Chacombe Priory

Chacombe Priory

House on the site of Chacombe Priory
Monastery information
Order	Augustinian
Established	12th century
Disestablished	1536
People
Founder	Hugh de Chacombe
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade II* listed
Designated date	11 September 1953
Site
Location	Chacombe, Northamptonshire, England
Coordinates
Grid reference	SP48854388
Visible remains	core of building incorporated into country house; also chapel and medieval fishponds

Chacombe Priory (or Chalcombe Priory) was a priory of Augustinian canons at Chacombe, Northamptonshire, England. Hugh of Chacombe, lord of the manor of Chacombe, founded the priory in the reign of Henry II (1154–89), on low-lying land just west of the village close to the stream. Hugh gave the priory endowments including a yardland at South Newington. In about 1225 the priory's property included eight tenements in Banbury, seven of which it retained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. By the time of the Hundred Rolls in 1279 the priory owned a tenement in Warwick, where it expanded its holdings until it owned a substantial number of tenements and cottages by the time of the Dissolution.

On 27 September 1535 Sir John Tregonwell reported to Thomas Cromwell:

At Chacombe the prior is newly come, and is competently well learned in Holy Scripture. He is bringing into some order his canons, who are rude and unlearned. I am only afraid that he is too familiar and easy with them.

When the priory was suppressed in 1536 its property included land at Boddington, Northamptonshire, Rotherby, Leicestershire and Wardington, Oxfordshire, and a tenement at Thorpe Mandeville. Today the only visible remains of the priory are a small chapel apparently built in the 13th century and a set of mediaeval fishponds. However, at least three medieval stone coffin slabs, including one from the 13th century, have been found in the priory grounds.

Part of the priory site is now occupied by a house, also called Chacombe Priory. The house has a large Elizabethan porch and a late 17th-century staircase, and was remodelled in the Georgian era. The house is a Grade II* listed building.

Burials at the Priory

• Nicholas Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave and his wife Maud
• John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave
• Stephen Segrave, 3rd Baron Segrave (d. 1325)