Event detail for site: Bassaleg

c. 1100: Foundation

The foundation charter has not survived but was copied by Adam of Domerham, a monk of Glastonbury, and a thirteenth-century copy is preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R.5.33, 106v.

This states that Robert de Hay and his wife, Gundreda, granted the church at Bassaleg and all pertaining to it to the monks of Glastonbury; Robert recorded that he had acquired the permission of his lord, Robert fitz Hamon, and his wife, Gundreda, to do so.
Robert's endowment included the tithes, alms, and burial of the dead in the parish of Bassaleg - the churches of Lower Machen, Bedwas, Mynyddislwyn and Manmoel, and the chapels of Coedkerniew and Pulcrud. To prevent later disputes over boundaries the charter set out clearly and in English the precise limits of the parish ‘so that the native people shall clearly understand them'.
Robert conceded that the Glastonbury monks might take whatever timber they needed to build the church at Bassaleg from his woods; they might also pasture their pigs there. He granted them fishing rights, their own court and permission to assart a wood near ‘As Domanz’. Support for the monks’ clothing was provided and Hay promised to give them 20s in alms each year. The charter also permitted any of Hay’s men to grant or sell the monks their lands or even to take the habit at Bassaleg should they wish.

People associated with this event

Robert of Hay , lord of Gwynll?g (founder)

Bibliographical sources

Printed sources

Medieval Religious Houses, England and Wales, ed. R. Neville Hadcock and David Knowles (Harlow, 1971) p. 59

Coplestone-Crow, B., 'The foundation of the priories of Bassaleg and Malpas in the twelfth century', Monmouthshire Antiquary, 14 (1998) pp. 3-4, 11

Archival sources

Trinity College, Cambridge, '13th century copy of the foundation charter of Bassaleg Priory', (Document),

Other events in the history of this site