Hailes Abbey is a ruined Cistercian abbey in Gloucestershire, founded in the 1240s and once home to the Holy Blood of Hailes. Pilgrims flocked to see what was believed to be Christ’s blood until reformers denounced it as a fake in 1538, and the abbey was closed on Christmas Eve 1539 under Henry VIII. Today the ruins and an on-site museum are run by English Heritage, 2 miles north-east of Winchcombe, and open to visitors on guided tours on the first weekend of every month.

History of Hailes Abbey

Richard, Earl of Cornwall, Founds Hailes Abbey

Richard, Earl of Cornwall (1209–72), the second son of King John, vowed in 1242 to found a monastery after surviving a storm at sea, according to English Heritage. His brother Henry III granted him the manor of Hailes three years later, and Richard chose the Cistercian order, apparently inspired by a visit to Royaumont Abbey near Paris. A founding colony of 20 monks and 10 lay brothers, led by Prior Jordan, left Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire for Hailes on 15 June 1246. Richard spent as much as 10,000 marks on the building work, and the church was consecrated in November 1251. From the outset Hailes served as the burial church for Richard’s family: Richard himself, three of his sons and his second wife, Sanchia of Provence, were all buried there.

Edmund of Cornwall and the Holy Blood of Hailes

Edmund, son of Earl Richard, obtained what was believed to be a portion of the blood shed by Christ while he was in Germany in 1268, English Heritage records. The relic was thought to have come from the coronation regalia of Charlemagne, a provenance that led it to be widely accepted as authentic. Edmund gave part of it to Hailes and part to the college he had founded at Ashridge in Hertfordshire, and it reached the abbey on 14 September 1270, the Feast of the Holy Cross. English Heritage notes that the relic was held in a crystal container, and that a 16th-century seal showing a priest holding an orb topped with a cross is the best guide to how it looked.

To house it, the abbey’s east end was rebuilt on a grand scale and completed in 1277. English Heritage says the design was almost certainly inspired by Henry III’s rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, and that its deep chapels eclipsed anything the Cistercians had previously built in England.

Pilgrimage to Hailes: Indulgences, Chaucer and Reported Miracles

The Holy Blood became a focus of pilgrimage almost at once. English Heritage says it was believed to be visible only to people whose sins had been forgiven after confession and penance, which drew pilgrims anxious about their spiritual state. Several popes granted spiritual benefits to pilgrims who visited and contributed to the abbey’s upkeep, and a senior monk, the altararius, showed the shrine at set times and collected offerings. The shrine’s fame reached Geoffrey Chaucer, whose Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales swears by the blood of Christ at Hailes.

Medieval accounts credited the relic with miracles, which are best read as the abbey’s own claims rather than established fact. English Heritage describes an early 16th-century pamphlet recording four of them in detail. In one, a priest in Shropshire who told his parishioners not to make the pilgrimage found the wine in his chalice boiling up at Mass; in another, a priest near Derby who denied the relic’s authenticity found his service book began to bleed. A third tale has a baker’s three children surviving unharmed after their cart was smashed when the horses bolted into nearby quarries. The Tudor antiquary John Leland wrote that miracles were shown daily through the relic, which was said to cure the sick and even raise the dead.

Margery Kempe’s Visit to Hailes Abbey

Margery Kempe, the 15th-century mystic, visited Hailes in 1417 on her way back to Norfolk from the shrine of St James at Compostela in northern Spain, according to English Heritage. She confessed at the abbey and received forgiveness, weeping loudly as she did so. The monks were impressed enough to invite her to talk further, and she rebuked them for swearing, which surprised them and left some of them pleased.

Earl Edmund’s Death, Plague and Debt

Earl Edmund died in 1300 without an heir, which deprived the abbey of its royal benefactor and left it with financial problems, English Heritage records. In 1325 the monks complained to the Bishop of Worcester that the buildings were incomplete and that they struggled to provide the hospitality expected of monasteries. The Black Death of 1348–9 is noted in the abbey’s own chronicle, which says scarcely one man in three remained, and a recurrence in 1361–2 is said to have killed a great many monks and lay brothers. On 16 December 1402 thieves broke into the church and stole riches worth 1,000 marks from the shrine.

By 1412, Henry Alcestre, who had been elected abbot in 1397, was blamed for letting the buildings fall into ruin and running up debts of over £600, with the abbey’s income reduced to £100 a year, too little to support its 22 monks. The anti-pope John XXIII, whose claim was recognised by the English crown, granted special spiritual privileges to pilgrims, and further indulgences followed in 1431, 1458 and about 1468. English Heritage says the later ones explicitly state that pilgrims’ gifts were to fund building work, including repairs to the church and its bell tower. The former lay brothers’ accommodation was converted into a house for the abbot.

Charles Brandon and the Final Flowering of Hailes

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was among the people at the top of Tudor society admitted to the abbey’s confraternity, or brotherhood, during the prosperous early 16th century, according to English Heritage. Successive abbots invested in the abbey’s art and architecture, and local gentry such as Sir John Huddleston (d. 1511/12) and his wife, Dame Joan, left generous bequests; their sculpted coat of arms decorated the abbey’s buildings.

Hugh Latimer, Henry VIII and the Destruction of the Shrine

Hugh Latimer, an early convert to the evangelical cause and then rector of West Kington, complained in 1533 about the flocks of pilgrims passing his house to many shrines, chiefly the blood of Hailes. Pilgrims were still making offerings in 1535, amounting to £10, a substantial sum at the time. According to one source cited by English Heritage, Anne Boleyn sent chaplains that year to inquire into the pilgrimage, which they called an abominable abuse.

