History of Bruern

Before Bruern’s present incarnation as a collection of luxury cottages, the abbey and estate at Bruern has had a long and fascinating history stretching back to the Middle Ages, one whose vicissitudes have reflected the varying fortunes of the Cotswolds through the centuries, as well as those of England itself.

The stone plaque on the wall of Goodwood announces that the Bruern stables were finished in 1882, to accommodate the horses, carriages and grooms of Bruern Abbey, whose imposing entrance lies just across the road. The Abbey itself is a much earlier building: described by Pevsner as ‘an attractive example of local Baroque’, it was built for Sir John Cope in around 1720, twenty-five years before his resounding defeat by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army at the battle of Prestonpans – a defeat commemorated by a mocking ditty popular in Scotland beginning ‘Hey, Johnny Cope…’ The architect may have been William Townesend, who worked with Vanbrugh on Blenheim Palace.

All but the south façade of Sir John’s house was burnt down in 1780; it was rebuilt with two wings, infilled with a huge staircase hall a hundred years later by Cecil Samuda, (the proud author of the plaque). There’s a photograph, of Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria’s) having tea on the terrace of Bruern Abbey, which may date from his time: the ladies are bustled, the gentlemen moustachioed; in the background not an inch of stone is visible behind the curtain of ivy, and hardly a glimmer of sunlight can have penetrated the heavy lace curtains.

The real Cistercian Abbey, founded in 1147, was actually a few hundred yards away, occupying the site of the house in which Judy Astor, the owner of Bruern Stable Cottages, now lives – she sold the house now known as Bruern Abbey in 1984. The monastic foundation was small and disreputable, with a racy history of succession plots, appeals to Rome, deposed abbots, riots, and even on one occasion the mediaeval equivalent of having the bailiffs in.

The monks, like most Cistercians and practically everyone with land in the Cotswolds, went in for sheep; English wool was the most highly prized and highly priced in Europe, and wool from the Cotswolds was the best and priciest of all. Their finances were always rocky, however, and things were so bad in 1233 that they had to petition the king to be allowed to hang onto their flocks as long as they had any other possessions that could be distrained for debt.

After various ups and downs, mostly downs, Thomas Cromwell’s inspector, John Tregonwell, made a surprisingly upbeat report on Bruern in 1535: ‘the Abbot is…not only virtuous and well learned in Holy Scripture but also has right well repaired the ruin and decay left by his predecessor’s negligence and brought the convent to good order.’ Much good it did him. The following year, Bruern Abbey, along with every other abbey and convent in England, was suppressed by Henry VIII, the Abbot leaving with a pension of £22 a year and the fourteen remaining monks for an unknown fate.

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