Qualla: Tresco Priory https://qualla.com/tresco-priory en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/tresco-priory-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tresco Priory https://qualla.com/tresco-priory Tresco Priory: Introduction https://qualla.com/tresco-priory/ Photo credit Thorvaldsson, CC BY-SA 3.0. The monks came in 946 AD, before the Norman Conquest, before the kings of England spoke English. They built a monastic settlement on an island so far west it was practically a different country, a half-day's sail from the Cornish mainland in good weather and unreachable in bad. The Priory of St Nicholas was re-founded in 1114 by Benedictines from Tavistock Abbey on the Devon side of the channel. For four hundred years monks kept the offices here, prayed for the souls of the islands, and were repeatedly attacked by pirates who saw a remote religious house as a place worth raiding. The Dissolution of the Monasteries finally finished what the pirates had started. The arch still stands.

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Image: Thorvaldsson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/tresco-priory-wp/gbgk-tresco-priory-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tresco Priory: The First Hermits https://qualla.com/tresco-priory/ Photo credit Thorvaldsson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Before the Benedictines, the Scillies belonged to a confederacy of hermits. Celtic Christianity favoured solitude on small islands, and Scilly was the perfect refuge: remote enough for true solitude, navigable enough to be supplied, harsh enough to count as penance. King Henry I ...

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Image: Thorvaldsson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/tresco-priory-wp/gbgk-tresco-priory-the-first-hermits.mp3 0:06 2 full Tresco Priory: A Charter, A Pope, A Plundering https://qualla.com/tresco-priory/ Photo credit Thorvaldsson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pope Celestine III confirmed the holdings on 29 May 1193 by papal bull, listing in Latin a small empire of off-islands: St Nicholas (Tresco), St Sampson (Samson), St Elidius (St Helen's), St Theona (Tean), and the mysterious island called Nutho, possibly Nut Rock and the surround...

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Image: Thorvaldsson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/tresco-priory-wp/gbgk-tresco-priory-a-charter-a-pope-a-plundering.mp3 0:06 3 full Tresco Priory: The Dissolution and After https://qualla.com/tresco-priory/ Photo credit Thorvaldsson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s nominally ended the priory, but the records suggest it may have effectively closed earlier, drained by piracy and isolation. The stones did what abandoned monastery stones usually do: they became someone else's building mat...

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Image: Thorvaldsson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/tresco-priory-wp/gbgk-tresco-priory-the-dissolution-and-after.mp3 0:06 4 full Tresco Priory: Inside the Gardens https://qualla.com/tresco-priory/ Photo credit Thorvaldsson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the remains of the priory sit inside the Tresco Abbey Gardens, a Grade II listed building and a Scheduled Monument under UK law. Visitors walk through the medieval arch surrounded by king proteas, Echium pininana, and South African pelargoniums. The contrast is not subtle. ...

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Image: Thorvaldsson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/tresco-priory-wp/gbgk-tresco-priory-inside-the-gardens.mp3 0:06 5 full