Wenlock Priory

Merewalh, King of the Magonsaete, a sub-kingdom of Mercia, founded the monastery here circa 680. His daughter Milburga became abbess, and was later canonised. At that it was a double monastery, housing monks and nuns. After Milburga´s death in 715, however, little is known of the monastery until the Norman Conquest, although It is known that at the end of the ninth century, in 901 Æthelflæd, the daughter of Alfred the Great gave land and a golden chalice to the shrine of Saint Mildburg.

The priory continued to be inhabited by monks at least until the mid 11th century, when endowments were made by Leofric, Earl of Mercia.

Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury re-founded Wenlock as a Cluniac house, bringing monks from La Charité-sur-Loire in central France. The monastery was established by 1086, when it is recorded in the Domesday Book.

The church was rebuilt between the late 12th and mid 13th-Centuries. The visible remains of the church largely date to this period. Henry III stayed at Wenlock on several occasions in the 1230s, and made numerous gifts to the priory.

The town of Much Wenlock formed gradually around the priory.

The monastery was dissolved in1540. Proposals had been made for creating a new diocese, with the church at Wenlock becoming a cathedral were not implemented, and most of the buildings were destroyed.