Titchfield Abbey

The ruins of a 13th century Premonstratensian abbey, later converted into a Tudor mansion. The church was rebuilt as a grand turreted gatehouse. Information panels tell the story of the monastery and its conversion into a mansion.

The abbey of St Mary and St John the Evangelist was founded in 1232 by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, for Premonstratensian canons, an order founded at Prémontré in France and known also as the ‘White Canons’. 

The abbey owned many thousands of acres of land and had its own farm buildings and a series of fishponds. Titchfield was a good stopping-off place for journeys to the Continent, and Henry V stayed there before going on campaign in France.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the estate passed in 1537 to Thomas Wriothesley, first Earl of Southampton. By 1542 he had converted the monastic buildings into the residence known as Place House. Royal guests to the house included Edward VI, Elizabeth I and Charles I with his queen, Henrietta Maria.

The third Earl of Southampton was a patron of William Shakespeare and it is believed that some of Shakespeare’s plays were performed here for the first time.

Place House survived until 1781, when most of the building was demolished for building stone.  In the early 20th century archaeological excavations helped to clarify the layout of the monastic buildings, and the abbey plan is marked out on the ground.