West Dereham Abbey, Norfolk;
West Ravendale Priory, Lincolnshire;
Whithorn Priory, Galloway.

Newhouse in Lincolnshire was the first to be founded, in 1143, and was the parent of St Mary’s Abbey, Stanley Park (Dale); it had 11 daughter foundations between 1148 and 1200, Wendling in Norfolk being the last. Originally double houses were founded with nunneries side by side, separate but one economic unit, with canons ministering to the nuns’ spiritual needs, and lay brothers maintaining both houses. There were separate churches and cloisters and elaborate precautions to keep the sexes apart, but they were a common unit under one abbot. Failure was admitted in 1140, and separate convents were created and many nunneries dissolved. Brodholme, a daughter of Newhouse, and near the confluence of the Trent and Witham on a gravel island, was a double house, as were Guyzance and Stixwould.  

Abbeys were mostly founded by feudal magnates, notably Ranulf de Glanville who founded Coverham, Langdon, West Dereham, Welbeck and Leiston; two (Alnwick and Lavendon) were founded within sight of the castles of first ranking barons. Each abbot owed obedience to the superior of the house from which his own had been founded: the father house’s abbot retained the right to do visitations, to supervise the election of a new abbot, to prohibit extravagant building operations, and to be consulted before any property was alienated; however, the abbot could not extract money from a daughter abbey or receive the professions of canons or novices. The system to some extent reconciled centralisation and flexibility.

Parenthood of abbeys changed sometimes:  Coverham Abbey was originally a daughter of Durford Abbey, then of Welbeck, then Durford, then Newhouse; Talley Abbey, which was said to be immoral and had visitors sent there twice to reform it, was originally a daughter of St John’s, Amiens, then of the king, then of Welbeck and finally of Halesowen. Paternal rights could be delegated: Gervase of Prémontré deputed the abbot of Bayham to visit St Radegund’s.

Monasticism was popular because of political chaos and insecurity under Stephen. It was cheaper to found a Premonstratensian Abbey than a Benedictine or an Augustinian, because the former wanted only rough land on which to pasture sheep. Premonstratensian abbeys were always of moderate size because their founders were not of the first rank; consequently their abbots were less powerful than the Benedictines’ or Augustinians’. Some abbeys were rich (e.g. Leiston, Torre, Halesowen and Titchfield) but some were inadequately endowed (e.g. Egglestone, Tupholm and Wendling). Some abbeys were moved from one site to another, eg Barlings, Beeleigh, Shap, Coverham and Leiston; it was proposed to move St Radegund’s to the village of River, but it was never done; Otham’s site was unsatisfactory, so its canons joined with those of Brackley to form the single foundation at Bayham.  Houses could not be less than two leagues apart.