Bedford
Newnham Priory

Places > Bedford > Abbeys and Priories > Newnham Priory

Newnham Priory was founded in 1156 in Bedford and moved to the site in the parish of Goldington in 1178. The priory received some stone from the destruction of Bedford Castle in 1224-25. While the Black Death claimed the prior in 1348.The Priory was dissolved in 1540 and granted to the Goswick Family. The buildings were partly demolished and the remains converted into a mansion that did not survive long after 1700. Some of the stone from the Priory is said to have been used to build the 16th century dovecote at Willington.

No trace of the Priory now exits save for a stretch of brick wall adjacent to Newnham Marina while a small triangle of grassland, banks and hollows are all that survive of the Priorys system of fishponds located in a field west of the Marina between the disused railway line and the river.

Sources

• BELL, P.  Belief in Bedfordshire.  1986.

• FREEMAN, Ian   From Saxons to Speed : a new history of Old Bedford. 

Newnham Priory, Bedford, by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2012

Page last updated: 22nd January 2014