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91-570: Thetford Priory is a Cluniac monastic house in Thetford , Norfolk , England. Founded in 1103 by Roger Bigod of Norfolk , Thetford was one of the most important monasteries of East Anglia . It should not be confused with the Dominican Friary of Blackfriars, Thetford that later became part of Thetford Grammar School . 52°24′59″N 0°44′33″E  /  52.4165°N 0.742382°E  / 52.4165; 0.742382 One of

182-533: A central cutwater. The central bridge has a single semi-circular arch, and was built of brick in the early 19th century. The northernmost crosses the River Thet , dates from the late 18th century, and has two elliptical arches, with splayed parapets and stone coping slabs. For many years there was an open-air swimming pool on the widened river just above Nuns Bridges, but this closed in the late 1950s amid growing concerns over pollution, and an indoor swimming pool

273-630: A curse on anyone who should violate the charter. With the Pope across the Alps in Italy, this meant the monastery was essentially independent. In donating his hunting preserve in the forests of Burgundy , William released Cluny Abbey from all future obligations to him and his family other than prayer. Contemporary patrons normally retained a proprietary interest and expected to install their kinsmen as abbots. William appears to have made this arrangement with Berno,

364-569: A delegate of Christ in the temporal sphere. He had a spiritual and intellectual grounding for his leadership of the German church, which culminated in the pontificate of his kinsman, Pope Leo IX . The new pious outlook of lay leaders enabled the enforcement of the Truce of God movement to curb aristocratic violence. Within his order, the Abbot of Cluny was free to assign any monk to any house; he created

455-442: A fluid structure around a central authority that was to become a feature of the royal chanceries of England and of France, and of the bureaucracy of the great independent dukes, such as that of Burgundy. Cluny's highly centralized hierarchy was a training ground for Catholic prelates: four monks of Cluny became popes : Gregory VII , Urban II , Paschal II and Urban V . An orderly succession of able and educated abbots, drawn from

546-576: A grand plan to build a canal from the Little Ouse at Thetford to the River Stort at Bishops Stortford . With a spur to Cambridge , this would have enabled goods to reach London by canal from much of East Anglia. Although the capital cost could not be justified, it was not until the 1850s and the advent of the railways that the scheme was finally abandoned. Tolls reached a record £1,728 in 1845, when over 15,000 tonnes of coal were carried, but

637-416: A highly centralized form of government entirely foreign to Benedictine tradition. While most Benedictine monasteries remained autonomous and associated with each other only informally, Cluny created a large, federated order in which the administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the Abbot of Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac houses, being directly under the supervision of the Abbot of Cluny,

728-481: A keen geologist who thought the features were related to glaciation, but failed to convince the geologists of the 1870s. More recently, Prof Richard West carried out a detailed field study of the area between 2002 and 2007, and his work was published by the Suffolk Naturalists' Society in 2009. He concluded that the valley was caused by the runoff from a large glacial lake, which eventually melted, leaving

819-676: A number of important wetland areas such as at Blo' Norton and Thelnetham Fens , and areas managed by the Little Ouse Headwaters Project . The course continues through Rushford , Thetford , Brandon , and Hockwold before the river joins the Great Ouse north of Littleport in Cambridgeshire . The total length is about 37 miles (60 km). The river is navigable from the Great Ouse to a point 2 miles (3.2 km) above Brandon. A distinctive feature of

910-601: A pope at Avignon and England one at Rome, interfered with the relations between Cluny and its dependent houses. Under the strain, some English houses, such as Lenton Priory , Nottingham , were naturalized ( Lenton in 1392) and no longer regarded as alien priories, weakening the Cluniac structure. By the time of the French Revolution , revolutionary hatred of the Catholic Church led to the suppression of

1001-669: A replacement was considered in the 1950s, the Commissioners of the Burnt Fen were faced with the problem that the White House Drain which supplied it had become bigger and more unstable as the ground surface had shrunk, and the engine sat at the top of a hill, rather than at the lowest point on the northern Fen. Consequently, a new electric pumping station was constructed at Whitehall on the River Great Ouse ,

