Bruern

Bruern
House on the Bruern Abbey site
Bruern Location within Oxfordshire
Population	62 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SP2518
Civil parish	Bruern
District	West Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Chipping Norton
Postcode district	OX7
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Witney
List of places UK England Oxfordshire 51°52′01″N 1°38′10″W / 51.867°N 1.636°W / 51.867; -1.636

Bruern or Bruern Abbey is a hamlet and civil parish on the River Evenlode about 6 miles (10 km) north of Burford in West Oxfordshire. The 2001 Census recorded the parish population as 62.^[1]

In 1147 Nicholas Basset founded a Cistercian Abbey here^[2] as a daughter house of Waverley Abbey in Surrey. The Abbey held property in west Oxfordshire, east Gloucestershire and at Priddy in Somerset. There seems to have been rebuilding work in the 13th century, as Henry III gave timber in 1232, and two altars were dedicated in 1250.^[3] By 1291, the community was heavily in debt, and financial problems continued throughout the later middle ages.^[3] In 1382 the abbey also bought the manor of Fifield, Oxfordshire. In 1532 a scandal erupted when Abbot Macy was found to have purchased his office from Cardinal Wolsey with the promise of 250 marks and 280 oak trees from the abbey estates. His attempts to recoup the costs from the abbey's income led to his deposition as abbot.^[3] At the Valor Ecclesiasticus survey of 1535 there were fifteen monks, and the abbey had a net income of £124, making it one of the smaller houses.^[3] The abbey was dissolved in October 1536.^[4] After the dissolution, the Abbey became the property of Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell, Oxfordshire, ancestor of the Cope baronets.

In 1720 a baroque country house was built for the Cope family, possibly on the site of the former abbey.^[5] A Georgian cottage in the grounds of the house includes a three-bay vaulted chamber which may be a remnant of the original abbey buildings.^[6] Michael Bishop, Baron Glendonbrook, purchased the 18th-century property in 2012. The Abbey has been completely refurbished under his ownership, including the installation of "a large and impressive cantilever stone staircase and twenty-five kilometres of data cabling' as well as a 'large underground car park".^[7]

• New, Anthony (1985). A Guide to the Abbeys of England And Wales. London: Constable. pp. 80–81. ISBN 0-09-463520-X.
• Page, William, ed. (1907). "9. The Abbey of Bruern". A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. Vol. 2: Ecclesiastical History, etc. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co. pp. 79–81.
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 499–500. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.

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