Founded 1192, dedicated to St Helen. Dissolved 1538. (1)
In 1914 the site was excavated, and a certain amount of restoration was carried out. Small finds are housed in a shed nearby. (2)
The Gilbertine Priory stood on what was then an island in the River Idle. It was founded for canons only, never becoming a "double" house. It was badly damaged by fire in 1279. In 1912 the site came under the guardianship of the MOW. The church was a short, narrow, rectangular building, without transepts. To the N of the church, what resembles a N transept is in fact a C15 tower. The E range of the cloisters was originally a single room on the ground floor. There is no evidence for the existence of a chapter house. The dorter lay along the E range on the 1st floor, with the reredorter running E at right angles to the end of the range. In the S range, the undercroft of the frater, and the frater itself on the 1st floor. The square building at its SW corner was the kitchen. Few traces are left of the W range. (4)
House of Gilbertine canons. Founded c 1185, dissolved 1538. Net income in 1535 55 pounds. The priory was for 6 canons, the number of brothers being limited to 10. In 1291 the gross income was 52 pounds. (5)
Mattersey once noted for its priory of Gilbertine monks, founded here, before the year 1194 by a family who took their name from the place. This monastery, which is recorded to have been seriously damaged by fire in 1279, stood c 1 mile E of the village, on an elevated bank of the River Idle which here sweeps round to the W. It is being now partly occupied by a farmhouse, near to which some remains of what appears to have been the priory church, and a portion of the convential buildings, may still be seen, degraded into the common offices of a farmyard. (7)
The restored remains of this SAM consist mostly of foundations only but some walling survives, one section to a height of c 6m. Adjacent earthworks appear to be of no archaeological significance - drainage and quarrying. (8)
Remains include C12 church, S wall and 3 pointed partly blocked arches of the refectory and the foundations of C14 kitchen. (9)
Alternative theories on phasing and suggestion that the church was rebuilt slightly to the S after the fire, based on marks on CUCAP APs. (13)
A topographic survey demonstrated that the Priory was constructed on a spur of land overlooking the floodplain of the river Idle. The farmstead sits within an area terraced into this spur. The terrace is at a lower level OD that the flagstone flooring within the Priory. It is therefore likely that any remains of the Priory within the terraced area were destroyed when the terrace was constructed for the modern day farm buildings. (14)
See L5985,6 for nearby finds, L10220 for nearby cropmarks, MNT25949 for holloway.

Data Held (Document). SNT2647.

Bibliography, Campion G, Parish File

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

CUCAP DC029

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

CUCAP DC033

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

CUCAP DC032

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

CUCAP DC031

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

CUCAP DC030

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

2 Colour prints, Cole 308/0400/11a, 265/0399/3

Data Held: Ground Photograph (Ground photograph). SNT2646.

3 colour print, B44/6,7, SMR

Listed buildings slides, 77 slides (Photograph). SNT2648.

HM Commissioners of Works, Mattersey Abbey, Notts: Sketch Plan of Ruins (Unpublished document). SNT4882.

<1> Thoroton Society, 1909, TTS, PP 2-5 (Published document). SNT336.

<2> Royal Arch Institute, 1930, Archaeological Journal, P 16 (Published document). SNT106.

<3> MOW, 1948, Guide to Mattersey Priory (Published document). SNT931.

<4> Knowles D and St Joseph JK, 1952, Monastic Sites From The Air, pp 248-9 (Published document). SNT870.

<5> Knowles D and Hadcock N, 1953, Medieval Religious Houses, p 174 (Published document). SNT869.

<6> Peverel Archaeology Group, 1953, Ann Rept 5, pp 29-30 (Published document). SNT1123.

<7> DOE, AM7 - undated, no author (Unpublished document). SNT52.

<8> Harper FR, 1962, Pers Comm (Personal comment). SNT748.

<9> Dodd A, 1988, AM107 (Unpublished document). SNT620.

<10> CUCAP, Air photos (Aerial photograph). SNT594.

Other Refs: DC 29-33

<11> Riley DN, Air photos (Aerial photograph). SNT1194.

Other Refs: 1557/37 (NLAP SK 7089/3)

<12> Doncaster Museum, Air photos (Aerial photograph). SNT644.

Other Refs: 25,26

<13> Campion, G, post 1993?, Mattersey Priory, Nottinghamshire. A Reappraisal of the Dating Evidence (Unpublished document). SNT2161.

<14> Nottingham University Consultants Limited, 1997, A Survey of the Farmstead at Abbey Farm, Mattersey (Unpublished document). SNT4698.