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1092-524: A short distance from Brandon bridge. The lock is 13 feet (4.0 m) wide but only 39 feet (12 m) long, and so is not suitable for many narrowboats, although boats up to 79 feet (24 m) long can be turned just below the lock, which is less than 1 ⁄ 2 mile (0.8 km) from Brandon village. There is a campaign to re-open the river for navigation to Thetford, and the Environment Agency commissioned consultants in 2003 to look at

1183-491: A sluice to allow the gate to be opened. They are all labelled "Stanch" on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map. A further Act was obtained in 1789, which regularised the collection of tolls on the whole river by Thetford Corporation. They rebuilt the seven staunches between 1827 and 1835, and the £955 of income received from the navigation in 1833 accounted for over 90 per cent of the total income of the Corporation. The 1770s saw

1274-485: A specialization in roles. As perhaps the wealthiest monastic house of the Western world, Cluny hired managers and workers to do the traditional labour of monks. The Cluniac monks devoted themselves to almost constant prayer, thus elevating their position into a profession. Despite the monastic ideal of a frugal life, Cluny Abbey commissioned candelabras of solid silver and gold chalices made with precious gems for use at

1365-517: A year of legal wrangling, and ultimately the money was repaid in 1860. The state of the navigation declined steadily, although there was still commercial traffic, and a 25-foot (7.6 m) paddle steamer ran trips to Cambridge and around the local waterways in the 1880s. Repairs were again necessary in the 1890s, but with no funds available, the navigation committee asked Fisons, who ran a 50-foot (15 m) screw tug called Speedwell to tow lighters to King's Lynn, for an advance on their tolls to fund

1456-662: Is 300 metres to the south, directly across the River Little Ouse . Cluniac The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style , with three churches built in succession from the 4th to the early 12th centuries. The earliest basilica was the world's largest church until the St. Peter's Basilica construction began in Rome. Cluny was founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910. He nominated Berno as

1547-550: Is a pumping station on the north bank, and the course passes between the hamlets of Brandon Bank on the north bank and Little Ouse on the south. Nearby is the lowest trig point in Britain, marking a spot which is 3 feet (0.91 m) below sea level. Its junction with the Great Ouse is immediately after it passes under the A10 road. The Environment Agency has designated the section from Thetford to Brandon, where it flows through

1638-649: Is not surprising to find that the Great Ouse used to enter The Wash by way of the Old Croft River, the Wellstream and Wisbech (the Ouse beach). The modern lower Great Ouse was then the lower part of the Little Ouse. On this occasion, the change was artificial. The 17th century drainers under Cornelius Vermuyden dug the Old Bedford River between the Great Ouse at Earith and what had hitherto been

1729-413: Is the period that achieved the final Christianization of the heartland of Europe. By the twelfth century there were 314 monasteries across Europe paying allegiance to Cluny. Well-born and educated Cluniac priors worked eagerly with local royal and aristocratic patrons of their houses, filled responsible positions in their chanceries and were appointed to bishoprics. Cluny spread the custom of veneration of

1820-709: The First World War . Responsibility for the river passed to the Great Ouse Catchment Board with the passing of the Land Drainage Act 1930 , and they removed the staunches, replacing those at Thetford and at Brandon with sluices. Responsibility changed again with the formation of the Environment Agency in 1995. The navigable river is mainly on the same level, with a single lock, which was opened in 1995, at Brandon just

1911-681: The Huguenots sacked the abbey, destroying or dispersing many of the manuscripts. Of those that were left, some were burned in 1790 by a rioting mob during the French Revolution . Others still were stored away in the Cluny town hall. The French Government worked to relocate such treasures, including those that ended up in private hands. They are now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France at Paris. The British Museum holds some sixty or so charters originating from Cluny. The abbey at Cluny

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2002-737: The Hôtel de Cluny , which has been a public museum since 1843. Apart from the name, and the building itself, it no longer possesses anything originally connected with Cluny. In 910, William I, Duke of Aquitaine "the Pious", and Count of Auvergne , founded the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny on a modest scale, as the motherhouse of the Congregation of Cluny. The deed of gift included vineyards , fields, meadows, woods, waters, mills, serfs, and lands both cultivated and uncultivated. Hospitality

