The Great Benedictine Abbey of Ramsey, dedicated to Our Lady, St Benedict and all Holy Virgins, was the first of the great religious houses in Eastern Fenland to be founded and in its time one of the most important, influential and wealthiest Abbey in the Fens.

Ramsey Abbey was founded in 969 by Saint Oswald, Bishop of Worcester through the gift of the aeldorman of East Anglia, Æthelwine. At Oswald’s suggestion, Æthelwine founded a small wooden chapel, reputedly after a vision of St Benedict appeared to his fisherman in …

Ramsey as a market town grew up around the Abbey, which had been founded on an island in the marshes in 969 A D coinciding roughly with the date of the second foundation of Ely. The Abbey became known as ‘ Ramsey the Rich ’ or ‘Ramsey the Golden’ on account of its vast wealth and power.

Little remains of the Priory established by Ramsey Abbey at Slepe (St Ives) before the Norman Conquest. The early history of the site which is recorded in the Chronicle of Ramsey seems to have been largely uneventful.

Below are two different interpretations of what the Cambridge Archeology Group thought Ramsey Abbey precinct enclosure looked like. After excavations had taken place at Ramsey Abbey School in the years shown.

The rich panelling, blank tracery and ornamental cornices of the Abbey Gatehouse are typical of 15th century Perpendicular Architecture at its most sophisticated. It is interesting both stylistically and as an index of the wealth of Ramsey Abbey towards the end of its life.

In the early part of the 14th Century Biggin Lane was called ‘Le Byggynway’ and led to the moated grange of Ramsey Abbey called the Biggin, which may have once been used as a leper house. The Manor is mentioned in 1286 and the name is derived from the word ‘Biggin’ which simply means ‘The Building’.

BODSEY (It means Boda’s Island) was an island in the fens in Saxon times, similar to but much smaller than that on which the town of Ramsey now stands.

The monks built the abbey and its precinct on a very slight rise, the abbey lying at between 5m and 6m OD and the town between 4m and 5m OD. Most of the extensive fenland in the parish is near to sea level. This map of the abbey site has the geophysics survey results overlain

This page is gradually being linked to the Warboys Archeology Groups findings over the last three years at Ramsey Abbey. This was a three year project funded by the National Lottery Fund to try to discover once and for all the actual whereabouts and footprint size of Ramsey Abbey.