Fragments of Monastic buildings in Abbey Gardens, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
These ruins are fragments from Abingdon Abbey. They have been salvaged from elsewhere in the town and rebuilt here. The earliest monastery was founded at Abingdon circa 675 by Hean. It was probably both a minster and Benedictine foundation. By the mid 10th century the church was in a ruinous state having been destroyed by the Danes in the previous century. In 954, St Ethelwold was commanded to refound the monastery by King Eadred. The Normans then built a new Abbey on the same site. It became one of the most important monastic centres in England. The abbey was suppressed in 1538. Robbing of stone after the Dissolution had been so extensive that even the foundations were removed.