2093-475: The River Great Ouse . For much of its length it defines the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk . It rises east of Thelnetham , close to the source of the River Waveney , which flows eastwards while the Little Ouse flows west. The village of Blo' Norton owes its name to the river: it was earlier known as Norton Bell-'eau , from being situated near this "fair stream". In this area the river creates

2184-640: The afforested Breckland , as a Flood Warning Area . The lower part of the river crosses over the Cut-off Channel in a concrete aqueduct. The Channel is a 28-mile (45 km) drain which runs from Barton Mills to Denver along the south-eastern edge of the Fens, and was constructed in the 1950s and 1960s. During times of flood it carries the head waters of the River Lark , the River Wissey and

2275-431: The present church . Hézelon de Liège was called to act as architect for the new church in 1088. The building campaign was financed by the annual census established by Ferdinand I of León , ruler of a united León-Castile, some time between 1053 and 1065. ( Alfonso VI re-established it in 1077, and confirmed it in 1090.) Ferdinand fixed the sum at 1,000 golden aurei , an amount which Alfonso VI doubled in 1090. This

2366-399: The 13th century and only twice in the 14th. At Cluny, the central activity was the liturgy; it was extensive and beautifully presented in inspiring surroundings, reflecting the new personally-felt wave of piety of the 11th century. Monastic intercession was believed indispensable to achieving a state of grace, and lay rulers competed to be remembered in Cluny's endless prayers; this inspired

2457-528: The 13th century, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in a vision to locals requesting the addition to the site of a Lady Chapel . During its construction, an old statue of her from their former site was discovered to have a hollow in its head concealing saints' relics , and became a magnet for pilgrims. In a 1390 visitation, visitors from Cluni found that there were then twenty-two monks; six daily masses, three of which were sung; and that tenth part of

2548-666: The 16th century further weakened the abbey's status in Christendom. For instance with the Concordat of Bologna in 1516 overseen by Antoine Duprat , Francis I , the king of France, gained the power to appoint the abbot of Cluny from Pope Leo X . Over the next 250 years, the abbey never regained its power or position within European Christianity. Seen as an example of the excesses of the Ancien Régime ,

2639-442: The 1970s when gravel and sand were extracted, and the site is now a haven for wildlife. The BTO have their main offices at the northern end of the site, near to Nuns Bridge Road, where there are three listed bridges, built on the line of Icknield Way , an ancient track thought to have been first used around 3000 BCE. The southernmost bridge, crossing the Little Ouse, dates from the late 18th century, and has two elliptical arches with

2730-577: The A1088 into Thetford , beyond which is a weir. The Black Bourn river joins from the south, and the combined flow turns to the north to reach Thetford. The border between Norfolk and Suffolk has followed the river for most of its course, but skirts to the west of Thetford. As it approaches Thetford, the river passes through Nunnery Lakes Reserve, a nature reserve managed by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). A series of deep pools were created in

2821-534: The A11 Thetford Bypass, it is bordered by Thetford Forest . This is the largest manmade lowland forest in Britain, covering 72.3 square miles (187 km ). There is a weir beyond the bridge, and the county border rejoins the river as it turns back towards the west. This section is easier to follow, as the St Edmund Way footpath runs along the north bank from the centre of Thetford, but leaves

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2912-525: The Cluniac Order. Partly due to the Order's opulence, the Cluniac monasteries of nuns were not seen as being particularly cost-effective. The Order did not have an interest in founding many new houses for women, so their presence was always limited. The customs of Cluny represented a shift from the earlier ideal of a Benedictine monastery as an agriculturally self-sufficient unit. This was similar to

3003-612: The European Union. The river crosses Thelnetham Road, Blo' Norton as a ford, near which is Thelnetham windmill, a grade II* listed tower mill dating from 1819 and restored in the 1980s. The course turns briefly to the north-west, and is crossed by the B1111 road to the south of Garboldisham. To the north of the bridge is Garboldisham windmill, a post mill dating from 1780. This is also a grade II* listed structure, although its sails and tiller beam are missing. Continuing westwards,

