Prinknash Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery near Cranham in Gloucestershire, home to a community of monks who have lived on the estate since 1928. The land has been linked with the Benedictines of Gloucester since 1096, and the monks now live in the old manor house once used by the Abbots of Gloucester. Visitors can walk the estate’s designated footpaths, pray in the chapel and use the Monastery Shop and Café, which are open daily from 10am to 4pm.

History of Prinknash Abbey

Heylas Giffard and the Gift of 1096

Heylas Giffard, son of the Norman lord Osberne Giffard of Brimpsfield, gave part of his woods at Buckholt to the Benedictines of Gloucester in 1096, according to the abbey’s own history of Prinknash. He laid the deed of gift on the altar of the abbey church, the gift was confirmed in 1121, and his son, who became a monk of Gloucester, added Cranham to the endowment. In 1260 the Abbot of Gloucester bought more land and woodland from Sir Laurence de Chandos, making an estate of 300 acres, and a survey of the abbey’s manors in 1266 records a mill at Prinknash.

The Abbots of Gloucester’s Manor at Prinknash

The Abbots of Gloucester kept a park at Prinknash with rights of free warren, the right to hunt deer and other game, granted by Edward III and confirmed by Richard II, the abbey’s history records. In 1339 the Bishop of Worcester licensed the Abbot of Gloucester and his monks to have Mass celebrated in an oratory in their manor of Prinknash, which shows it was already a manor with a chapel by then. Some parts of the present house are thought to date from the 14th century. William Parker, also known as Malverne, the last Abbot of Gloucester, rebuilt and enlarged the house; he had been Master of the Works at Gloucester before he was elected abbot in 1515.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s Visit of 1535

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were entertained for a week by Abbot William Parker during the king’s progress through Gloucestershire in July 1535, according to the abbey’s history. Records of the time show the king riding from Tewkesbury to Gloucester and lodging at the Vineyard, an abbot’s house that was probably the manor at Over, about two miles from the city. The abbey’s history is careful to say that, although the king was entertained in the neighbourhood of Prinknash, there is no certain evidence that he ever stayed in the house itself.

The Dissolution, Sir Anthony Kingston and the Bridges Family

The Abbey of Gloucester was surrendered by its prior and monks on 2 January 1540, the abbey’s history records; the monks were pensioned off and the abbey church became Gloucester Cathedral. The same history calls the story that the last Abbot of Gloucester died of grief at the suppression a pious legend, since he had died many months earlier. After the surrender, Sir Anthony Kingston rented the manor of Prinknash from the Crown on condition that he preserve forty deer a year for the king’s use. In 1544 Henry VIII granted the house and manor to Edmund Bridges, later Lord Chandos of Sudeley, whose family went on using Prinknash as a residence for generations.

Sir John Bridgeman, Lady Bridgeman and the Siege of Gloucester

Sir John Bridgeman, Chief Justice of Chester, bought Prinknash with his son George in about 1628, according to the abbey’s history. He found the chapel in ruins, restored it and had it consecrated in 1629 by Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester. During the Civil War his widow, Frances, Lady Bridgeman, was living at Prinknash when the Royalists marched on Puritan Gloucester. A diarist recorded that provision was made to entertain the king at Lady Bridgeman’s house, and the abbey’s history states that Prinknash became the headquarters of Prince Rupert and his officers until the siege was relieved on 5 September. Bridgemans lived at Prinknash until 1770.

Horace Walpole and the Stately Home Years

Horace Walpole visited Prinknash in 1774 and wrote to a friend that it stood “on a glorious but impracticable hill, in the midst of a little forest of beech”, as quoted in the abbey’s history. Over the next century the house passed through several families. Sir John Howell bought it in 1776, James Ackers, MP for Ludlow, bought it in 1847 and restored the chapel, and his son Benjamin St John Ackers added a new wing on the south-east side before selling the estate in 1888.

Thomas Dyer Edwardes and the Gift to the Caldey Monks

Thomas Dyer Edwardes, who bought Prinknash in 1888, made the most extensive changes since Abbot Parker’s day, according to the abbey’s history. He added an apsidal sanctuary to the chapel, laid out an avenue of nearly a mile through the park from Upton St Leonards, and built two entrance lodges and a sunken garden. He became a Catholic in 1924 and invited the Benedictine monks of Caldey Island to make a foundation at Prinknash, but news of his death in Naples reached them on 10 February 1926, which left the deed of gift without effect.

The estate passed to his grandson, the 20th Earl of Rothes, who honoured his grandfather’s wishes and signed a deed of conveyance dated 1 August 1928. Heavy death duties meant the house’s valuables were sold first: its medieval heraldic glass went to the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral, and oak panelling from six rooms went to the City Art Museum in St Louis, Missouri.

Aelred Carlyle’s Community and the Move from Caldey

Aelred Carlyle founded the community in the Church of England on the Isle of Dogs, London, in 1896, according to the monks’ own history. After stays in Dorset and Yorkshire they settled on Caldey Island, off Tenby in South Wales, in October 1906, and almost all of them became Roman Catholics in March 1913. Financial difficulties drove them to look for a new home: six monks arrived at Prinknash on 6 October 1928, at the start of a bitterly cold winter, and the last fourteen left Caldey on 19 December 1928. Dom Wilfred Upson, who had inspected the property in 1926, later became the first Abbot of Prinknash. In its profile on the Benedictine Confederation’s website, the community says it became an abbey in 1937 and went on to found Farnborough and Pluscarden and, in the 1980s, Kristo Buase in Ghana.

The 1972 Monastery and the Return to the Old House

The Prinknash community flourished in the mid-20th century and built a large new monastery on the far side of the estate in the 1960s, the monks’ history records. They lived there from 1972 until 2008, when the building proved too big and too expensive to run and the community moved back to the original house, Prinknash Park. In its Benedictine Confederation profile the community says it once numbered 80 and is now eight. Its daily round of the divine office, Mass, study and incense-making continues in the old house.

Visiting Prinknash Abbey: Practical Information

• Address: Prinknash Abbey, Cranham, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL4 8EX.
• What you can visit: The estate’s designated footpaths, the Monastery Shop and Café, and the chapel, which is open for quiet prayer.
• Shop and café hours: Open daily, 10am to 4pm.
• Chapel: Open from 8am until after Vespers each evening. Vespers is at 5.30pm daily.
• Mass: 8.30am every day, including Sunday. Occasional changes are posted on the inside of the chapel doors.
• Admission: The abbey’s website lists no admission charge for the footpaths, chapel, shop or café.
• Parking: Free for all guests.
• Accessibility: The Monastery Shop and Café is fully wheelchair accessible.
• Dogs: Welcome in the café foyer, where dog treats and water bowls are provided.
• Food: Breakfasts, light lunches and home-baked cakes and scones, with vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free options.
• Managed by: Prinknash Abbey Trustees, a registered charity (No 232863).
• Contact: Café, shop and meetings: 01452 812 066.

Prices last checked: October 2026.

Opening hours last checked: October 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nearby Chronicle Trails Guides

• Hailes Abbey: Another Gloucestershire monastery closed under Henry VIII, once famous for its Holy Blood relic.
• Cirencester Amphitheatre: The earthwork arena of Roman Corinium, elsewhere in Gloucestershire.

Prinknash 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.