Anglesey Abbey is a National Trust property in the village of Lode, northeast of Cambridge, England. The property includes a country house, built on the remains of a priory, 98 acres (400,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of gardens and landscaped grounds, and a working mill.

The priory was closed in 1536 during the dissolution of the monasteries and a Jacobean-style house was built on the site of the ruins in about 1600. Owners down the centuries included Thomas Hobson and his Parker descendants, and three local clergymen. The last private owner was Lord Fairhaven who lived in the house from 1926 until he died in 1966. He made extensive additions to the house to accommodate his collection of furniture, art, books and objets d'art and landscaped the grounds. On his death, he left the house and its contents to the National Trust.

History

Anglesey Abbey was built on the remains of a priory of Augustinian Canons regular, which was founded as a hospital of St Mary during the reign of Henry I (i.e., between 1100 and 1135) and endowed as a priory by Richard de Clare in 1212. The priory was closed in 1536 during the dissolution of the monasteries. Three years later it was granted to a lawyer, John Hynde. The priory was largely demolished and materials used in the construction of Madingley Hall.

left|thumb|upright=1.4|Visitor entrance at rear of house, with dining room on the right showing old masonry

The Fowkes family acquired the property in 1595 and converted what remained of the demolished priory into a Jacobean-style house. The walls of the chapter house were incorporated into the main part of the domestic dwelling, with the calefactory or monks' day room to the north left as an outbuilding. Subsequent owners included the Cambridge carrier Thomas Hobson (of "Hobson's Choice"), his son-in-law barrister Thomas Parker and descendants, Cambridgeshire MP Samuel Shepheard and his daughter Lady Irvine, and George Leonard Jenyns. Owners did not always occupy the house themselves; it was leased out as a farmhouse at times. By the time Thomas Parker died in 1643 the property was known as Anglesey Abbey, rather than Priory.

In 1848 Reverend John Hailstone, vicar of the neighbouring parish of Bottisham, son of botanist Samuel Hailstone and nephew of a geologist John Hailstone, purchased Anglesey Abbey and carried out restorations, converting the monks' day room into an entrance hall, adding a service wing and building a stable block from remaining medieval masonry. Several sketches he made of the house survive. He was also responsible for planting trees, including cedars, wellingtonia, weeping elm and silver lime, along the drive to the house.

Henry moved out when he married in 1932, leaving his older brother, by then Lord Fairhaven (having been given the barony that was about to be bestowed on his father, Urban H. Broughton, when he died) as the last private owner of Anglesey Abbey. Lord Fairhaven made extensive additions to the house to provide room for his rapidly expanding collection of books, paintings, tapestries, clocks, furniture and objets d'art. The library wing, designed by Sidney Parvin, was added in 1937 and was followed by the Tapestry Hall, a staircase hall off the dining room, in 1939. Lord Fairhaven had stated in his will that the house should be preserved as "a complete and furnished entity so that it retains as far as possible the character of an English Home". Although most of the paintings in Anglesey Abbey are by British artists, foreign artists are represented in the Windsor collection and there are also flower pieces by Ambrosius Bosschaert and Jean-Baptiste de Fontenay, as well as three paintings by Claude Lorrain. Sculpture in the collection includes 18th-century marble horses, a 15th-century continental wooden figure of St Jerome, a bronze bull by Antoine-Louis Barye, and a collection of bronzes by R. Tait McKenzie, Frederic Leighton, Alfred Gilbert and others, and a silver Shield of Achilles by John Flaxman. Storm damage in 1968 removed most of the plane trees leaving only the horse chestnut trees. The Temple Lawn was created in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Three generations of the local Ayres family have worked in the gardens since 1921, with Noel and Richard becoming head gardeners. A Winter Garden was opened in 1998 in Lord Fairhaven's memory. In 2013 Richard Todd, head gardener at Anglesey Abbey since 1974, received the British Empire Medal for his years of service to the trust and national heritage. In 1999 he had been responsible for establishing a composting system to improve drainage and help retain water in a drought. Ten years later 95% of garden waste was composted.

thumb|right|200px|Aerial view of the house and gardens, showing the Summer House at left (June 2013)

To the north-west of the house, a block of farm buildings was converted into a large bungalow, complete with a swimming pool, to serve as the Summer House for the Fairhaven family in the days when they used to occupy Anglesey Abbey house in the winter before they moved to Kirtling Tower in 2004.

The grounds are bounded on the northwest by Bottisham Lode, with Lode Mill, bought and restored by Lord Fairhaven in 1934, at its head. To the south of the mill is the quarry pool, a large pool believed to be the site of a 19th-century coprolite mine. In 1978 the mill was restored to working order by the Cambridgeshire Wind and Watermill Society and flour can be bought in the mill or the shop. A new visitor centre with a restaurant and shop was opened in 2008. Seasonal attractions include the winter lights festival, snowdrop and daffodil tours in spring, and summer outdoor cinema.

In March 2020 the property was closed to visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the gardens and park re-opening in June 2020.

Anglesey Abbey was featured in the National Trust's 2020 Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery since Samuel Shepheard, who bought the property in 1739 but did not live there or make any additions to it, had been one of the 24 directors of the East India Company from 1717 to 1721.

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File:Anglesey Abbey snowdrops.jpg|Snowdrops in front of the house

File:Anglesey Abbey Rose Garden.jpg|Rose Garden

File:Anglesey Abbey - Formal Garden Spring 3.jpg|Formal Garden with hyacinths in spring

File:Anglesey Abbey - 001.jpg|Winter Walk in spring

File:Silver Trees - geograph.org.uk - 911455.jpg|Winter Walk in summer

File:Coronation Avenue, Anglesey Abbey Gardens - geograph.org.uk - 403690.jpg|Coronation Avenue

File:The Circular Temple, Anglesey Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 403674.jpg|The Circular Temple

File:Three of Six Caryatids, At Coronation Avenue, At Anglesey Abbey (1).jpg|Three of six Caryatids at Coronation Avenue

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References

  • List of paintings on view