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The West range, showing entrance and window of the Little Cloister.

The traditional date of the foundation of Clare Priory is 1248. It is more probable, however, that the Friars actually arrived in 1249. Richard de Clare visited France in 1248 and doubtless, after meeting the Friars, he guaranteed them a foundation in the shadow of his castle at Clare on the banks of the River Stour. He returned to England in June 1249 and obtained on behalf of the Friars a writ of protection from the King. This was issued on 3rd. September 1249 and it is assumed that the Friars first came to Clare shortly afterwards.

Vaulted Porch of the Little Cloister.

They first settled on a narrow strip of land within the precincts of the present Priory. After their patron's death in 1262, his widow, Maud de Lacy, was instrumental in securing further tracts of land for them; and by the turn of the century their holding was almost co-terminous with the area bounded on the west, south and east by what was at that time the course of the River Stour. As there was no natural boundary on the northern side the Friars dug a long wide ditch running due west from the east end of the river, at which point they erected floodgates.

The Prior's House from the Great Cloister.

The ditch was later named as St. Anne's River and beyond it lay the Beauvale of St. Mary. Both landmarks have since disappeared. A footbridge over the ditch gave access to the town and castle. Eventually the Friars secured an entrance off the Yeldham Road, the old King's Highway, and built a gatehouse by the great bridge at Clare.

By 1329 the community had a tidy group of buildings, comprising a somewhat small church, a cemetry, living quarters, and a chapter house. At the close of the century there were exactly twentynine Friars in residence. Their life was devoted to Divine Worship, prayer, study of the sacred scripture, teaching and preaching the Word of God, the administration of the Sacraments, and apostolic work. [Click here for a 14th. century map of Clare and the House of the Austin Friars.]

The east end of the present Church, beyond on the right is the Prior's House.

They derived their livlihood mainly from begging. The Priory, the patrons of which were Our Lady, Ss. Peter and Paul, and St. Augustine, acquired a reputation for sanctity and learning. Friar John of England, who won fame throughout the Order as a man of outstanding holiness, was almost certainly a member of the community. The first Augustinian to graduate as Doctor of Divinity from Cambridge was another Friar John; indeed, these two may well have been one and the same person.

In the fifteenth century two members of the house, John of Bury and Osbern Buckenham, achieved recognition as writers, During the Wars of the Roses the Friars sided with the House of York. Evidence of their allegiance can still be seen in the white rose painted on a fragment of contemporary glass now set in a window in the south range.

The Cellarers' Hall.

At the time of the Reformation the community was divided. Some Friars were enthusiastic Lutherans, others more traditionalists. At first the Friars were exempted from the general suppression of the monasteries but in 1538 their extinction was also decreed and on November 29th the King's Agent, Richard Ingworth arrived at Clare to receive the surrender of the property. Some of the Friars who had meekly subscribed to the Oath of Supremacy, were pensioned off.

Doorway from the Cellarers' Hall.

The priory, with all its buildings, goods, lands, and revenues, now became the property of The Crown, and so eventually passed into private ownership. The family longest in possession of the estate were the Barnardistones, who were succeeded in it by a collateral branch, the Barkers. The last member to occupy it as a private residence was the daughter of Sir George Digby Barker and the widow of Sir Henry May, Helena Augusta Victoria, who died in 1945.

The inside of the present Church.

Before her death she and her children had decided that the conditions to be expected after the Second World War would make it impossible for the Priory and its grounds to be maintained as a family house and home; and Lady May, though not a catholic, was urgent in recommending that it should, if at all possible, be acquired again by its original owners, the Augustinian Friars, who, after more than three hundred years of absence from England, had, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, founded several Priories in London and elsewhere.

Lady May's family respected her wishes, and, after long negotiations, the Augustinians were able in 1953 to return to their old house, the first home they had founded in England seven hundred years before. This was made possible by acts of great generosity from Lady May's heirs, through which the Order acquired the property for only a fraction of its true value. The prime mover in this had been Lady May's daughter, Stella de Fonblanque, who now lies at rest in the monastic graveyard, the first Catholic to be buried there since the Reformation!

A window in the Little Cloister.

Clare Priory has since played its part in the life of the world-wide Order to which it belongs. At times there have been students of philosophy there; at other times novices, in their first year, testing their fitness for religious life. Today there are many young priests in England, Scotland, Ireland, Nigeria, Australia, and in the study houses in Rome. Italy, who remember with gratitude and affection, peaceful, happy days there, along with the prayers and good wishes from their many friends at Clare.

Statue of St. Augustine.

At all times, the Priory community hopes many will come here to seek and to find, for however brief a visit, the peace and happiness which this beautiful place has to offer.

Peacefulness through an old arch.