Standing before the monastic community of St Milburgh in Much Wenlock, with his hand on the High Altar in the priory church, Gervase Paganel, baron of Dudley, recited and confirmed his donations for the foundation in Dudley of a ‘convent of religious brothers’ under the authority of the
Shropshire house.
The charter of around 1180 that recorded these events, witnessed by men of the baron and of the prior, reflects the hundreds of similar endowments that underpinned the massive expansion of monastic houses across the region between the late-eleventh and early-thirteenth centuries. This
phenomenon marked not only a surge of faith and devotion, the epitome of which was life in the cloister, but also had political, social and economic consequences and a significant impact on the medieval landscape. With a focus on the western midlands and reaching into the Welsh March, this study day will introduce the ‘monastic ideal’ and its impact upon regional society, at all levels, together with a discussion of the monastic establishment and infrastructure, landscape and culture that had developed across the region by the mid-thirteenth century.
Pleas contact Portcullis History
c/o 11 Hardy Close, Galley Common, Nuneaton,
Warwickshire CV10 9SG
