  Location within Wiltshire | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Priory of St Mary and St Melor |
| Other names | Amesbury Abbey |
| Order | Fontevraud |
| Established | 1177 |
| Disestablished | 1539 |
| Mother house | Fontevraud Abbey |
| Dedicated to | St Mary and St Melor |
| Diocese | Salisbury |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Henry II of England |
| Important associated figures | Edward I of England; Eleanor of Provence, Queen of England; Mary of Woodstock; Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany; Eleanor of Brittany; Isabel of Lancaster; Sybil Montagu |
| Site | |
| Location | Amesbury, Wiltshire, England |
| Coordinates | 51°10′26″N 1°47′02″W / 51.174°N 1.784°W |
| Grid reference | SU152417 |
| Visible remains | The Church of St Mary and St Melor, Amesbury, is possibly the priory church or the church of the men |
| Public access | yes |
Amesbury Priory was a Benedictine monastery at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, belonging to the Order of Fontevraud. It was founded in 1177 to replace the earlier Amesbury Abbey, a Saxon foundation established about the year 979. The Anglo-Norman Amesbury Priory was disbanded at the Dissolution of the monasteries and ceased to exist as a monastic house in 1539.[1]
While the earlier Amesbury Abbey had been exclusively a nunnery or house of women, its successor, Amesbury Priory, following the particular structures of its parent Order of Fontevraud, was both a convent of nuns and a corresponding monastery of men. Both were governed locally by a prioress and ultimately by the Abbess of Fontevraud, in Anjou, part of the territories in what is now France that were then ruled by the English royal house.
Nothing remains of the priory above ground, its site having been used for a mansion which re-uses the name Amesbury Abbey.[2]
- ^ Cf. David M. Smith (ed.), The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, III. 1377–1540, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008, p. 622.
- ^ Historic England. "Amesbury Abbey (Park and Garden) (1000469)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2021.