Three years later the relic was denounced in a sermon outside St Paul’s Cathedral as nothing more than duck’s blood. Commissioners, including Latimer, by then Bishop of Worcester, examined it at Hailes, pronounced it an unctuous gum rather than blood, sealed it in a box and took it to London. In November 1538 Bishop John Hilsey of Rochester declared at St Paul’s Cross that it was clarified honey coloured with saffron. The shrine was stripped of its precious metal and jewelled adornment and then dismantled.

Abbot Stephen Sagar and the Surrender of 1539

Stephen Sagar, elected the last abbot of Hailes in 1527, signed the abbey’s surrender deed together with its 21 monks on Christmas Eve 1539, ending the abbey during Henry VIII’s Suppression of the Monasteries, which closed 840 religious houses across England and Wales. English Heritage records that the abbey’s gold and silver plate went to the Tower of London, the roof lead was melted into 119 large bars called fothers, and local people pillaged the site. The buildings were sold to Robert Acton, a dealer in monastic property; the church and many other buildings were rapidly demolished, while the former abbot’s house in the west range and several agricultural buildings were kept and converted into a country estate.

The Tracy Family, Excavations and Rediscovery

The Tracy family of Toddington lived at Hailes between 1607 and 1686, according to English Heritage, and the travel writer Celia Fiennes visited the house and described it as a good old house with a pretty chapel and a lofty hall. By the early 18th century the Tracys had moved back to Toddington and the house fell into ruin. By the mid-19th century the abbey’s romantic decay was attracting tourists, and excavations between 1899 and 1908 were directed by William Bazeley, a canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and Welbore St Clair Baddeley, with advice from the Cistercian architecture expert Sir Harold Brakspear.

After those excavations the site again fell into disrepair. In 1927 the physician Sir James K Fowler, appalled by its condition, used money from a public appeal to devise a plan for presenting the site, including the museum that is still in use today, and persuaded the Great Western Railway to open a halt on the line that runs close to the abbey. The site was donated to the National Trust in 1937, and in 1948 the Ministry of Works, a predecessor of English Heritage, assumed responsibility for its care and interpretation.

Visiting Hailes Abbey: Practical Information

• Address: Hailes, near Winchcombe, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL54 5PB.
• Opening hours: Open for guided tours on the first weekend of every month. Tours are booked online through English Heritage.
• Tickets: Booked online for a chosen date through English Heritage, which lists Standard, Saver and Super Saver options at booking. National Trust members get free entry and need to show proof of membership on arrival.
• Managed by: English Heritage. The site was donated to the National Trust in 1937.
• Getting there: 2 miles north-east of Winchcombe off the B4632, on the Cotswold Way National Trail. Sat nav postcode GL54 5PB; what3words: heckler.mincing.says.
• Parking: Free, near the entrance. Disabled parking is 20 metres from the entrance, on loose gravel.
• By bus: Castleways service 606 from Cheltenham, with occasional journeys on service 559 to within 1 mile.
• By train: Cheltenham Spa station is 10 miles away.
• Accessibility: The museum and ticket point are level, with a ramp, and the abbey and grounds are a mix of gentle grass slopes and level, smoothed areas. There is an accessible toilet and assistance dogs are welcome. The short grass can be slippery when wet, and low uneven walls and foundations are trip hazards.
• Crossing the road: From the car park next to the church, you cross a narrow road that is part of the Cotswold Way and is also used by farm vehicles and groups of cyclists.
• What to see: The museum shows lavish sculpture, heraldic floor tiles and one of the oldest surviving medieval spectacle frames, along with a carving of Samson and the Lion from a stone ceiling boss and a 16th-century seal depicting the Holy Blood.
• Nearby: Belas Knap Long Barrow (around 3.4 miles), Odda’s Chapel (around 11 miles) and Great Witcombe Roman Villa (around 13.5 miles), all English Heritage sites.

Prices last checked: October 2026.

Opening hours last checked: October 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the opening times for Hailes Abbey?

Hailes Abbey is open on the first weekend of every month for guided tours, which are booked online through English Heritage. Check the English Heritage booking page for tour dates and times before you travel.

Is Hailes Abbey National Trust or English Heritage?

English Heritage runs Hailes Abbey, and the site was donated to the National Trust in 1937. National Trust members get free entry when they book through English Heritage, and must show proof of membership on arrival.

Where is Hailes Abbey, and how far is it from Winchcombe?

Hailes Abbey is in Gloucestershire, 2 miles north-east of Winchcombe off the B4632, on the Cotswold Way National Trail. Its postcode is GL54 5PB.

What is left of Hailes Abbey today?

Hailes Abbey is now a ruin of surviving stonework with an on-site museum. The church was rapidly demolished after the abbey closed in 1539, but the museum displays carved sculpture, heraldic floor tiles and one of the oldest surviving medieval spectacle frames.

Who founded Hailes Abbey, and when?

Richard, Earl of Cornwall, founded Hailes Abbey, sending the first monks from Beaulieu Abbey on 15 June 1246. He had vowed to found a monastery in 1242 after surviving a storm at sea, and the church was consecrated in November 1251.

Did Hailes Abbey really have the blood of Christ?

Medieval pilgrims believed it did, but Henry VIII’s reformers declared the Holy Blood of Hailes a fake in 1538, and English Heritage says the relic was destroyed. Their explanations varied, from duck’s blood to a gum or honey coloured with saffron.

Is there parking at Hailes Abbey?

Yes, there is free parking near the entrance to Hailes Abbey. Disabled parking is about 20 metres from the entrance, on a loose gravel surface.

Hailes Abbey is one of many historic sites across England worth planning a trip around. Browse our Churches & Cathedrals guides for more abbeys, minsters and ruins.