, to the patronage of the Virgin of virgins and the name of St Benedict and the
memory of All Virgins. There is no doubt that divine grace was present on that day
through the prayers of His faithful people, since the element of most kindly air seemed to
conspire in their favour with prayerful serenity and the sun to applaud their devotion
with the flowing locks of his rays.
