Forde Abbey

History

The abbey was founded in 1136 at Brightley and relocated to its current site in 1141, remaining a working Cistercian monastery until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. In 1649 the lawyer and Cromwellian Attorney General Edmund Prideaux acquired the site and converted much of it into a grand country house, adding new state rooms around the surviving monastic core. The estate later passed through several hands before coming into the ownership of the Kennard family, who continue to run it today.

Architecture

The medieval cloisters, chapter house and undercroft survive from the original Cistercian monastery, while the 17th-century additions commissioned by Edmund Prideaux gave the house its grand domestic saloon and staterooms. The building is grade I listed.

Worth knowing

Forde Abbey holds one of England's most significant collections of Mortlake tapestries, woven in the 17th century from designs after Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine Chapel.

Gardens & grounds

The thirty-acre gardens are known for the Centenary Fountain, a chain of ornamental lakes, and seasonal displays running from snowdrops in winter to autumn colour.