r/Hampshire

Visited Titchfield Abbey today and was pleasantly surprised by how much there is to see — and it’s** free to enter!**

The abbey dates back to 1231/32, when it was founded by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, for Premonstratensian canons. It was one of the last Premonstratensian houses founded in England.

It also has some impressive royal connections. Richard II and Henry V visited, with Henry V staying here before setting off for his campaigns in France. Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou also spent part of their wedding celebrations here. Later, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the abbey to Thomas Wriothesley, who transformed it into a grand Tudor mansion known as Place House. Later royal visitors included Edward VI, Elizabeth I and Charles I.

One of the things I particularly liked was seeing how the medieval abbey and Tudor mansion have effectively become one building. The huge fortified-looking gatehouse was built straight across the nave of the old abbey church in the 16th century.

There are also some fantastic surviving details inside, including an impressive medieval tiled pavement, which was actually buried beneath the later mansion courtyard for more than 400 years and rediscovered during excavations in 1923. One of the pavements carries a Latin inscription reminding the canons to remember the poor before eating.

The whole place has a great atmosphere — particularly walking through the old rooms, doorways and towers and seeing the layers of medieval and Tudor history still visible in the stonework.

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Hampshire and interested in history. And you can’t really complain about the price! 😄