Caught and destroyed in the "Tudor Web"
Upheavals and reform in the Tudor period transformed the built environment in Essex. All that is left of a once great Benedictine Abbey, south of Colchester's town walls is its magnificent gatehouse. YAC Adam writes:-
"St John's Abbey was founded in 1096 by Eudo Dapifer with the order of St Benedict (Benedictines). The Abbey was the largest abbey in Colchester and the fourth largest abbey in England. It was built where "miraculous voices" could be heard. Eudo even claimed to have witnessed a miracle at that site. Eudo is also known to have laid the first stone of the Abbey and the Abbey was burned partially in a large fire that affected the town in 1133. The Abbey also received a vial of St Thomas a Becket's blood from a monk named Ralph. This vial was the Abbey's most important relic. The Abbey was the victim of a mob attack during the peasant's revolt. The Abbey was also believed to have supported the Plantagenets leading to Richard lll's mother gifting money to the Abbey in her will. The Abbey was shut down in 1539 by Henry Vlll and also the church was demolished, however, the gatehouse survived, despite being damaged during the English Civil War and the Siege of Colchester."
According to the late historian John Ashdown-Hill, who was instrumental in locating and identifying by DNA "The King in the Car Park", St John's Abbey in Colchester "was a very safe place of refuge because it was chartered sanctuary and the protection it could offer fugitives was identical to that offered by Westminster Abbey."
The historian also suggests: "It is also possible that Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of Edward lV and Elizabeth Woodville, (popularly known as one of the Princes in the Tower)was given shelter in the abbey after the accession of Henry Vll, his identity concealed in order to protect him." From "Medieval Colchester's Lost Landmarks" John Ashdown-Hill 2009.
I would like to add that I last met the historian John Ashdown-Hill by the north east corner of the Roman wall in Colchester just before Christmas a few years ago. I took the opportunity to tell him how much I enjoyed reading his book on his researches which revealed the location and identity of "The King in the Car Park". In the course of our conversation John asked me if I knew anyone who could track down the people who bought some skeletons, auctioned at Paskell & Cann , on East Hill, in 1942. Although I have mentioned it at one or two meetings of local Archaeological and Historical societies, it seems these remains, which I expect the historian thought could have been significant, are now lost.
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