3094-713: The Holy Abbots of Cluny , enkindled with the fire of thy love, became burning and shining lights in thy Church : Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, now and forever. All but one of the English and Scottish Cluniac houses which were larger than cells were known as priories , symbolising their subordination to Cluny. The exception

3185-616: The Holy Roman Empire. But by the time Peter died, newer and more austere orders such as the Cistercians were generating the next wave of ecclesiastical reform. Outside monastic structures, the rise of English and French nationalism created a climate unfavourable to the existence of monasteries autocratically ruled by a head residing in Burgundy. The Papal Schism of 1378 to 1409 further divided loyalties: France recognizing

3276-506: The Little Ouse at Denver . A link was made for the Great Ouse between Littleport and the Little Ouse at Brandon Creek, and both the drainage and the navigation were directed towards King's Lynn rather than Wisbech. Rising near the B1113 from South Lopham to Redgrave, the fledgeling Little Ouse flows west, and is joined by a stream flowing northwards from the hamlets of Rickinghall and Botesdale , before passing through Hinderclay Fen. This

3367-482: The Little Ouse to Denver Sluice. On its east side are two sluices, so that flood water from the upper river can be diverted into the Cut-off Channel and the section between there and the Great Ouse isolated. The flood banks on this lower section are up to half a mile (0.8 km) apart, so that the meandering river can form a large lake. Nearer the mouth of the river, the Brandon Engine was the main outlet for

3458-544: The River Great Ouse. An Act of Parliament authorised the Corporation of Thetford to make improvements to the river in 1670, but they were unable to carry out the work, and so the Rt Hon Henry, Earl of Arlington made the improvements, and was assigned the tolls as a result. A series of staunches were built, to hold back the water and raise the levels, but they were too far apart to be effective. The rights of

3549-469: The Roman period. Prior to its construction, the river continued due west, and joined the Great Ouse near Old Bank Farm. Its dry raised bed, known locally as a rodham , can easily be traced in the landscape, as its light-coloured bands of silt contrast with the dark, low-lying peat soils. It is also clearly shown on the modern Ordnance Survey map, delineated by the 0 ft contour. On the river channel, there

3640-604: The abbacies of Pons of Melgueil (1109–1125) and Peter the Venerable (1122–1156). The Spanish wealth donated to Cluny publicized the rise of the Spanish Christians, and drew central Spain for the first time into the larger European orbit. The Cluny library was one of the richest and most important in France and Europe. It was a storehouse of numerous very valuable manuscripts. During the religious conflicts of 1562,

3731-559: The abbey Masses. Instead of being limited to the traditional fare of broth and porridge, the monks ate very well, enjoying roasted chickens (a luxury in France then), wines from their vineyards and cheeses made by their employees. The monks wore the finest linen religious habits and silk vestments at Mass. Artifacts exemplifying the wealth of Cluny Abbey are today on display at the Musée de Cluny in Paris. O God, by whose grace thy servants,

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3822-564: The accommodation of the monks, and Benedictines from the Priory of St Pancras in Lewes arrived in 1104. Three years later, a new prior realized that the monastic site, surrounded by the houses of the burghers, was inconveniently overcrowded, with no room for a guest-house. Bigod then gave them a pleasant and open site on the other side of the river in the county of Norfolk. The monks relocated to their new premises on St. Martin's Day , 1114. In

3913-566: The arrival of the railways, in the form of a line from Norwich to Brandon, and an extension of the Eastern Counties Railway from Newport to Brandon, both opened on the same day in 1845, started the rapid decline of the navigation. Tolls had fallen to £439 by 1849. The tolls were leased to private individuals from 1850, but an attempt to transfer £320 to the Council finance committee from the navigation in 1859 resulted in nearly

4004-528: The backing of the Medieval Academy of America . Ruined bases of columns convey the size of the former church and monastery. Since 1901 it has been a center of the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers (ENSAM), an elite school of engineering. River Little Ouse The River Little Ouse , also known as the Brandon River, is a river in the east of England, a tributary of

4095-666: The bread was reserved for distribution to the poor. The visitors found that all monastic obligations according to the Cluni rule were duly observed. During the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries , a formal complaint was raised by the Mayors and burgesses of Thetford to Thomas Cromwell in 1539, arguing that many of the town's inhabitants would fall into extreme poverty because their livelihoods depended on pilgrims visiting

