Broadholme

Title

Broadholme

Also Known As

Brodholm, Broadholm

Dates

Founded before 1154; dissolved 1537/37

Dedication

Mary

Affiliation

Newsham

Medieval Diocese

Lincoln

Circary

Mid England

History

Likely originally a double house, Broadholme was founded ca. 1135-ca. 1155 by Agnes de Camville, wife of Peter Gousley (or Goxhill?), the founder of the affiliated abbey of Newhouse. By the early 14th century, it appears to have been a community solely of women. Despite some royal patronage, it was not a wealthy community. In 1494, it was home to a prioress, subprioress and seven other sisters.

Broadholme was dissolved 1536/37. Some partial remains of the monastic complex are incorporated into the walls of the farmhouse now standing on the site.

Heads of Community

Prioresses

Thomasina (or Thora), fl. 1201/02
Avice of Grimsby, fl. 13th c.?
Matilda, fl. 1326
Joan de Rield (or Riel), fl. 1354
Agnes de Belyngham (or Beckerham?), ca. 1371-ca. 1403
Emma, fl. 1452
Elizabeth de Brerworth, by 1494-aft. 1496
Joan Aungewen (or Angevin), by 1534-1536

Status

Women's community

Archival Sources

Kew, The National Archives

C 143/211/15 (1330/31)

C 143/424/17 (1394/95)

E 179/35/166L (1415)

E 312/6/2 (1537/38)

SC 8/5/217 (ca. 1322)

SC 8/12/551 (ca. 1334)

SC 8/263/13114 (ca. 1334)

SP 5/3/78, fol. 78r (1536/7)

Lincoln, Lincolnshire Archives

Thor 1/1/4/3 (1564)

Bibliography

Cole, R.E.G. “The Priory of Brodholme.” Associated Architectural and Archaeological Societies Reports and Papers 28, no. 1 (1905): 48–86. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d00583614u?urlappend=%3Bseq=166%3Bownerid=13510798902128527-186.

Page, William, ed. “House of Premonstratensian Canonesses: The Priory of Broadholme.” In A History of the County of Nottingham, 2:138–40. London, 1910. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/notts/vol2/pp138-140.

Image Credit

Site of Broadholme Priory, 2017. Wikimedia.

Last Updated

Oct. 2026.

Files

Collection

Mid England

Citation

“Broadholme,” A Premonstratensian Atlas, accessed October 16, 2026, https://yvonneseale.org/atlas/items/show/205.

Geolocation

Item Relations

This Item DependentOn Item: Newsham