Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Denny Abbey
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1159-1536
History
Denny Abbey was founded in 1159 as a Benedictine monastery and is the only religious site in England to have been occupied by three different monastic orders at various times in its history. It was handed over to the Knights Templar in 1170 as a home for their aged and infirm members. In 1308, when the Templars were arrested for alleged heresy, the Abbey became a convent for a group of Franciscan nuns known as the Poor Clares. Their patron, the Countess of Pembroke, converted the original church into private apartments and built a new church, refectory and other buildings. Following the dissolution of the nunnery in 1539 by Henry VIII, it was converted into a farm and was in use until the late 1960s when it was acquired by Pembroke College and placed in the care of what is now English Heritage.