4186-468: The bridge the river is only accessible to canoes and dingies, due to the presence of rocks on the river bed. The Environment Agency measure the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at

4277-622: The channel on flood banks. To the south of the river are a series of washes, meres and wooded stretches. Parts of this area were formerly arable farmland, but were converted into the Lakenheath Fen wetland by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The reedbeds and grazing marshes have attracted significant populations of reed warblers, sedge warblers, bearded tits, marsh harriers, and increasingly, bitterns. At

4368-456: The completion of Rome's St. Peter's Basilica in the early 17th century, little remains of the original buildings. In total the surviving parts amount to about 10% of the original floor space of Cluny III. These include the southern transept and its bell-tower, and the lower parts of the two west front towers. In 1928, the site was excavated by the American archaeologist Kenneth J. Conant with

4459-669: The contemporary villa of the more Romanized parts of Europe and the manor of the more feudal parts, in which each member did physical labor as well as offering prayer. In 817 St Benedict of Aniane , the "second Benedict", developed monastic constitutions at the urging of Louis the Pious to govern all the Carolingian monasteries. He acknowledged that the Black Monks no longer supported themselves by physical labor. Cluny's agreement to offer perpetual prayer ( laus perennis , literally "perpetual praise") meant that it had increased

4550-527: The destructive Hungarian raids of 953, led the tendency for Burgundian churches to be stone-vaulted. In 1088, the abbot Hugh of Semur (1024 – 1109, abbot since 1049) started the construction of the third and final church at Cluny, which was to become the largest church building in Europe and remained so until the 16th century, when in Rome the Paleochristian St. Peter's Basilica was replaced by

4641-453: The drainage of the northern half of Burnt Fen from 1830 until 1958. The original steam engine was replaced in 1892, by a new engine that could pump 75 tons per minute. That engine was replaced by a 250 horse power oil engine in late 1925, supplied by Blackstone and Company, which drove a 42-inch (110 cm) Gwynne rotary pump. The pump could discharge 150 tons per minute against a head of 18 feet (5.5 m), and lasted for 30 years. When

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4732-463: The early 12th. The first nuns were admitted to the Order during the 11th century. The reforms introduced at Cluny were in some measure traceable to the influence of Benedict of Aniane , who had put forward his new ideas at the first great meeting of the abbots of the order held at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in 817. Berno had adopted Benedict's interpretation of the Rule previously at Baume Abbey . Cluny

4823-403: The endowments in land and benefices that made other arts possible. The fast-growing community at Cluny required buildings on a large scale. The examples at Cluny profoundly affected architectural practice in Western Europe from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. The three successive churches are conventionally called Cluny I, II and III. The construction of Cluny II, ca. 955–981, begun after

4914-519: The expenditure. As other religious orders such as the Cistercians in the 12th and then the Mendicants in the 13th century arose within the Western Christian church, the competition gradually weakened the status and influence of the abbey. Furthermore, poor management of the abbey's estates and the unwillingness of its subsidiary priories to pay their share of the annual taxable quotas annually reduced Cluny's total revenues. In response to these issues, Cluny raised loans against its assets but this saddled

5005-427: The feasibility of such a project. The report suggested that four locks would be required on this section. The head of navigation was effectively extended in 2008 when the 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -mile (4 km) section from Brandon Bridge to Santon Downham was made more accessible to boaters by the construction of moorings just below Santon Downham bridge, which are now managed by the Great Ouse Boating Association. Beyond

5096-421: The first abbot of Cluny, subject only to Pope Sergius III . The abbey was notable for its stricter adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict , whereby Cluny became acknowledged as the leader of western monasticism . In 1790 during the French Revolution , the abbey was sacked and mostly destroyed, with only a small part surviving. Starting around 1334, the Abbots of Cluny maintained a townhouse in Paris known as

5187-428: The first abbot , to free the new monastery from such secular entanglements and initiate the Cluniac Reforms . The appropriate deeds made all assets of the added Abbey sacred, and to take them was to commit sacrilege. Soon, Cluny began to receive bequests from around Europe – from the Holy Roman Empire to the Spanish kingdoms from southern England to Italy. It became a powerful monastic congregation that owned and operated

