Page 14 - Illustrated Reditch History
P. 14

Founding The Abbey - The Empress and

           Hugh Waleran







                                            The  Empress  and  her  husband  would  have  met  the
                                            twins, Hugh and Robert Waleran, at court. They were
                                            two years younger than the Empress. Their father had
                                            been Count of Meulan but he had died when the boys
                                            were 14 and their mother had asked the king to look
                                            after them and their property.  Hugh Waleran became
                                            Count of Worcester and would have known about the
                                            marshes of Osmerley. His brother was a lawyer and had
                                            already  helped  to  build  an  abbey  at  Garenden  in
                                            Leicestershire. They decided to build a new monastery
                                            at  Osmerley.  It  was  on  the  edge  of  the  Forest  of
                                            Feckenham from where they could get plenty of wood,
                                            and  so  the  new  monastery  was  called  Bordesley,
                                            meaning  'the place where boards were obtained'.

                                            If you founded a monastery you had to give a plot of
                                            land. You also needed to give money  and property to
          provide an income to pay for the upkeep. The Empress gave generously including
          the church at Areley Kings.  Once people heard that the Empress was involved, they
          were willing to donate as well. All the gifts were listed in a document known as a
          charter. This says that the Empress and Henry (her young son) founded and endowed
          the abbey of Bordesley 'for the love of God and of King Henry my father, (Henry I,
          who died in 1135) and Geoffrey Count of Anjou my lord (her husband, still living)
          and the queen my mother (she had died in 1118).

          An important document needs a witness.  The witness was Hugh Waleran.








































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