The Abbey Garden

St. Benedict encouraged the idea of self-sufficiency and endorsed the idea of manual labour. This meant that gardens would have provided herbs for culinary and medical use by the community. The Benedictines were part of a European network and new agricultural techniques would have been exchanged and developed. As a result of this, monasteries were in the forefront with developing ideas and expanding the knowledge of herbs for all uses and adopting new plants from other nations and continents.

The plants you see in our Anglo-Saxon collection are just a few that would have been used by the nuns for flavouring foods, help to heal the sick and to dye cloth.

"Aethelgifu's Herb Collection" was created in 1998 under the direction of Lady Jane Renfrew of Lucy College, Cambridge. It was named after King Alfred's daughter, the first Abbess and the selection of herbs attempts to reflect what is known of their uses in Anglo-Saxon times.

As Lady Renfrew noted - "The term herb at the time included a wide range of useful plants, not only those used in cooking or in medicine, but also dye plants, sweet strewing herbs, insecticide plants and those used in textile production and processing. In Anglo-Saxon England the monasteries and abbeys were in the forefront of knowledge about useful herbs".

The medieval orchard was planted in the spring of 2004. All the apples and pears are being grown on a single cordon system used for many centuries where space is at a premium. The varieties have been chosen to span an historical period from the 15th century to 19th centuries. Many of these varieties could have been grown in the Abbey orchard although not in the present location.