5278-410: The flow in the drain reversed, and the pumping station decommissioned. The river is currently navigable for 16.6 miles (26.7 km) from its junction with the River Great Ouse to Santon Downham bridge. There are references to its use by boats carrying goods to Brandon as early as the 13th century, and barges are known to have reached Thetford , some 6 miles (9.7 km) beyond Santon Downham when

5369-450: The head of the Order, were styled priories , not abbeys. The priors, or chiefs of priories, met at Cluny once a year to deal with administrative issues and to make reports. Many other Benedictine monasteries, even those of earlier formation, came to regard Cluny as their guide. When in 1016 Pope Benedict VIII decreed that the privileges of Cluny be extended to subordinate houses, there was further incentive for Benedictine communities to join

5460-479: The headwaters of the Little Ouse and the Waveney is the valley in which they flow; the Little Ouse flows westwards while the Waveney flows eastwards. The valley is broad, cutting through boulder clay to the north and to the south, but is crossed by a flat sandy feature at Lopham Ford, between South Lopham , Norfolk and Redgrave, Suffolk . Here the two rivers rise, barely 160 yards (150 m) apart, at an altitude of around 85 feet (26 m). The B1113 road crosses

5551-417: The highest aristocratic circles, led Cluny, and the first six abbots of Cluny were all canonized: Odilo continued to reform other monasteries, but as Abbot of Cluny, he also exercised tighter control of the order's far-flung priories. Starting from the 12th century, Cluny had serious financial problems mainly because of the cost of building the third abbey (Cluny III). Charity given to the poor also increased

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5642-473: The impressive shell of the priors' lodging and, reached by a pathway from the main site, an almost complete 14th-century gatehouse) are open to the public as an English Heritage site. The priory and gatehouse are Grade I listed buildings. The ruins are reputedly haunted and were the subject of an episode of the television series Ghosthunters . The Church of the Holy Sepulchre , another Grade I listed building, and originally part of another medieval monastery,

5733-428: The king as patron and support of the Church, and in turn the conduct of 11th-century kings, and their spiritual outlook, appeared to undergo a change. In England, Edward the Confessor was later canonized. In Germany, the penetration of Cluniac ideals was effected in concert with Henry III of the Salian dynasty, who had married a daughter of the duke of Aquitaine. Henry was infused with a sense of his sacramental role as

5824-417: The monastic buildings and most of the church were destroyed in the French Revolution . Its extensive library and archives were burned in 1793 and the church was given up to plundering. The abbey's estate was sold in 1798 for 2,140,000 francs. Over the next twenty years the Abbey's immense walls were quarried for stone that was used in rebuilding the town. Although it was the largest church in Christendom until

5915-401: The most important East Anglian monasteries, Thetford Priory was founded in 1103 by Roger Bigod of Norfolk, in lieu of a vow of pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The abandoned cathedral church of the East Anglian bishops, on the Suffolk side of the River Little Ouse , was at first selected as the church of the new priory, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. A cloister or cells of woodwork were erected for

6006-481: The navigation were given to Thetford Corporation by Henry's daughter Isabella in 1696, and the Corporation had to build a new staunch near Thetford in 1742, in order to maintain water levels in the town. By 1750, disputes were arising, since all the original Commissioners were dead, and they had failed to appoint replacements. A new Act of Parliament was sought and obtained in 1751, which appointed new Commissioners. Immediately, Thetford Corporation made improvements to

6097-408: The network of monasteries and priories, under the authority of the central abbey at Cluny. It was a highly original and successful system, The Abbots of Cluny became leaders on the international stage and the monastery of Cluny was considered the grandest, most prestigious and best-endowed monastic institution in Europe. The height of Cluniac influence was from the second half of the 10th century through

6188-407: The north and a large weir to the south. The Ely to Norwich Railway line crosses from the north bank to the south, and there is a Romano-British settlement site on the north bank. It lies at one end of the Foss Ditch, a waterway dating from the Saxon period that ran for 6 miles (9.7 km) between the Little Ouse and the River Wissey, which may have been used for defence. The towpath stops following

