Prinknash Abbey

For nearly 900 years the land known as Prinknash in the parish of Upton St Leonards has been associated with Benedictine monks. In 1096 the Giffard family, who had come to England with William the Conqueror, made a gift of the land to Serlo, Abbot of Gloucester. A large part of the present building was built as a hunting lodge during the abbacy of William Parker, the last Abbot of Gloucester, around the year 1520. It remained in the abbey's hands until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1541 when it was rented from the Crown by Sir Anthony Kingston who was to provide 40 deer annually to King Henry VIII, who used the house as a hunting lodge. Prinknash Park continued to be used as a home…