THE
P RTAL
September 2016
Page 22
Muchelney Abbey
Eliza Treblecock explores this this ancient monument
Recently I
was driving along the byways of the countryside around Bristol, when I saw a sign for
Muchelney Abbey. It was somewhere I had never heard of, so it just had to my next visit. It really is at
the back of beyond, and then further on; a very remote spot. The day I visited, it was hot and sunny so the
place just shone.
There is quite a lot of to see. The great Abbey Church
has gone, but the Abbot’s lodgings and the Monastic
Latrine are all there, although one cannot use the
latter!
Muchelney Abbey was founded by King Athelstan
England, maybe to atone for his involvement in the
murder of the Atheling Edwin in 933. Alternatively,
he founded the Abbey as a thank-offering for his great
victory at Brunanburgh in 937.
There is an even earlier tradition that Ine, King of
Wessex, was responsible for Muchelney. He lived in a
time of rapid Church growth. Kings and nobles were centuries, the area suffered from the attention of the
falling over themselves to found religious houses. So it Danes. So much so, that Church life may have ceased
is possible that Ine was the original founder. Certainly completely.
the monks of a later date would be anxious to claim
the earliest foundation date they could.
If the charter of Ine is a forgery as it stands in the
cartulary, so also is the charter of King Athelstan,
British Histories Online states, “The charters of King which describes him as the founder. So: who knows?
Ine copied in the cartulary, though forgeries, may We have many charters concerning Muchelney, most
contain true history. Moreover, among the charters of them forgeries. The one genuine charter is that of
is a genuine one by Kynewulf, in 762, giving certain Kynewulf, who in 762 granted eight cassates of land
land between the Isle and the Earn to the monastery of between the Isle and the Earn.
Muchelney, and this alone proves that Athelstan was
not the original founder, though he may have been the
In the Domesday Survey the abbey is said to hold
restorer of the abbey.”
Chipstable, Ilminster, Isle Abbots, Cathanger in
Fivehead, Drayton, Camel (West) and the three
What is certain is that during the 9th and 10th islands of Muchelney, Middleney, and Thorney.