6279-553: The order in France in 1790 and the monastery at Cluny was almost totally demolished in 1810. Later, it was sold and used as a quarry until 1823. Today, little more than one of the original eight towers remains of the whole monastery. Modern excavations of the Abbey began in 1927 under the direction of Kenneth John Conant , American architectural historian of Harvard University , and continued (although not continuously) until 1950. The Abbey of Cluny differed in three ways from other Benedictine houses and confederations: Cluny developed

6370-425: The priory from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and, on its closure in 1540 (it was one of the last priories to be dissolved), the Howard tombs were removed to St Michael the Archangel, Framlingham , close to the family's Framlingham Castle . The Prior’s Lodging was converted into a house which was occupied until the early 18th century. Its ruins (including the lower walls of the church and cloister, along with

6461-531: The priory. Henry VIII rejected a plan proposed by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk to convert the priory into a collegiate church . The dean was to be Prior William, and the six prebendaries and eight secular canons were to be the monks of the former house. Thetford Priory was closed down in 1540 and fell into the possession of the Duke of Norfolk. It housed the tombs of the Howard dynasty , of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset , and of other early Tudor Dynasty officials. Even this could not save

6552-539: The quantity and varieties of invertebrates , angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. The water quality of the River Little Ouse system was as follows in 2019. The Environment Agency data for the upper river covers a short section of the Little Ouse, and a long section of the stream that flows northwards from Rickinghall and Botesdale. They have set

6643-419: The reign of Henry VI , all Cluniac houses in England were French, governed by French priors and directly controlled from Cluny. Henry's act of raising the English priories to independent abbeys was a political gesture, a mark of England's nascent national consciousness. The early Cluniac establishments had offered refuges from a disordered world but by the late 11th century, Cluniac piety permeated society. This

6734-544: The religious order with debt. Throughout the late Middle Ages , conflicts with its priories increased. This waning influence was shadowed by the increasing power of the Pope within the Catholic Church. By the start of the 14th century, the pope was frequently naming the abbots of Cluny. Although the monks – who never numbered more than 60 – lived in relative luxury during this period, the political and religious wars of

6825-498: The river passes to the south of Gasthorpe, with the ruined church of All Saints a little further to the south. It was abandoned before 1900, and now has no roof. Passing along the northern edge of Knettishall Heath Country Park, there are two weirs, after which the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path cross on a footbridge. A minor road crosses at Rushford, where the bridge is a scheduled ancient monument, and another bridge carries

6916-471: The river to the south of Hockwold cum Wilton, turning to the north. The river has been diverted from its original course, to cross the Cut-off Channel in a concrete aqueduct. Large guillotine sluices control whether the water is fed into the lower river or along the Cut-off Channel. As it rejoins its original course, it passes under Wilton Bridge, and there are footpaths on both sides, set back from

7007-400: The river was tidal. Stone from Barnack, used in the construction of Thetford Priory in the 12th century, was almost certainly moved along the river, and improvements to the channel were authorised by the Commissioners of Sewers as early as 1575. Further documentary evidence confirms that it was navigable as far as Thetford in 1664. However, water levels dropped when Denver Sluice was built on

7098-523: The river where the county boundary joins. The St Edmund Way continues to the north of the river, and the Little Ouse Path runs to the south. At Santon Downham, the Little Ouse Path continues along the north bank of the river, on the original towpath. The footpath leaves the river just before the A1065 bridge at Brandon, but rejoins it soon afterwards. Brandon Lock follows, with the lock chamber to

7189-410: The river, constructing staunches at Thetford, Thetford Middle, Turfpool, Croxton, Santon, Brandon and Sheepwash. An eighth staunch was built later at Crosswater, where Lakenheath Lode joins the river. Staunches consisted of a gate or gates across the river, which held back the water above it, to enable boats to float over shallow sections. Their disadvantage was that the river level had to be lowered by

7280-580: The royal French monastery at Fleury and inspired St Dunstan in England. There were no official English Cluniac priories until that of Lewes in Sussex, founded by the Anglo-Norman earl William de Warenne c 1077. The best-preserved Cluniac houses in England are Castle Acre Priory , Norfolk, and Wenlock Priory , Shropshire. It is thought that there were only three Cluniac nunneries in England, one of them being Delapré Abbey at Northampton . Until

