The Abbot's House
This red-brick building in the present-day King’s Manor is part of the precinct of St Mary’s Abbey. It was originally built in about 1270 as a grand residence for Simon de Warwick, the Abbot at the time.
Although the current entrance to King’s Manor is from Exhibition Square, the original entrance would have faced on to the main Abbey grounds.
The surviving thirteenth-century stonework is confined to parts of the lower storey of the buildings now forming the first courtyard. Most of what can be seen of the medieval Abbot’s house today dates to the late fifteenth century when the house was rebuilt in brick – the latest technology!
The rebuilding of the Abbot’s house was completed by Abbot William Sever (1485-1502), but was begun by his predecessor Abbot Thomas Boothe who was granted a Crown licence on 30 September 1483 to retain a local bricklayer, Richard Cherryholme, and his four servants.
