Qualla: Llanthony Secunda Priory

Llanthony Secunda Priory: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodw, CC BY-SA 3.0. The canons of Llanthony Priory in the remote Vale of Ewyas had a problem in 1135. Welsh raiders kept attacking their monastery, and the prayers were getting harder to finish. So they walked east, out of the Black Mountains, down into the safer Severn Vale and into Gloucester. The next year their patron Miles de Gloucester, hereditary Sheriff of Gloucestershire and a magnate of vast power, gave them land just outside the city walls. They called the new place Llanthony Secunda - the second Llanthony - and they meant to stay only until things calmed down in Wales. They stayed for four hundred years.

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Image: Rodw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Llanthony Secunda Priory: Cheese for the King

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Sam jervis at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Llanthony Secunda quickly stopped being a refuge and became a serious establishment. The canons turned out to be remarkable cheesemakers. In 1502, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Prior of Llanthony together sent a gift of 'Lanthony Cheese' to Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry...

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Image: The original uploader was Sam jervis at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Llanthony Secunda Priory: Burial Place of the Bohuns

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Miles de Gloucester, the founder, was buried in the chapter house after he died, and three of his sons followed him into the ground - Roger, Mahel and Henry. His daughter Margaret married Humphrey de Bohun, and through her the priory became the family mausoleum of one of medieval...

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Image: DeFacto | CC BY-SA 4.0

Llanthony Secunda Priory: Humpty Dumpty's Cannon

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodw, CC BY-SA 3.0. A century after the priory was dissolved, its ruined walls became a Royalist gun emplacement. During the Siege of Gloucester in August 1643, King Charles I tried to take the city, and one of his commanders set a huge cannon on top of the old priory ruins, aimed at Gloucester's ci...

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Image: Rodw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Llanthony Secunda Priory: Restoration

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0. After centuries as a working farm with the medieval gatehouse, range and tithe barn standing among hayfields, Llanthony Secunda was rescued by trust and grant. The Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust received restoration funding in 2013, and the work was completed by August 2018, when...

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Image: Philafrenzy | CC BY-SA 4.0