7371-463: The valley as it is today, with the sands of the lake bed becoming the sands of the Breckland , a large area of gorse -covered sandy heath that spans the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. The downstream end of the Little Ouse has changed much over the centuries. In the Fens and Norfolk Marshland, it was quite possible for the course of a river to change as the result of a flooding episode so it

7462-468: The valley on the sandy bank, known as The Frith, and which is the only crossing of the Norfolk border which is on dry land. To the east are the wetlands of Redgrave and Lopham Fens , while to the west is Hinderclay Fen. The whole area overlays a thick bed of chalk . The geological features of a large through valley, but no large river, are unusual, and were first recorded by Rev. Osmond Fisher in 1868,

7553-487: The western end of the fens is Botany Bay, where water from Lakenheath Old Lode and the Twelve Foot Drain is pumped into the river. A little further on is the confluence with another drain, called Lakenheath New Lode. The final 6 miles (10 km) of the river follow a relatively straight course which heads north-west to join the River Great Ouse at Brandon Creek. The channel is man-made, and probably dates from

7644-489: The work. This arrangement continued, and kept the navigation open for some years. When Henry de Salis visited it in 1904, he reported that most of the staunches were out of order, and that it was in poor condition. The Bedford Level Commissioners kept the weed removed from the lower section, and the South Level Commissioners maintained Crosswater Staunch, but commercial traffic had ceased by the start of

7735-497: Was eventually built to replace it. Below the pool site, the river is joined by the River Thet, where there is a network of channels, sluices and weirs, together with the remains of a water mill, dating from the early 19th century. The building is now used as a masonic lodge. As it threads its way through the town, the river is crossed by Town Bridge, a single elliptical cast iron span dating from 1829, and after it passes under

7826-662: Was not known for the severity of its discipline or its asceticism, but the abbots of Cluny supported the revival of the papacy and the reforms of Pope Gregory VII . The Cluniac establishment found itself closely identified with the Papacy. In the early 12th century, the order lost momentum under poor government. It was subsequently revitalized under Abbot Peter the Venerable (died 1156), who brought lax priories back into line and returned to stricter discipline. Cluny reached its apogee of power and influence under Peter, as its monks became bishops, legates, and cardinals throughout France and

7917-554: Was once a flourishing valley fen, and was a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), but the fen dried out as a result of changes to the river, made to improve drainage from surrounding agricultural land. Rare species died out, and the designation was removed in 1983, but recent action by the Little Ouse Headwaters Project has resulted in areas of wet fen being extended and species being reintroduced. They have been assisted in this by funding from

8008-473: Was the motherhouse of the Congregation of Cluny. In the fragmented and localized Europe of the 10th and 11th centuries, the Cluniac network extended its reforming influence far. Free of lay and episcopal interference, and responsible only to the papacy (which was in a state of weakness and disorder, with rival popes supported by competing nobles), Cluny was seen to have revitalized the Norman church, reorganized

8099-440: Was the biggest annuity that the Order ever received from king or layman, and it was never surpassed. Henry I of England's annual grant from 1131 of 100 marks of silver , not gold, seemed little by comparison. The Alfonsine census enabled Abbot Hugh (who died in 1109) to undertake construction of the huge third abbey church. When payments in aurei later lapsed, the Cluniac order suffered a financial crisis that crippled them during

8190-497: Was the priory at Paisley which was raised to the status of an abbey in 1245 answerable only to the Pope. Cluny's influence spread into the British Isles in the 11th century, first at Lewes , and then elsewhere. The head of their order was the Abbot at Cluny. All English and Scottish Cluniacs were bound to cross to France to Cluny to consult or be consulted unless the abbot chose to come to Britain, which occurred five times in

8281-403: Was to be given to the poor, strangers, and pilgrims. It was stipulated that the monastery would be free from local authorities, lay or ecclesiastical, and subject only to the Pope, with the proviso that even he could not seize the property, divide or give it to someone else or appoint an abbot without the consent of the monks. William placed Cluny under the protection of Saints Peter and Paul, with

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